Old Stuff On The MARC, Part Three: The E-Units

For a couple of years in the early 1990s, MARC Rail was so desperate for cheap power that they added a few hand-me-down E units to their aging stable of Fs and RDCs. They're about the same age as most of the F units - built in the early 1950s - and they have a similar (but much larger) streamlined profile. The engine in these first two shots is Ex-Illinois Central E8 #4023, which led the last IL-Central "City of New Orleans" from its namesake city to Chicago in April, 1971. After some time in New Jersey, it was painted blue, renumbered as MARC #60 and had a brief run here in Maryland. Above, #60 leads a special Orioles train away from Camden Station in Baltimore in 1992.

MARC #60 (and F-unit #84) rolling into Rockville, MD in 1992.

Ex-Burlington Northern E9 #9911 awaits some minor repainting and a new number at Riverside Shops in Baltimore in 1993.

Ex-BN E9, now MARC #64, completely surrounded by CSX power at Riverside Shops - 1993.

MARC #68 blows by a whistle-stop at Dickerson, MD in 1993. I kept that plain grey little Chevy in frame because that is the first car I ever bought, and she chased many trains with me and took a lot of abuse in stride.

MARC #65 at Germantown, MD in 1994. In a move that showed just how short-term a solution these E-units were for MARC, only the "Burlington Northern" and the numbers and flags were changed. New engines had already been ordered.

MARC #60 (E8) and #84 (F7) lead an eastbound commuter train across the Monacacy River near Dickerson, MD in 1992. This shot provides a good look at the size difference between these two old GM Electro Motive Division relics.

THANKS FOR RIDING WITH ME.
In the interest of keeping you non-railfans from wandering off and getting into trouble, let's head back to the beach, next. Then, maybe some critters and cats and dogs and whatnot. If you're patiently waiting for lighthouses, they're coming. I swear. No, really. We'll get to them. Honest. We will! OK bye...

Old Stuff On The MARC, Part Two: The F-Units

The MARC Commuter Rail system in the early 1990s was loads of fun for railfans. We've already covered the rickety old RDCs. Tonight, we'll take a quick look at some of the F-units MARC employed during the period leading up to their mid-90s fleet upgrade. These classic locomotives from a bygone era in rail travel are extremely photogenic. Dating back to the late 40s and early 50s, they're streamlined and elegant and with the right paint scheme can appear to be smiling. Enough said. The CSX F7 (A-B) set above, followed by one of MARC's own F7 A units, is seen crossing the Monacacy River near Dickerson, MD in 1992.

MARC #7100 at Brunswick, MD in 1994, awaiting repainting in the silver/blue/orange scheme.

CSX #116 and MARC #83 in the yard at Brunswick, MD in 1991.

CSX #116 pushes its train east past Point of Rocks, MD in 1992.

MARC #'s 85 & 7100 on the west end of Rail Appreciation Days special train at Brunswick, MD in 1991.

CSX #118 and MARC #7100 approaching the Thomas Viaduct en route to Baltimore on MARC's Camden Line in 1992.

MARC #85 approaching Metropolitan Grove Road in Gaithersburg, MD in 1994.

MARC #83 races west past eastbound auto-racks near Derwood, MD in 1993. For the record, I would recommend against trying to cling to the top of a barbed-wire fence to shoot two high-speed trains heading in opposite directions within seconds of each other in insufficient light. Just sayin'.

THANKS FOR LOOKING. MUCH MORE TO COME...

Paradise 101: The Virgin Islands (Part Two)

I returned to the Virgin Islands for a few days as 1994 turned to 1995, to witness the inauguration of my friend's dad as Governor of the USVI. You won't find any photos of the actual event here, because photographing people is really not my thing - plus, I don't have releases from anyone in any of those shots. We had limited time for shooting, but I was getting a little better at it by the end of '94. The banner above was taken as our plane departed St. Thomas, but you don't know that, so let's say it's a shot of our approach to paradise.

Morningstar Beach, St. Thomas. (drool...)

Two shots from Bluebeard's Castle, St. Thomas. Pirate cannons and naked statues - does a hilltop tropical hotel need more? I submit that it does NOT!

Trunk Bay, St. John. Perfection...

Trunk Bay, St. John. Five minutes later. Another 15 minutes and the rain would be gone.

Charlotte Amalie Harbor, St. Thomas. How will I choose?

Sunset from Bluebeard's. Can't have a tropical post without a sunset photo. It's the law. Federal law, I think.

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!

One more set of Virgin Islands pics should pretty much wrap up that subject for a while. BUT FIRST - I hear some more trains coming...

Old Stuff On The MARC, Part One: The RDCs

During the first few years of my railfan apprenticeship, I spent many a rush hour shooting the parade of MARC commuter trains in Maryland. In the early 1990s, that often meant shooting some of the oldest power on any major railroad in the U.S. - including venerable E and F units and Budd RDCs. Today we're looking at the RDC (Rail Diesel Car), built throughout the 1950s. As MARC Rail struggled to keep up with increasing ridership in the early 1990s, they ran these ancient self-propelled smog belchers as long as they could. The shot above captures a four-car consist as it heads west from DC, crossing the Monacacy River near Dickerson, MD in 1992.

EB P878 rolls through the signals at Seneca Field, west of Germantown, MD in 1991.

#9913 (one of the former B&O RDCs on the MARC) at Germantown, MD in 1991.

Another four-car set - arriving at Germantown, MD in 1991.

Smoking away under Powder Mill Road - Beltsville, MD in 1991.

An Orioles special train arriving at Camden Station in Baltimore, MD in 1993. The end was near.

