Railfanning 11-2-2010

Hi, Friend Stan Short and I went out on Tuesday to take some photos along the former RF&P. While it was supposed to be a sunny day it did not clear up until the middle of the morning.

We headed for Fredericksburg, VA and after a little exploration, and missing a couple of trains in the clouds we arrived at the Rappahannock River bridge. The first train at this location was U747, a loaded coal train headed south. About 11:00 the nortbound Juice Train, Q740, came north in the sun.

Now it was time to look for a new location. Our first attempt was Dahlgren Junction. It is now inaccessible. There is a highway overpass on top of the junction and a completely fenced Highway Department facility just north of the overpass. From here we headed for Brooke. We checked out the bridge over the tracks about 1/2 mile north of the station and found a new overpass was being constructed just to the north of the old one. This ruins the southbound shot here until the new bridge is completed. The light for northbound shot is very rakish.

Therefore, we decided to go into the town itself. We heard a northbound on the radio so we checked out the grade crossing south of the station and found the tracks still in shadow for a northbound. Next we headed for the station but could not find a parking spot we thought would let us get into position for a photo in time for the train. So we settled for a spot just north of the station and got another loaded coal train, T104, this time northbound.

After lunch we checked out Acquia but the the sun was still on the downstream side of the bridge at about 1:30 PM so we left. Note that there has been a great deal of development here. A new house has been put up next to the old store and part of the parking lot has been taken up by a large boat house. It must be 3 stories high. Neither of these structures affects the photography but they indicate possible difficulty in gaining access.

Next up was Arkendale where we shot VRE #301,

followed almost immediately by Q741, the southbound Juice Train,

and then Amtrak #92, the northbound Silver Star.

It began to look like the clouds might be forming again so we quit for the day. I hope you enjoyed the photos.