I used to be a rolling stone you know If a cause was right I'd leave to find the answer on the road I used to be a heart beating for someone
- "Philadelphia Freedom", Elton John / Bernie Taupin
While looking through my Lightroom catalog for Amtrak images, I stumbled across some photos I took when I was in Philadelphia, PA back in April 2005.
I've never blogged about this trip before, because this was a few months before I started blogging!
This was the only time I've been in Philadelphia (to date) although I have been in Pittsburgh a few times.
Arrival
I went to Philadelphia for work, for a conference. I did some research and determined that you could take a train from the Philadelphia International Airport via SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.
I arrived at PHL and took this train. It was a pretty short trip on the Airport Regional Line to Jefferson Station downtown, maybe 30 minutes.
I'm pretty sure I was staying at the Marriott where the conference was, and it was a short walk from Jefferson station to the hotel. I stowed my bags and took a short walk to the 30th Street Amtrak station.
Amtrak's Station
Amtrak's 30th Street train station in Philadelphia
Columns at Amtrak station
This imposing structure was built for the Pennsylvania Railroad and opened in 1933. It is the busiest Amtrak station in Pennsylvania, being situated on the Northeast Corridor and serving more than 10,000 passengers a day.
Amtrak trains like the Acela Express, Vermonter, Cardinal and Keystone Service stop here. It also sees many SEPTA trains and NJ Transit's Atlantic City Line starts here.
I walked through the large Art Deco waiting room and looked around for a bit. I was a lot more self-conscious about my railfanning in 2005 than I am now, so I didn't do much exploring and I definitely didn't try to go on the platforms. I did notice that there were some great views available from the parking garage...
The cavernous interior of the Amtrak 30th Street station
Return to Amtrak
I went back to the Amtrak station on the 5th after the day's activities ended. I went straight to the parking garage to take some photos of the engine servicing area.
Amtrak yard, Philadelphia
Notice the collection of ballast hoppers on the left side. A little closer view...
Amtrak 200 and ballast hoppers
I was intrigued by the loco in the distance and zoomed in even farther.
AMTK 723 in Philadelphia
Apparently AMTK 723 is a GP38-3, originally built for the Penn Central as GP38 PC 7758. From photos it looks like it is used for yard and maintenance service.
Sister AMTK 724 was nearby with an electric locomotive on the next track.
AMTK 724 in Philadelphia
I took a little bit of video too.
Later that night, I had to have a Philadelphia standard... a hoagie. It's the "official sandwich of Philadelphia", after all!
Mmmmm... hoagie.
It was pretty delicious.
SEPTA Transit Museum
On the 6th I visited the SEPTA Transit Museum briefly. I didn't have a lot of time but it's a small museum, just up the street, so it was all good.
They have a restored PCC trolley car there, #2733. She's a beauty!
PCC car 2733 in Philadelphia
It's pretty nice inside.
Streetcar interior, Philadelphia
I liked the nose of this transit car sticking out of the wall.
Part of car 1312
There was a model train display there as well.
Mmmm, three rail
Miscellaneous
To wrap up, here are a few miscellaneous photos I took while I was there. My apologies for the poor photo quality of some of the photos. These were taken with a 1 megapixel digital camera...
I've always wanted to photograph Amtrak's Empire Builder in North Dakota. It passes through Fargo and Grand Forks, both places that our family visits now and then for shopping. The problem is that it stops in those two cities in the middle of the night.
Train 7, the westbound Empire Builder, is scheduled to stop in Fargo at 03:24 and Grand Forks at 04:41, while train 8, the eastbound, is scheduled to stop in Grand Forks at 01:02 and Fargo at 02:18. If they're on time, they should meet somewhere between Fargo and Detroit Lakes, MN.
The Setup
We went to Fargo last month to spend the weekend shopping and just getting out of Winnipeg. We arrived on the evening of Friday, January 20th and spent the 21st shopping. As we were relaxing in our hotel on Saturday night, I checked the Amtrak app and noted that the eastbound Empire Builder was an hour late, meaning it was forecast to be in Fargo at about the same time as the westbound Empire Builder. A plan formed.
I discussed my plan with my wife. As usual she thought I was crazy, but was OK with me getting up in the middle of the night to photograph trains, as long as she didn't have to get up.
