Keysville, VA - 1/23/12

I'm currently on vacation visiting my parents in southern Virginia. I decided to head into town this evening to do a little foggy weather photography. Of course, no trip into town would be complete without a stop by the headquarters of Virginia Southern Division of the Buckingham Branch Railroad. Traffic appears to be extra slow lately and the locomotives were in the exact same spot that they were last weekend when I came down to pick up a piano from my grandmother.

GP10 #11 sits on the maintenance track (GP10 #10 sits behind it). #11 started out life as Illinois Central GP9 #8973. I'm not sure the cause, but there appears to be some charring on the right side of the nose.


GP16 #2 rests near the sanding tower. #2 started out life as Seaboard Air Line GP7 #1732. Prior to Buckingham Branch acquiring the former Virginia Southern Railroad line, #2 used to frequently pull excursion trains on the BB Buckingham Division out of Dillwyn.


Thanks for looking!

New Years Day - 1/1/12

It was a beautiful (and unseasonably warm) January 1st today. I had not originally intended to photograph trains exclusively, but after arriving in Baltimore one thing led to another. I started out in the eastern part of the city in the section known as Canton. There wasn't much running out that way, but I did catch a pair of NS catfish crossing Boston Street.


The best part of my day came when I discovered the engineer of NS 9654 was blowing on a wooden train whistle as he passed by me.


Heading back west over to CSX's Bailey's Wye, I caught AC6600CW #5010 leading westbound Q439-31. I caught 5010 heading eastbound yesterday on New Years Eve.


Shortly after Q439 passed through a CSX track inspector was checking out one of two tracks that lead into MARC's Camden Yard station.


Next up is eastbound Q438-31 led by AC6000CW #634.


C40-8 #7559 leads westbound autorack train, Q217 through Bailey's Wye.


After Q217 passed through, I decided to head back south to a spot a little close to home. I arrived in Annapolis Junction to find...absolutely nothing. All the signals were red and there was no radio traffic at all. I ventured down to Vulcan Materiels and got a shot of this GE trio sitting on the siding there.


After snapping a shot of the idling power, I made my way down to MARC's Savage station to hang out. After about 20 minutes, I heard Q249 calling signals north of Jessup and announced CEFX 3122 in the lead. Always looking for a chance to catch something besides the everyday CSX blue and yellow, I decided to stick around. A short time later, Q249 pulls into Annapolis Junction before backing its mixed consist into the yard at Jessup before picking up autoracks. CIT Rail Resources (CEFX) SD40M-2 #3122 and Helms Financial (HLCX) SD40-2 #7190 were providing power.


About 30 min after dropping off its original consist, Q249 began to emerge from Jessup Yard with its autoracks.


Another shot of CEFX 3122. 3122 was formerly Southern Pacific SD45 #7511/8901.


A shot of HLCX SD40-2 #7190. This unit was formerly BNSF 7190 (nee-BN).


Thanks for looking!

Last Photos and Top 10 of 2011 - 12/31/11

I took a drive up to Baltimore this afternoon to snap my last railroad photos of 2011. It's been a good year for my photo wise, both railroad related and otherwise. 2011 marked the first time since my daughter was born in 2008 that I really did a serious amount of railfanning (a trend I hope to continue). It was sunny most of the day, but the clouds decided to block it out by the time I got to Baltimore.

Q439-30 heads westbound through Bailey's Wye led by ES44AC #827.


A pair of ES44DCs lead an eastbound Q438-30 through Bailey's Wye.


A pair of Canadian American Railroad boxcars in the consist of Q438-30. This is the first time I can recall seeing boxcars from this railroad.


AC6000CW #5010 leads a train (symbol unknown) full of large pipes eastbound through Bailey's Wye.


That's all she wrote for this year! Now it's time to take a look back at what I consider my top ten railroad photos for 201l. These are in no particular order. They are simply the ten I thought were my best.

1. Lancaster & Chester SW900 #91 rests at the Circle S feed mill in Fort Mill, SC


2. MARC train P870 streaks eastbound from Point of Rocks in the early morning.


3. This former Baltimore & Ohio observation car harkens back to the days when passenger railroading in the US had a touch more class than it does now. This car is on display in the North Car Shop of the B&O Railroad Museum.


4. Former Norfolk & Western and Chessie GP9s lead a string of empty coal hoppers on the Hampton & Branchville Railroad through Miley, SC bound for interchange with CSX at Hampton.


5. Another shot from the H&B. HB GP9s 6249 (Chessie), 5943 (Chessie), 859 (NW) and 667 (NW) pull across SC Route 61 into the SCE&G Co-gen plant to pick up empty coal hoppers and bring them back to Hampton, SC for interchange with CSX.


6. MARC P871 drops off commuters on a Friday afternoon in Point of Rocks with GP39H-2 #73 on the head end.


7. A Delaware Coast Line train crossing back over the bridge heading back to Georgetown from Lewes, DE. Alco RS36 #2 is providing power.


8. CSX Q249 heads west off of the Curtis Bay Subdivision led by C40-8 #7587. With the painting of 7509, 7587 is the last C40-8 to wear this paint scheme.


9. Amtrak's Capitol Limited makes its way westbound through Point of Rocks, MD on CSX's Metropolitan Subdivision.


10. A Kansas City Southern local led by by a pair of GP38-2s crosses over the CSX diamond and past the derail signal on its way to the Port of Mississippi.


I thank everyone for looking and I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Years. Here's to a lot of railfanning in 2012!

Merry Christmas!!! - 12/25/11

I decided to go out early and snap a few pictures before my daughter woke up anxious to open presents. I knew nothing would be running this morning, but thought it would be a good chance to get some photos of the power sitting at the CSX yard offices in Jessup.

Sitting there quietly at the offices were B40-8 #5492 and SD40-2 #8226.




Thanks for looking and I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas today!

One Early, One Late - 12/23/11

One Early, One Late, originally uploaded by VirginiaSouthern.

It has been a little while since I've posted. Things have been crazy gearing up for Christmas and this week my car decided to start leaking oil like crazy so I was without it for a couple of days getting it squared away.

The car was finally fixed around 1 today so after picking it up, I decided to head briefly to MARC's Savage Station to see if there was anything of interest. I got there to find that there wasn't. CSX's autorack train Q249 was quite still building it's train and must have got a late start since this train is usually cleared through the station by 1300 at the latest.

I was about to leave, when I heard a horn off in the distance. Much to my surprise, it was not a freight, but a very early MARC 846 led by MP36PH-3C #20.

Thanks for looking and I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Lunchtime Local - 12/13/11

Lunchtime Local, originally uploaded by VirginiaSouthern.

Just one from lunch today. A small local freight out of Jessup Yard moves onto the the siding at MARC's Savage Station pulled by GP38-2 #2746. This train is headed for an industrial spur a short distance south of this spot. This photo is not framed exactly as I would like (would prefer not to have the station platform in view), but she snuck up on me so I got what I could.