Railfanning 1-29-2014

Hi, I spent last Wednesday railfanning along the Maryland Midland with friends Dale Diacont, Bill Kalkman and Jim Kleeman.  While we were out I was surprised to find friend Terry Chicwak from Cleveland also out shooting.  Running into Scott Shultz, another local railfan, was fun too.

When I went to check on the railroad's plan for the day I encountered one of the crew coming out of the office.  He said they would run light engine with one unit to Thurmont, MD to pick up a car and then proceed to Highfield, PA where they would drop the car and pick up a train for the return trip.

I have been looking at this spot on the east side of Sabillasville, MD for years and mentioned it as we drove west from Thurmont.  Bill and Jim knew the way to get to it (above and below).

We photographed the short train one more time, on the west end of the Sabillasville horse shoe

before proceeding to Highfield, PA to set the car out for pickup by CSX.  The former Western Maryland line that comes east from Hagerstown, MD splits at Highfield into the Dutch Line to Gettysburg and Hanover, PA and the former WM mainline, now the Maryland Midland.  The lines rejoin at Emory Grove, MD.

The crew spotted their car at the far west end of Highfield and then came back into town to make their pickups.

CSX left three cars west of the Dutch Line/Maryland Midland junction.  The box cars would be set out in Thurmont on the return trip.

After picking up these cars they moved to the east end of town on the Dutch Line where CSX had left about a dozen empty cement hoppers.

After picking up the cement hoppers the crew backed west again past the junction with their own track and headed east back to Union Bridge (above).

We caught the train at Sabillasville again.  The train had to crawl as the conductor walked it across a broken rail here and then stopped so the conductor could walk to the front of the train.  This allowed for some different views (above and below).

We then raced ahead to Lantz,

a spot along route MD 550 west of Thurmont, and

Thurmont.

While the crew worked at Thurmont we positioned ourselves at the Graceham Cemetary and

just beat the train to a spot east of Loys.  There is a brick plant here and the siding to the plant is on the left.

From Loys we set up at Detour, and then

Middleburg.

Our final shot of the train was just west of downtown Union Bridge.

The crew then grabbed a two more engines and headed up to the cement plant with empties (above and below).

After switching the crew came out of the plant with a long string of loads which they brought down the hill to the wye

where they pulled out onto the mainline and backed into their yard.

Thanks for looking.