Freight on High Speed Passenger Rails

One bright spot now (2010) is the proposed high-speed passenger line from Orlando, Florida to the Tampa Bay area using dedicated rails between the lanes of Interstate Highway 4.

OK, I think I've established that Amtrak, our national passenger rail service faces big problems affecting whether it can operate into the future, or even into the next year. One of the biggest problems is Amtrak does not have any tracks of its own outside the Northeast Corridor; and it doesn't even have full operating freedom there.

In most of the United States Amtrak operates on tracks owned by freight railroads, mostly the "big four": Burlington Northern Santa Fe, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific. These and other freight carriers are experiencing operating problems due to limits on their rail capacity. Solutions include laying more track and increasing traffic density with more sophisticated signaling and dispatching. All the solutions mean big capital expenditures, mostly of the private type. At the same time we expect these roads to give some kind of priority to passenger trains that do not yield them much income.

Lets look at Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, the 457 miles from Boston South Station to Washington Union Station. Two segments of this route are owned by others. The 38 miles from South Station to the Rhode Island state line are owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The 57 miles from New Haven, Connecticut to New Rochelle, New York are owned by those two states. Over the entire route Amtrak shares the tracks with six local commuter lines and a multitude of freight railroads that have running rights over Amtrak's rails.

The freight railroads operating over Amtrak's rails are charged the full allocated share of overall costs of running their trains on the Northeast Corridor. On the other hand Amtrak only pays the "incremental costs" of running their trains over the country's freight rails.

Amtrak says that 2006 payments from Norfolk Southern, CSX, Providence & Worcester, and Conrail Shared Assets Organization amounted to $16 million.

This questions remains unresolved: "How can you operate regional commuter lines and freight over a true high speed passenger line?"

Stay Alive

You want to get a picture of that locomotive. You figure you'll just walk up between the tracks for a ways and shoot one. The locomotive doesn't look like it's moving fast. It's hardly moving. The horn's blowing for some reason. It should be OK to shoot a photo from the center of the tracks, shouldn't it?

It's actually going 55 miles per hour. That's 81 feet per second and you're about 3 seconds from the end of your life.

Railroad tracks are private property. Stay off! Stay Away! Stay Alive!

There are plenty of safe places to take train photos. I do a lot of photo shoots without trespassing. You can too.

Check out a great safety website by clicking here.

CSX Transportation photo.

Pennsylvania Has a Lot of Railroads

Pennsylvania's Department of Transportation has published a 25 year plan for the state's rail system. Click here for details.

Three Class I Railroads
Canadian Pacific
CSX Transportation
Norfolk Southern

Two Class II Railroads
Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad (BPRR)
Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Company (WLE)

32 Class III Railroads
Allegheny Valley Railroad Company (AVR)
Central New York Railroad Corporation (CNYR)
Chestnut Ridge Railway Corporation (CHR)
Cumberland Mine Railroad (CM)
Delaware‐Lackawanna Railroad Company, Inc. (DL)
East Penn Railways (EPRY)
Everett Railroad (EV)
Gettysburg & Northern Railroad Company (GET)
Hollidaysburg & Roaring Springs Railroad (HRS)
Juniata Valley Railroad Company (JVRR)
Lehigh Railway, LLC (LRWY)
Luzerne and Susquehanna Railway Company (LS)
Lycoming Valley Railroad Company (LVRR)
Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad (MIDH)
New Castle Industrial Railroad (NCIR)
New Hope & Ivyland Railroad (NHRR)
Nittany & Bald Eagle Railroad (NBER)
North Shore Railroad (NSHR)
Oil Creek & Titusville Lines, Inc.(OCTL)
Pennsylvania & Southern Railway (PSRR)
Pittsburgh & Ohio Central Railroad Company (POHC)
R.J. Corman Railroad/Pennsylvania Line (RJCP)
Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad Company (RBMN)
Shamokin Valley Railroad Company (SVRR)
Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad (SWP)
Stourbridge Railroad Company (SBRR)
Strasburg Rail Road Company (SRC)
Union County Industrial Railroad Company (UCIR)
Wellsboro & Corning Railroad (WCOR)
Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad (WNYP)
York Railway Company (YRC)
Youngstown & Southeastern Railroad Company (YSRR)

