CSXT 1776 “Spirit of our Armed Forces” leads B451 the evening Rock Runner returning empties from Bladensburg, MD back to Millville, WV. Seen here crossing the well known wooden trestle thru Harpers Ferry’s Lower Town at about 1045pm on June 6, 2023. The GE built ES44AC-H engine combines the CSX dark blue and yellow colors on the front of the locomotive with gray camouflage on the sides and top. The paint scheme celebrates the five main branches of military service and features the CSX Pride in Service logo along with the logos of the program partners — Wounded Warriors, Blue Star Families, Operation Homefront and Operation Gratitude. A double exposure was used to capture both the night sky and lit up scene.

Leading I136 through the Martinsburg Station and historic B&O Roundhouse Complex on February 21, 2022 is CSX ES44AC #3194. The engine, painted as the “Spirit of Law Enforcement” in 2019 is one of 3 units painted by CSX in their “Pride in Service” program (1776 for US Military, 911 for First Responders).

As part of the East Broad Top Railroad’s 2022 Winter Spectacular, a night photo session was offered and a cold EBT #12 aka “Millie” was the star of the shoot. Here the locomotive and crew members pose by the sand tower inside the Rockhill Furnace shop and yard complex. Lighting was provided by Christopher Pollock, Steve Barry and Michael Burkhart. The smoke and steam effects were applied to the locomotive via smoke sticks. East Broad Top Railroad #12 was the first and smallest mikado locomotive (2-8-2) to enter the EBT’s roster. Millie, as she was named in 1960 by owner Nick Kovalchick after his daughter, was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia in 1911 and was capable of hauling 15 loaded hoppers from the coal mines.

East Broad Top Railroad #12 was the first and smallest mikado locomotive (2-8-2) to enter the EBT’s roster. Millie, as she was named in 1960 by owner Nick Kovalchick after his daughter, was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia in 1911 and was capable of hauling 15 loaded hoppers from the coal mines. Here Millie sits at the Rockhill Furnace shops. Simulated steam for the 2022 Winter Spectacular Night Shoot

PRR 9339 Built in 1948 by General Electric, Pennsylvania Railroad 9339 sits at the Walkersville Southern Railroad in Walkersville, Maryland on former PRR track age. It saw service on the PRR until 1964 and included stops at the South Carolina Railroad Museum until when it was purchased by Jaime Haislip for use on the WS. It’s sister 9331 is also on site and sees occasional use on the line.

HARPERS FERRY: CSX Q276 passes through Harpers Ferry, WV and by the 1894 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station designed by E. Francis Baldwin ON January 27, 2018. The building itself is owned by the National Park Service who restored it to it’s classic appearance in 2006. More recently, the passenger waiting shack on the right was rebuilt by the NPS in association with CSX within the past couple of years as it was slowly degrading and in danger of collapse.

POINT OF ROCKS AT NIGHT: CSX B667 passes the famous E Francis Baldwin designed station on the Metropolitan Sub at Point of Rocks, MD on the evening of June 15, 2018. B667 is one of the many symbols being used by the railroad for the various stone trains off and on the Shenandoah Sub.

The CSX OCS symbol P001-25 photographed in Martinsburg, WV as it makes it’s journey from Chicago, IL to Waycross, GA with some VIPs on board on the evening of August 26, 2021. CSX painted the entire train (engines and cars) in 1950’s Baltimore and Ohio Railroad passenger era colors. You’ll even note the brass “Capitol Dome” on the front of CSX 1.

A night in the Rockhill Furnace yard of the East Broad Top Railroad… in 2020.

Q372 with a single leader rushes by the Martinsburg, WV Station and Roundhouse Complex on Saturday, Sept 26, 2020. The platform on the east side of track one was just completed and this was a bucket list shot of mine when it was first announced a few years ago. Berkeley Hotel, the brick structure on the left dates to the railroad’s arrival in 1842 & saw witness to the destruction of the the adjacent roundhouses by Stonewall Jackson in 1862. The B&O bought the building in 1866, expanded it, and used it as the station, eating house, telegraph office, and hotel. In 1877 the trainmen and enginemen here struck to protest wage cuts, starting the “Great Strike of 1877” nationwide. Railroad and military officials suppressed the strike here, using this building as headquarters.

N&W 611 is readying to stroll onto the turntable at the North Carolina Transportation Museum on Saturday September 19, 2020.

N&W 611 J Class and Southern FP7 locomotives pose side by side at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC. Both were built in 1950.

Pitzers Chapel Road, Martinsburg, WV

CSX train on the Shenandoah Sub between Harpers Ferry and Charlestown, WV

SHIPPENSBURG, PA

JOHN STREET MARTINSBURG, WV SOUTHBOUND

H46.0 LADY IN WHITE: A northbound NS train disrupts the night approaching the Boyce, VA depot.

OFF THE BEATEN PATH Norfolk Southern’s Virginian unit leads CSX intermodal train Q138 by the former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Roundhouse complex and Amtrak station in Martinsburg, WV.

Rolling through downtown Martinsburg from Hagerstown, WW 86 passes the Cumberland Valley Railroad Station on King Street.

My daughters wave to the oncoming train. Here is Q138 with Kansas City Southern “Southern Belle” 4771 at the front passing by the station in Martinsburg.

MOUNT ROYAL STATION

H46.2 GHOST TRAIN: Travel back in time as a Norfolk and Western train slowly arrives to make a station stop at Boyce, VA. Fast forward to October 2012 and witness what seems like a ghost train arriving just in time for Halloween.