I laid out all my supplies before bedtime. A partial list:
Camera bag
Tripod
Coat, mitts, hat, scarf
Clothes
Cell phone
Car keys
It was foggy Saturday evening, given the mild temperatures outside, but I wasn't too concerned. I went to bed after setting my cell phone to alarm at 02:45.
The Journey
I awoke, dressed quickly, and snuck out of the hotel room without waking anyone. Good. I took the stairs down to the ground floor and headed out to the parking lot to find our van. After about 15 minutes of driving, I was at the Amtrak depot.
Amtrak station (L) and ex Great Northern station (R)
I parked on a nearby street because I didn't know the parking situation at the station. I think I would have been OK parking there but better safe than sorry. There was a fair amount of activity at the station, with a few cars idling nearby and some people were being dropped off at the station.
I went inside and asked the Amtrak agent which train was coming in first. He saw my camera and told me the westbound was arriving first, and said to watch out for his baggage truck when I was taking photos. I didn't plan on being on the platform and I told him that. My plan was to shoot from the crossings on either side of the station.
But First, A Surprise
I went to the North Broadway crossing to set up my tripod and camera. As I was getting ready, I heard a train approaching from the east. It turned out to be a BNSF manifest freight train led by BNSF 6069, 4602 and 8971. I took video with my iPhone.
After that blew through, I finished setting up to wait for the westbound Amtrak Empire Builder.
The Amtrak train came along not long after the BNSF train went through. The train crawled up to the Broadway Drive crossing, with AMTK 113 sticking its nose into the crossing and keeping the arms down and the crossing active.
AMTK 113 in Fargo, North Dakota at night on the Amtrak Empire Builder
I kinda liked the fog's effect on the lights!
I always get asked what settings I used, so for the above photo I used a 2 second exposure at f/10 and ISO 100. I used the 2 second self timer on my camera (on the tripod) so I wouldn't move the camera by pressing the shutter.
I was playing with shutter speeds of 2-5 seconds when the train wasn't moving. I liked this exposure because with f/10 I could get enough depth of field to get most of the image in focus. A shorter shutter speed would mean I'd have to open the aperture up (e.g. f/8 or f/5.6) and therefore less depth of field.
After about 8 minutes they pulled forward a bit to spot the second half of the train at the platform.
Amtrak baggage car and Superliners in Fargo
That brought baggage car 61025 and the Superliners more into view.
After a few more minutes, they took off westward and that was the end of that train.
I walked around to get to the 4th Street North crossing to shoot the eastbound. On the way, I stopped to take a decent photo of the old Great Northern station. She's a beauty!
Ex Great Northern train station in Fargo
On to the other Empire Builder...
The Eastbound
Long exposure of the Amtrak Empire Builder arriving in Fargo, North Dakota
I shot a long exposure of the Empire Builder's arrival while recording video on my iPhone. This was a 15 second, f/13 exposure.
The train's head end stopped well across 4th Street in an inaccessible location. I elected to stay put and take a few photos of the Superliners gleaming in the available light. See lead photo for a black and white view of the Superliners.
Superliners on the move
They did a re-positioning move here too, so I took a brief photo of the move. The green lights on the side seem to indicate that the doors are closed. I saw them turn red for a bit while the cars were at the platform.
I shot video of their arrival but not of the departure.
Amtrak Video
I combined both trains into one video.
Postscript
After the other Empire Builder left, I packed up and went back to my hotel to catch a few hours of sleep before going back out to railfan again. But that's another story.
I'm glad I made the effort to see the Amtrak trains. I'm not sure if I'll do that on every trip! I think I'll have to get out in Grand Forks to see the trains there, even though the Amtrak station in Grand Forks is much more modest than Fargo's.
Railfans spend a lot of time waiting for trains. I'm convinced this is when we come up with nicknames for particular types of locomotives. Here are a few common ones.
The Toaster
Probably the most well-known railfan nickname is the "toaster", a name now applied to most if not all GE locomotives. I believe it was first applied to the Amtrak AEM-7 and P42DC locomotives due to their toaster-like shape, and the fact that GE also makes household appliances like toasters.
Amtrak 58, Philadelphia, 2005
More recently GE locomotives have acquired this nickname for the burn marks on the sides of some locos.
I've also heard "techno-toaster" for the P42DC or for a Dash-9. Speaking of Dash-9, I believe that's another railfan term.
