Railfan trip to West Virginia and Pennsylvania

Hi, Friend Jim Kleeman and I headed west on Sunday April 18 destination Parkersburg, WV. Objective: photograph the Belpre Industrial Parkersburg RR and whatever else seemed interesting. Note: if you follow me on Flickr or are a friend on Facebook there is nothing new here so you may want to skip the next few blogs.

We decided to follow the CSX Mountain Subdivision out of Cumberland, MD in hopes of catching up to a westbound or finding an eastbound train. It was not to be. The first train we heard about on the radio and then saw was CSX #Q316 leaving Grafton, WV. We caught it a few miles east at Thornton, WV. These are helper locomotives looking east.

We got some roster shots later that afternoon on the Bepre Industrial Parkersburg RR but I have omitted them from the blog as there will many photos of the railroad starting below.

The next morning we got up early. Our information was that Job 1 would leave about 6:00 AM, and switch the Orion Engineered Carbon plant and at the Gravel Place Industrial Park before continuing north to Relief, OH to work the Globe Metallurgical plant there. The train did leave at 6 AM, however, it did not work at either Orion or Gravel Place. We spent a lot of time looking for the train before finally getting our first photograph at Waterford, OH at 8:39 AM.

We got two more photos before the train reached Globe, this one about a mile south of the plant.

These two photos (above and below) show the train switching the plant.

Just north of Waterford is this old factory building.

Some of the houses in Waterford had great spring flower displays.

The area around Rainbow, OH offered a number of photo locations. Fortunately, train speeds were slow in this area so there were many opportunities (above and four below).

The crew stopped to switch ProFusion Industries in Oak Grove, OH. We walked out into this field for a shot of the train with these yellow flowers. It a good thing we did as less than 30 seconds after this photo was taken the tractor removed them.

The BIP RR runs down Harmar St. in Marietta, OH (above and below).

South of Marietta the railroad crosses Ohio Route 7 and immediately passes this building with silos on the roof.

The crossing of the Ohio River provides a number of interesting views from the Parkersburg, WV side. Here (above and below) the train is coming off the bridge into Parkersburg from Avery Street.

In the afternoon we caught Job 3 from the Rockland Cemetary coming east. The trackage is part of the mostly abandoned former B&O St. Louis line.

Later that afternoon Job 3 took interchange traffic to CSX.

The transfer run was viewable from the west end of the CSX yard. BIP RR's Ohio River bridge looms in the background.

CSX's line on the west end of the yard crosses the trestle in the background with the transfer run heading back to the BIP RR yard.

Thanks for looking.
 

Railfanning the former RF&P - 4/7/2021

Hi, On April 7 friend Jim Kleeman and I returned to CSX's former RF&P for a new look at the line we visited two weeks short of 10 years earlier on our first trip together. Jim wanted to focus on the bridges in and north of Fredericksburg, VA. 

We began our day at Leesylvania State Park. Among the trains we saw here were VRE's final commuter train of the morning rush hour and

Amtrak regional train #174.

We then moved south to Aquia where we photographed from private property with permission. Trains we photoraphed here included the northbound Auto Train and

a northbound freight.

Continuing south we set up in Fredericksburg, VA for the Rappahannock River crossing. Here we photographed #D93 and 

#Q031.

For our final location of the day we chose to photograph at Aquia again, this time from the upstream side of the bridge, again with permission. Action was varied and included this Amtrak regional train,

a southbound freight,

Amtrak's southbound Auto Train and 

the first three rush hour VRE commuter trains (above and two below).

When we needed to go on private property the people we talked to were very friendly and accomodating.

Thanks for looking.
 

Railfanning York Rail

Hi, On March 29 friend Jim Kleeman and I travelled to York, PA to check out York Rail. Trackage in York derives from former Pennsylvania RR, Maryland & Pennsylvania RR, and Western Maryland RR operation.

Almost immediately on our arrival we spotted a local switching and set up for our first shot; crossing Codorous Creek.

We caught the local two more times, the first time when it stopped to switch an industry (above) and the second as it was about to enter Lincoln Yard (below).

We then went to the west end of the yard to see if there was any activity and found train RJ2, a turn job to Hanover, about to leave. The chase was on. Most of the run is on a former WM branch to Porters Sideling, PA where there is connection to the former WM "Dutch" line to Hanover.

Our first location of the westbound chase was off Biesecker Rd. in Thomasville, PA (above and below).

Next we caught the train at Sprenkle Rd, east of Spring Grove, PA.

While RJ2 worked in Spring Grove we moved to Colonial Valley Rd. on the west side of town.

Porters Sideling was our next stop (above and below).

Fortunately train speeds are low so we beat the train to Sterner Rd.; west of Porters Sideling.

We explored Hanover, PA but were unable to determine where RJ2 would drop its outbound cars so we returned east. RJ2's pickup was spotted on the siding at Smith's station (above and below).

While RJ2 completed switching at Smiths Station we moved to Thoman Rd east of Porters Sideling (above and below).

Next we returned to Colonial Valley Rd. west of Spring Grove.

 

Our final photo of RJ2 was taken at East Railroad St. in Spring Grove. At this point we decided to leave RJ2 as it would be mostly running out of the sun.

We returned to the east end of Lincoln Yard in York. A power set went to work shortly after our arrival and began to switch but it never came anywhere we could get a shot. This former Maryland and Pennsylvania switcher, however, was sitting on a siding in storage.

Thanks for looking.