27 Local Switching and Terminal Railroads
Aliquippa & Ohio River Railroad Company (AORR)
Allegheny Southern Railroad (ASR)
Belvidere & Delaware River Railway Company (BDRV)
Brandywine Valley Railroad Company (BVRY)
Conrail Shared Assets (CRR)
East Erie Commercial Railroad (EEC)
Juniata Terminal Company (JFTS)
Kasgro Rail Corporation (KRL)
Kiski Junction Railroad (KJR)
Landisville Railroad, LLC (LVR)
Lehigh Valley Rail Management (Bethlehem Division) (PBNE)
Lehigh Valley Rail Management (Cambria and Indiana Division) (CI)
Lehigh Valley Rail Management (Johnstown Division) (CBL)
Maryland Midland Railway (MMID)
McKeesport Connecting Railroad Company (MKC)
McLaughlin Line Railroad/MSI Corporation (MCLR)
Mount Union Connecting Railroad (MTUC)
N.D.C. Railroad Company (NDCR)
Pennsylvania Southwestern Railroad, Inc.(PSWR)
Pittsburgh, Allegheny & McKees Rocks Railroad (PAM)
R.J. Corman Railroad/Allentown Lines (RJCN)
SMS Rail Service, Inc. (PJRS)
Steelton & Highspire Railroad Company (SH)
Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad (TCKR)
Tyburn Railroad Company (TYBR)
Union Railroad Company (URR)
Upper Merion & Plymouth Railroad Company (UMP)

That's a lot of trains

GE Built in Pennslvania ES44

I shot this picture of CSX #5445 in Manilla, Pennsylvania running downgrade from the Sand Patch tunnel in August, 2007. This is typical of the GE ES44AC series that now numbers well over 1,000 units produced for railroads in the USA, Canada, and Mexico.

GE Built in Pennslvania AC4400

The AC4400 was the first AC traction unit built by General Electric in Erie, Pennsylvania and CSX Transportation was the first customer. More than 3,000 of this 4,400 horsepower FDL-16 diesel unit were built. It looks much like its DC counterpart the Dash 9-44CW but the vents on the cab side mark a relocation of the cab air conditioning unit. Production ran from 1994 to 2006 with the last two years being for Canadian customers. Above CSX #5111 is leading a coal drag down the Sand Patch Grade at Fairhope, Pennsylvania.

Here Comes TIGER

It stands for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery and it means a lot of money for railroad projects. Here's a short list:

CREATE - a first-of-its-kind partnership between U.S. DOT, the State of Illinois, City of Chicago, Metra, Amtrak, and the nation's freight railroads. $100 million to improve rail access across the Chicago area, currently a serious choke point. Click here

National Gateway - $98 million for opening up CSX rail corridors in the Mid Atlantic states. Click here

Crescent Corridor - $105 million for Norfolk Southern corridor expansion between Louisiana and New Jersey. Click here

One of the biggest TIGER grants is going to the Penn Station New York City expansion project. Read about it here

Still reading reports about "High Speed" passenger rail projects in various states. Little or nothing about acquiring exclusive passenger rail right of way. Passenger rail running on freight rails is never going to be high speed in the European or Asian style.

The Hyndman Helper

At Philson Station on the eastern side of the Sand Patch Grade in Pennsylvania this EMD SD50 helper No. 8595 is pushing at the rear of a long string of empty auto racks. These helpers are known as the "Hyndman Helpers" for the name of the town at the start of the grade. The helper will cut off at Manilla just before the Sand Patch tunnel at the summit. There it will wait for an eastbound train and will couple to its rear to go back to Hyndman. This old B&O route over the Allegheny mountains is to East Coast railroading what Tehachapi or Cajon are to the West Coast.

Potomac River Power

An aging GE C40-8 with an EMD SD50 trailing still do a good job for CSX pulling freights along the Potomac River, here at Point of Rocks, Maryland. The freight is westbound towards Harper's Ferry, West Virginia and Cumberland, Maryland. The MARC commuter platform can be seen behind No. 7532. Out of frame to the left is the historic Point of Rocks station. At this old B&O station you can watch the trains of today move over a route that remains from the very beginnings of American railroading.

Replacing the Hand Car

Reading Company No. M20 is a Fairmont Motorized Track Car built in 1956. It is Ex Chesapeake & Ohio. Shown here at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

A Beauty of a Depot

Re-posted from 2007
Point of Rocks, Maryland station shown here on June 10, 2007 is a beauty of a building, a good train watching hot spot, and a great place to bring small children as visitors. Here the former B&O Old Main Line in the foreground joins the Metropolitan Line as it winds along the Potomac River toward Harpers Ferry, Cumberland, Sand Patch and the West. CSX freights frequent these lines to and from Locust Point, Curtis Bay, and Penn Mary, Baltimore; and Benning Yard, Washington DC. The weekday visitor will also see MARC commuter train action during commute hours. Point of Rocks is an easy day trip for folks in the greater Washington Baltimore Southeast Pennsylvania area. The station is well signed from the exits on US15, 12 miles south of Frederick, Maryland.

Hot Spot - Sand Patch

One of the great rail fan hot spots in North America is the Sand Patch grade in southern Pennsylvania. Here, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad conquered the Allegheny mountains in 1871 on its route from Baltimore to Pittsburgh and the West. The east side of the grade winds along Wills Creek from Hyndman to the summit at Sand Patch Tunnel. In these photos taken at Fairhope, a few miles west of Hyndman, a rail fan shows good train-watching accessories: a cigar, a cold beverage, and a 4-wheel drive truck. Also from this little platform we see CSX 5111, a GE AC4400CW, leading an eastbound coal drag down the grade at 25 mph.