Red Barn
The GMD SD40-2F is commonly known as a "red barn" because it is a cowl unit and wears the Action Red of CP Rail.
CP 9021 in Winnipeg, MB
Ten of these "red barns" have found their way to the Central Maine and Quebec Railway, including CP 9021 above. Frank Jolin has some great shots of them on his Flickr profile, including this one.
Big Mac
EMD's SD70MAC, SD80MAC and SD90MAC locomotives are called "Big Macs" for obvious reasons. The "M" is for a safety cab and the "AC" means they use AC traction motors rather than DC.
CP 9109 at La Salle, MB
CP 9109 is/was an SD9043MAC.
Covered Wagon
Pretty much every EMD "E" or "F" locomotive (think E8, F7, etc.) is called a covered wagon. These are called that because they are cowl units, where the shell sits on the frame.
Covered wagon E9A CN 102
Thundercow
I've heard the SD40-2W units called "thundercows" but I don't know why.
"Thundercow" CN 5279 on the CN Family Day train in September 2014
Spongebob Squarecab
This was a new one to me. I can't remember if I saw it on Instagram or Facebook, but it refers to CSX cab rebuilds like this one from Flickr:
It does look a bit like Spongebob SquarePants.
Blue Devils
There are a set of blue locomotives, IC 2455-2466, that were leased to Conrail and Illinois Central. This explains the blue! They are sublettered for IC under the locomotive number but have the big CN noodle. Railfans call them "blue devils" (why devils? I don't know), not to be confused with "blueberries" (the dark blue BC Rail units) and "blue bells" (blue GTW units).
"Blue Devil" IC 2460
Individual locomotives have nicknames too. I won't list them in this post but the most famous VIA Rail locomotive nickname was...
The Turd
You can read some more nicknames here. Weigh in with your own nicknames in the comments!
My family and I went to Fargo (no, not the movie, the city in North Dakota) a few weeks ago. Most of the weekend was spent shopping, but I did grab a few shots on Saturday and I negotiated a few hours for railfanning early in the morning of May 12 (Sunday).
First, a little geography. Fargo is on the eastern border of North Dakota, and pretty much seamlessly blends with the town of Moorhead, Minnesota. BNSF's Northern Transcon main line runs right through both towns, and they have a decent-sized yard in Dilworth, MN just east of Moorhead. The K O Subdivision runs from East Dilworth west through all of Fargo all the way to BNSF's large yard at Minot, North Dakota.
Note Dilworth on the right (east).
On Saturday I had about an hour to go scout for trains, so I headed over to West Fargo. I had done some Google Maps reconnaissance and I knew there was an industrial engine at a Cargill grain elevator. I had also spotted some stored passenger cars on Main Avenue that I wanted to check out.
First up, the stored cars. They are at about 1700 Main Avenue East in West Fargo. There is a short spur there with several tracks that seems to be for a scrapper. In Google Maps you can see a caboose, a few passenger cars, a boxcar and some tank cars.
When I arrived there, there was a caboose, several passenger cars and some freight cars were there. Ex Illinois Central caboose IC 199388 was on the end.
Further up were two ex-Amtrak cars, "Silver Plateau" (2671) and "Silver Ravine" (2676).
Next, I went over to see the industrial engine at the Cargill facility. It's at about 730 Centre Street in West Fargo. If you zoom right in, you can see the engine poking out of the shed.
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to get a shot of the locomotive. I did get this end-on shot from a nearby street, but that was the best I could do.
I believe this is an early EMD switcher but I haven't been able to identify it... maybe a GP10 based on the window arrangement.
Nearby is a Dakota AG Cooperative grain elevator complex.
I drove around a bit and saw three different BNSF trains, but I wasn't in a position to shoot any of them. Frustrating!
However, Sunday's railfanning turned out to be very productive in terms of trains.
An alleged plot to attack a VIA Rail passenger train has been foiled by the RCMP and others, and two individuals arrested. The RCMP issued a press release indicating that Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser allegedly watched trains and railways in the Toronto area and were in the planning stages for a terrorist attack. Reports say they were under surveillance for more than a year and the investigation involved the FBI, the US Department of Homeland Security, VIA Rail and others. The police also said that they were receiving support from "Al-Qaeda elements" located inside Iran. Officials said there was no imminent threat but that the accused had the "capacity and intent" to commit an attack.
