2017 Raifanning Recap Part I

Looking back at 2017, there were a lot of blessings to reflect on, after having moved, gotten married, and spent time with many parts of my family and friends whom I had not seen for a while. But as I thought back, I also realized how much rail-fanning I had managed to squeeze into 2017, all while traveling for other things. I apologize for the photo quality, as many of these were photos of opportunity with my iPhone 5C or at times I forgot to charge my Nikon's battery. That said, I still managed to capture quite a few good shots

First off, on New Years Day, I traveled to Baltimore with my (soon to be) fiancée to Baltimore for to visit my family. Given she had class in Pittsburgh on the third, and I had to work back in Hampton Roads, I decided to take Amtrak from Penn Station in Baltimore to Newport News. While waiting at the station, I had the chance to take in the old and the new of MARC, including an HHP-8 sitting on a stub end track, and a new MP36PH-3C with a train heading south. I was surprised to see the HHP-8, given I had heard that Amtrak had sidelined all of their HHP-8's and might refuse to keep maintaining MARC's small fleet. The powers that be apparently started to refurbish them later in 2017.

Finally, my ride home, a southbound Northeast Regional arrived headed up by a relatively new Amtrak Siemens ACS-64. Within a few hours, I was close to home at the rather oddly placed station in Newport News by the CSX yard. Getting an Uber back from here was difficult given the part of town I was in, but I eventually got picked up for the final leg of my journey home. The service was excellent, and as I had not ridden Amtrak for many years, I was quite pleased to have a better experience then my last trip.

I'm certain I encountered a few trains on the Hampton "Branch" of CSX as I traveled to and from work, but the next journey I recorded was a trip to a wedding in West Virginia. I took this as an opportunity to explore many parts of the former Western Maryland Railway I had never encountered. Locations such as Dubin, Cheat Falls, and Belington. However, my first stop after crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains was Staunton, VA. I hoped to find one of Georges Creek Railway's former WM SD40's which was supposedly headed that way for work by a local contractor, but it was not meant to be. As a consolation, here are a few uncommon shots of the well photographed WM survivors in Staunton.

 

 

Of course, just as I was pulling out of the parking lot, a CSX train headed west back to coal country rumbled by.

Still in search of the Ex-WM SD40, I walked up to both the Buckingham Branch shops and Shenandoah Valley Railroad shops (owned by the DGVR). 

From there I headed west into the wilds of West Virginia. The next stop was Durbin where I caught the somewhat ironically named Durbin Rocket pulling up to the old C&O/WM station. It was then that I first learned that the Greenbrier Sub must have been fully restored between Durbin and Cass, given the Heisler heading up the train was wearing a Cass Scenic Railroad livery.

Next stop was Cheat Bridge, where a few WM structures were still standing. This is a stopping point on the current Cheat Mountain Salamander run of the D&GV from Elkins to Spruce.

As an aside, this location has a possibly dubious place in history of excursions on the WM. According to Ray Harris in his interview in Working for the Western Maryland, the conductor forgot to tell the engineer to stop at Cheat Bridge during the annual fall excursion in 1976 for a party that was connected to the individual who was providing insurance for the yearly excursions. Needless to say, the excursions did not return in 1977, though Chessie's paw on the WM might have helped to nix these excursions as well. It's nice to know that the WVSRA and D&GV has brought the spirit of these trips back on a more regular basis.

I next encountered dormant remnants of the Dailey Branch (formerly the Huttonsville Sub). It does not look like there has been a train down this way for many years, but at least the tracks are in place should rail service become economically viable for the large Armstrong wood flooring plant.

 

Along the branch, I spotted an oddity in Beverly. This turntable bridge loaded on a truck and wearing the logo of the Belt Railway of Chicago. I would later learn that this bridge was originally destined for the West Virginia Railroad Museum in Elkins, but a dispute with the county development office saw the turntable sold to a private owner. That owner then donated the table to the Virginia Transportation museum in Roanoke, VA which acquired it in late 2017.

I guess the turntable pit they dug in Elkins will now remain empty for many more years. At least the museum itself has a good home just a block from the Elkins Depot. Side note, as you can see, the sun was not cooperating today, as it kept coming in and out.