The Old Lingers On in Maryland

I strolled to the North end of the Washington Metro station platform in Greenbelt, Maryland to see what looked like some very old railroad signals. Sure enough, on the adjacent CSX tracks, used by MARC commuter trains during the week, are these two old Baltimore and Ohio color position signals. About a quarter mile to the left, beyond the MARC passenger platforms, are the in-service searchlight signals used by CSX.

CSX on Sand Patch Grade #7

The engineer of #8595 EMD SD50 is waiting in the Manilla helper pocket for the train to clear the switch ahead so that he can drift down to the train, couple up to the rear and take the ride down to Cumberland to wait for another Westbound needing a push.

CSX on Sand Patch Grade #6

Taking the last slot in a string of 6 engines, CSX 8701 END SD60 is getting on in years but is still well suited to the demands imposed by the road's mountain routes.

The route taken by the railroad has been known for centuries. It was surveyed by the Army in 1824 for the C&O Canal. The Army estimated it would take 13 years to dig a 4 mile tunnel under the summit for the canal using the pick and shovel technology of the day. The capital poor B&O considered the same plan in the early 1900's but it died for lack of funds.

CSX on Sand Patch Grade #5

An odd addition to this train's engine string is CSX #4527 EMD SD70MAC. I say "odd" because it is the only AC powered unit in a string of 6.

The Eastern Slope of Sand Patch is easily accessible by roads, some of which are gravel but in good condition. A 4x4 is the best way to tour the area, but an automobile is alright if you are careful. Remember, if you are going to poke around, that the woods are home to rattlesnakes, copperheads, and the occasional black bear. Be careful, and be safe.

CSX on Sand Patch Grade #4

CSX #102 is a road slug. I cannot find this road number on any CSX locomotive roster so maybe it's just headed to the scrap pile. I do not what type of locomotive this was before rebuilding as a slug. Alco?

Road slugs take advantage of diesel electric locomotive surplus power available at low speeds. Take a mature diesel, remove the diesel, generators, cooling, dynamic braking, cab, and air compressor and you have a frame with traction motors below. Replace the removed mechanicals with ballast like concrete, get power from a "Mother" locomotive and you have a unit with as much as double the tractive effort at speeds of less than 35 MPH or so. CSX has somewhere around 150 road slugs and 30 or so yard slugs.

CSX on Sand Patch Grade #3

Following the lead pair of Evolutions is this EMD GP39 CSX #4286. I thought this engine might be a "Mother" unit for the road slug whose nose is visible behind the Geep. My photos fail to catch whether the big power cables for powering the slug are there.

Your best guide to this part of Sand Patch, the Eastern grade, is the September 2000 issue of Railpace Newsmagazine. Rails and roads are both highlighted on detailed USGS topographical maps. All my photographs in this blog series were taken at the spot marked as "Manila Access Road" on the map.

CSX on Sand Patch grade #2

Right behind the lead locomotive CSX #5475 GE ES44DC makes the second of a matched set of big power engines to power this train down the Wills Creek valley into the Potomac River valley at Cumberland, Maryland. Just to the right of this engine's nose the gray paint of an SD50 can be seen waiting in the helper pocket between the two mains. When the train has passed the helper will couple to the rear on the fly for the trip back to Cumberland.

If you have a scanner when visiting Sand Patch tune it to 160.230 Mhz. (AAR Ch. 08). Train crews will acknowledge all signals on the air with the dispatcher. Other frequencies are 161.25 and 160.785. While your scanner will work in the Wills Creek Valley, your cellphone won't unless you go to a hill top.

CSX on Sand Patch Grade #1

This eastbound train, headed by CSX #5445 GE ES44DC, is at Manilla at the East Portal of the Sand Patch Tunnel at the summit of the Sand Patch grade. I have seen Manilla published with one L and two L's.

This route was built in the 1860's by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. As far as timing and connections at Pittsburgh, the B&O lost to the Pennsylvania Railroad in the race to cross the Allegheny Mountains. It is one of the legendary meccas for American railfans. It even draws train-spotters from overseas. Climbing north and west from Cumberland, Maryland the CSX mainline over the Alleghenies to Pittsburgh, PA ascends over 1500 feet to crest the summit at Sand Patch, Pa. (SA tower, now gone, was one of the last manned interlocking towers on this historic B&O grade and it stood across the tracks from the summit marker.

Metrorail - the Capitol Line

Metrorail, from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, glues the capitol city together with two adjacent states; Maryland and Virginia. Our Red Line train is pulling up to the platform at Rockville, MD on its way into the center of the District of Columbia before turning north to another Maryland terminal in Glenmont. The Rockville station (on separate tracks) is also used by MARC and Amtrak. Amtrak trains 29 and 30, the Capitol Limited make this their first stop before or after Washington Union Station. MARC's Brunswick Line stops here coming to or from Frederick, MD or Martinsburg, WV. To the right in the photo below you can see the CSX signals on the adjacent tracks that Amtrak and MARC use.