This article indicates the route was Toronto-New York, indicating the intended target was the Amtrak Maple Leaf, also known as VIA 97/98 (current timetable).
Congratulations to the law enforcement agencies for the arrests (assuming the charges stick).
Some have expressed concern that railfans may be "hassled" by law enforcement officials after this. For me, I intend to continue railfanning just as I always have, legally and in full public view with no other reason than for the joy of it.
I stumbled across this great document explaining the differences between Amtrak and VIA Rail HEP (Head End Power). HEP is how the electricity generated by the Head End locomotives Power the rest of the train.
The essential difference is that Amtrak's HEP is one circuit from one end of the train to another, while VIA's is split into two circuits that alternate between cars. I believe only one Amtrak locomotive supplies HEP, whereas VIA's design allows two locomotives to supply HEP (one for each circuit) with automatic fail-over to the other loco if necessary. VIA's design is more complex but more robust as well, suiting our harsher climates where loss of heat can be dangerous in winter!
The document is on GN Trains' web site. GN Trains rebuilds private passenger cars so the intricacies of HEP are important to them. They have a whole page of interesting documentation.
On Monday a trash truck plowed through a crossing and hit the Amtrak Downeaster in North Berwick, Maine (Story) Unfortunately the driver was killed, but noone on the train was seriously injured.
This follows the truck slamming into the California Zephyrlate last month in which the truck driver, the train's conductor and four others on the train were killed.
What a strange, and tragic, coincidence. Is this some kind of weird terrorist plot or something? Let's hope there aren't any more grade crossing accidents for a while.
Saturday is National Train Day (in the USA). Amtrak is running a number of equipment displays across the U.S. If you're in the U.S., why not attend an event?
I didn't take any video when I saw my sole Amtrak train in Albany, but others have. Here's a nice video by Matthew J. Betzner showing four Amtrak trains through Albany: the Lakeshore Limited, two Empire trains, and the Maple Leaf.
This one shows an Amtrak train with two private cars on the tail end, in West Albany.
I was in Albany, New York last week for a few days. I saw a couple of trains from the air as we descended but nothing else for a few days.
On the 15th, I was done my work by noon and my flight wasn't due to leave until 4 PM, so I decided to take a cab to downtown Albany. On the way there I noted an interesting railway bridge across the Hudson River. I grabbed some lunch and walked to the Erastus Corning Riverfront Park to take a few pictures of it.
Then I walked a little ways northwest to a rail junction. Just about 30 seconds after I arrived there, I heard the hum of an approaching engine. I turned the trusty Fuji point-and-shoot on and captured Amtrak 709 pulling a six-car train northwest. According to Amtrak's schedules, this was probably the Empire Service train 281, running a few minutes late.
After that bit of excitement, I returned to the park to hopefully see another train. I heard an engine idling near the Albany-Rensselaer station, but I never saw anything until 14:15 when I saw a train pull up to the station. Apparently it had been sitting just outside the station for quite a while. I had to leave at that point, alas. Had I known there was a whole service depot there, I might have looked for a way to cross the river and have a look. Oh well... next time, if there is one.
I decided I wanted to see the northbound Amtrak Coast Starlight Monday evening as it approached Salinas. It was due into Salinas at 18:36, and the Amtrak web site said it was 20 minutes late, so I left Monterey at 18:00, figuring I had lots of time. I ended up here just to the southwest of Salinas at 18:30. I set up the tripod and waited...
I checked the Amtrak web site with my phone a few more times. The delay had lengthened to just over an hour, then 1 hour 46 minutes! The sun was setting quickly and I figured I was going to run out of light before the stupid train showed up. I hopped in the van and headed south down the 101 to try to catch it sooner.
Without a scanner, I didn't want to overshoot, so I stopped here, just south of Gonzalez. The sun finally dipped below a hill, and less than 5 minutes later the Coast Starlight showed up with AMTK 115 and another engine leading 12 cars.
You can see there was some light, but not enough:
I was a little annoyed that the sun went down. If it was just a few minutes earlier the light would have been beautiful. Oh well. At least I saw the train. :)
, the city in North Dakota) a few weeks ago. Most of the weekend was spent shopping, but I did grab a few shots on Saturday and I negotiated a few hours for railfanning early in the morning of May 12 (Sunday).
