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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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 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.
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