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!