 

 

I was also in search of a "missing" WM MOW RPO 3047 that I had found for sale on the Railroad Museum of Greater Cincinatti's website in 2010. The museum was focusing its collection and sold the RPO to the D&GV around 2012, but I had not seen it surface on the web since. I found the RPO in the D&GV/WVDOT's yard in Belington. Along with it were other WM alum such as the recently repainted BL2 #82, coach #835, and the long neglected FA2 302.

From here to the end of my journey near Fairmont, I did catch glimpses of the B&O, but no active rail activity. I have dozens of additional photos I could post from this journey, but these catches were definitely the highlight of my road-trip.

Given how long this post has gotten, I think I will save the rest of 2017 for a second post. In the next post I will visit Parsons, Davis, Douglas, Thomas, and a quick glimpse of the NYC Subway.

Getting Started... again.

It has been just over three months since I packed up my bags in Virginia and moved to Ohio where my then Fiancee was waiting for me to start our new life together. The prior weekend, I had run my last train at the Chesapeake Bay & Western Model Railroad Club (pictured above), of which I was proud to have been a member during my time in Hampton Roads. That night, I began to pack away my hopper fleet, the last of my models to box up. A week after my move, my new wife an I were off to NYC for a honeymoon. Needless to say, modeling and trains were far from my mind (minus the NYC subway system, but I digress).

When we returned to Ohio, the Christmas season was coming, and with it, many local open houses. Knowing my love for trains, my wife asked if I would be interested in an open house at local train club housed in an old depot. I said yes, though honestly, I did not expect much. I have been to many museums and restored depots where the model railroad is mostly an afterthought to entertain the kids too young to fully appreciate the history surrounding them. But the Cuyahoga Valley & West Shore Model Railroad Club was something very different. I've read many accounts of modelers who sheepishly claim to have stuffed a 10 ton model railroad into a 5 ton room, but the CV&WS has done so in 5 ton restored NYC Depot. To be fair, the east waiting room of the depot houses an O scale layout that is conservatively built for the room in which it sits, as is a small N scale layout house in the half of the main waiting room.

The freight room and other half of the main waiting room however have a about as much HO scale layout as could be squeezed in them. To complete a full circuit of the double-decked layout actually entails you traversing up and down the same helix. To maintain the historical depots original shape, a pair of duck-under and narrow aisles make the layout feel quite tight. However, there are numerous towns and industries, and options for switching and operating abound. However, most of them are butted up right next to each other, with few scenic-ed areas for extended runs. Surprisingly, I met someone at the club with whom I shared a mutual friend back in Virginia. I decided to come back to there first business meeting the following Thursday and signed up to be a member.

Fate or something intervened the following weekend as I attended my first operating session at the club. A good time was had by all, and I did more switching than I had done during most of my time at the CB&W, although the reasons for that could be the subject of another blog. That night however, I suffered two seizures, my first since graduating college over three years prior. It would seem that I had missed my medication that day. For those not familiar with seizures, especially those that start when you are an adult, you are basically put on medication and told not to drive until you are seizure free for a period of time (per the local state law).

Since then I have made it out to the CV&WS for only one run session. It was good to add some Western Maryland layout, and I received several comments that they did not have often have WM representation around the club. February came and with it their bi-monthly business meeting and my "second reading" where prospective members are offered the opportunity to become full members (if they show up). I was hesitant about joining given my travel limitations, but Ron, with whom I had had made a connection via our mutual friend convinced me to stay.

I am hoping this will be a good outlet for my hobby interests, and allow my models to see some daylight now and again. Hopefully I can weather some before they get boxed back up. So far, just my Intermountain F7B #408 has gotten that treatment recently, but I also have a few buildings on the "workbench".

For those who know me, and especially those who don't, this may be a strange way to start off a blog. However, I do not think that you can separate your personal life from your hobbies. With that in mind, I may delve into the personal issues keeping me from the hobby or pushing my love forward. Hobbies are personal things/releases for us as humans, and I believe we need to maintain that idea as we build our "basement empires".

I hope to use this blog to record my progress with several ongoing projects related to the WM's New Line, including a module of Rockwood (station). I feel like I know a lot about this hobby, but there is always a lot more to learn and be inspired by. I have had several Facebook groups, private layout websites, and blogs inspire me on my journey to this point. Hopefully, if you are reading this sometime in the future, you have been drawn in by the various posts I have written about my progress. Just remember to pass on that inspiration to others, just as I hope to do here...