EB P878 approaching Barnsville, MD in 1995. The RDCs are not under power; they're just being used as coaches.

An era rolls into the sunset. Westbound RDCs approaching the old "Halpine" signal beneath Twinbrook Parkway in Rockville, MD in 1991.

THANKS FOR VISITING!
Join us next time for yet another trip to the islands...

Chasing 4253

[Attention non-railfans: Feel free to just look at the pictures, and come back later in the week!]

In the early 90s, I spent a couple of years working retail for my best boss ever and we became friends and I started a sort of unofficial railfan apprenticeship. We still hang out and shoot trains from time to time, and he's still ten times the photographer and railfan that I am, but I have managed to learn a lot from Godfrey Ozzenbarq III (not his real name)* over the years. Hopefully, that's evident here.

One day in 1991 when I was heading track-side and he had to stay behind and manage the consumer flotsam and jetsam that flowed through our little corner of the Erol's empire, Godfrey Ozzenbarq III (not his real name) gave me a simple instruction. I was to shoot any GP30M - engines numbered in 4200s, especially the three still in their old blue (B&O or C&O) paint. One - 4236 - Godfrey (not his real name) had spied at the head end of a trainload of tanks being unloaded (near Laurel, MD - I think) for the Desert Storm Victory Celebration in 1991. Another - 4264 - I don't think either of us ever saw. The third - 4253 - was sporting inexplicably fresh "B&O Blue" paint, complete with a crisp yellow sunburst on the nose. They all had historical significance, at least to us railfans, as they had been built in the early 1960s and would soon be leaving the CSX roster for regional short-lines and various scrap yards. But with its clean appearance and retro paint scheme, it was 4253 that became our Grail.

Thus began about 3 years of near-misses, sightings from Metro trains, sightings in the pouring rain or at night or without cameras. The longer Godfrey Ozzenbarq III (not his real name) and I went without getting the shots we wanted of this little old engine or its brethren, the more obsessed we became. Eventually, I didn't even care as much about the engine as I did about the hunt.

Our quest was aided by the CSX "touch-trace" system, an 800 number their customers could call to track shipments by entering railroad car numbers. We were fortunate that for whatever reason, CSX also included engine numbers in this database, so with a toll-free call we could find out where these units were and where they were heading (with, as it turns out, varying degrees of accuracy). The touch-trace system led me to northeast baltimore's Penn-Mary Junction in Summer of 1992 for the shot below. It was not the lead unit on this idle train, so I couldn't get in front of it. Also, I had only about a minute to shoot before a long string of auto-racks got yarded on the next track, blocking my access.

Later in 1992 I caught our favorite little engine racing across Randolph Road near Rockville, MD. (See 5/11/09 "Basic Training" post)

The two photos above come from the one and only time I caught up with 4253 in the sun. She was sandwiched between two GP40Ms in Chessie colors, just leaving Hagerstown, MD over an old Western Maryland Railway bridge in the spring of 1993. Godfrey Ozzenbarq III (not his real name) was annoyed by my having this encounter, as he still had only caught this unit in a big rainstorm.

The next and final time I encountered 4253 was in October of 1993 in Cumberland, MD. Godfrey (not his real name) and I had spent a relatively fruitless day slogging from Mexico Tower to Sand Patch and back without much to show for our efforts. The tower operator at Viaduct Junction had been cool enough to share with us what he knew about the day's lineup. No 4200s. According to touch-trace, 4253 had left Baltimore that morning en route to Philadelphia - farther away from Cumberland.

So there we were, content to sit in the car with our cheeseburgers, watching empty tracks and listening to quiet radio scanners, when we heard Q401 (a train that terminates in Cumberland) approaching. On the point of Q401 was our wayward quarry, and after yarding their train, the crew was backing the power down past the locomotive maintenance house and leaving it there.

Yes, we chased it into the yard and climbed all over it in exactly the way that two mature, well-balanced adults would not. In the shot above, the power prepares to back off the main and into the yard. The two frames below were taken in the yard as soon as the crew departed.

Below: One more shot as 4253 rolls out of Hagerstown in 1992.

* Fake name courtesy of my loving wife, Winifred K. Gobsmacker (not her real name).

Close To Home

There isn't a lot to say about the pictures in this post. I grew up in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, so a lot of my early photography centers on DC, Baltimore and the surrounding area. Not many people seem to be FROM the DC area, but I am and I still find it a great source of photographic subjects. Above: Looking north on Rockville Pike from Montrose Road in December 1992.

The Smithsonian Institution Castle - Washington National Mall - 1992

The Lincoln Memorial - Washington National Mall, 1992. I didn't want the same old postcard, so I shot through the fountains. The fencing is there to keep the public out of the fireworks launching area.

Okay, so this is pretty much the same old postcard shot of the Jefferson Memorial through cherry blossoms, across the Tidal Basin in 1997. I could not resist that pink sky. There's a reason everyone takes this type of shot: It works.

Chief Zee and 54,566 friends at RFK Stadium, cheering the Washington Redskins to a playoff victory over the Los Angeles Rams on December 28, 1986.

The north span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge under an ominous summer sky in 1985. No, I wasn't driving. This time.

The B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, destination of my first train trip with my dad. This photo comes from over two decades later - 1996. The museum was closed, so this rainy scene was actually shot through a chain-link fence.

The Montgomery County Fair - Gaithersburg, MD - 1991. There are actually dozens of people between the camera and the ticket booth near the lower left corner, but the long exposure helped them to do what I love having people do in my photos - vanish!