Baltimore Streetcar Museum’s youngest car, 7407 was built by the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company in 1944 for the Baltimore Transit Company. It was one of the last streetcars ordered for Baltimore until the MTA bought the new light rail cars. Since this car was built during the Second World War, the stanchions are painted instead of chrome coated. This car represented the height of streetcar development in the world when it was built and has the same general performance characteristics as the modern light rail cars. This car was rebuilt in the early 1990’s and is painted in its original color scheme of cream, Alexandria blue, and orange. The original paint scheme of Baltimore’s PCC cars was the result of a student competition circa 1936 at the Baltimore Institute of Art.

Part of the 2017 annual “Railfan Day” at Steam Into History. This year I was asked to help provide lighting for the event and had a mission to make it more realistic with active steam. Here York 17 looks as though it is enroute from York to Baltimore at the depot at Hanover Junction as locals look on.

MOUNT UNION PRR STATION

York 17 and train stop to pick up passengers just as trains have done here in the past like the one Abraham Lincoln did and from Gettysburg. The crew makes adjustments before continuing south to New Freedom, PA and Baltimore, MD. Part of the venture’s second annual railfan day was this night charter with lighting provided by Steve Barry.

H28.3 38Q passes by the former N&W station at Charles Town, WV in November 2012.

SRC 90 returns to East Strasburg on a recent Dinner Train.

The Winchester and Western switcher passes by the Clearbrook Shopping Center Convenience Store as it approaches US Route 11. Off to the right on the Lane siding are oil tankers for Flying J located a few miles to the North.

Local H58 rolls across the thru truss Reading Bridge off Leidigh Drive on it’s way to interchange with the Gettysburg & Northern at Mount Holly Springs. Many thanks to Sean Hoyden for the use of his lighting equipment.

H10.0

Travelers on Interstate 81 were treated to a show as the Martinsburg ‘s Annual Fireworks Display lights up the night sky on this July 4th.

A Winchester bound grain train passes the last of the remaining B&O Color Position Light signals in the Eastern Panhandle of WV

High hood GP9 498 built for the Nickle Plate in August of 1956 and numbered 498 and renumbered to 2498 by the N&W upon acquisition of the prior railroad.

H40.0 The lit signals at Berryville are set against a full moon.

NEW & OLD

The ‘Charles Town Crossing’ (Ranson) was historically operated and maintained by the N&W, who used Union Switch & Signal appliances (as opposed to B&O’s “General Railway Signal” wares. Long story short, these are probably the last surviving examples of US&S ‘Color Position Light’ signals in the USA (so, anywhere? – Washington Union Terminal Co. still had a few). They replaced lower-quadrant semaphore signals here as early as the 1920s

CSX D789 passes through Harpers Ferry’s Lower Town across the 1850’s wooden trestle built by the Winchester and Potomac Railroad. The train is taking 105 cars of wheat destined for Winchester, VA just after midnight on March 26, 2017. The structure was necessary to avoid the occasional high waters that rage through the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers. It was shortened at it’s east end to rebuild the right of way in order to connect with the 1894 B&O bridge by using fill and a single deck bridge.

Twenty-Seven and a half minutes elapse in this collection of four shots layered together as the Pennsy signal bridge at AR (Allegheny Range) stands tall against the backdrop of the swirling night sky and the North Star. This signal stands close to the Pennsylvania Railroad’s summit across the Eastern Continental Divide 2,167 feet above sea level and lets eastbound crews know half the journey over the mountains is complete before they enter Portage Tunnel and into “The Slide” and down the mountain.

B&O IN STAUNTON

CSX train Q137 passes by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 1891 station in Brunswick, MD designed by famed architect E. Francis Baldwin.

A trio of BNSF motors lead intemodal train 201 passes a local cemetery in Pennsylvania’s Cumberland Valley near Shippensburg on the Norfolk Southern Lurgan Branch in Walnut Bottom.

An almost daily occurrence when the Winchester and Western makes its run through town. This night was no different. Seen here at West John Street a couple hundred feet south of the CVRR station as the horn and roar of the engines brings traffic to a halt.

Train 86 passes through the northern parts of Martinsburg, WV in the last light of the day. The train has already interchanged with NS in Hagerstown, MD and switched some cars around at Berkeley Station Siding in order to make their CSX drop off in town a little easier.

Passengers await to board their train to Baltimore on the Northern Central Railroad at New Freedom, PA but first are detained by a Union soldier while a crew member keeping time looks on. Part of the venture’s second annual railfan day was this night charter with lighting provided by Steve Barry.

CORNING PLANT

A TRAIN’S A COMIN’: Norfolk Southern westbound train is about to come around the curve as it makes the dash for Allegheny Tunnel, Gallitzin, PA and the summit.

H28.1 Norfolk Southern Allentown, PA to Birmingham, AL manifest train 15T helps create this scene at Charles Town, WV on the former Norfolk and Western Valley Line that will soon be altered. The Color Position Light Signal will soon be replaced and perhaps along with it, the code line you see to the right as NS readies the railroad for PTC implementation and signal upgrades.

GLINT IN THE NIGHT

The former Baltimore and Ohio Valley Line, from Harpers Ferry to Strasburg passes along the floor of the Shenandoah. In Charles Town the line crosses the former Norfolk and Western at grade and is protected by CPL signals on all sides. On this night a westbound grain train for Winchester approaches the crossing and illuminates the air and silhouettes the trees and signal in its waning days of service. The signal pictured is historically operated and maintained by the N&W and NS, who used Union Switch & Signal appliances (as opposed to B&O’s “General Railway Signal” wares. These are probably the last surviving examples of US&S ‘Color Position Light’ signals in the USA (Washington Union Terminal Co. still had a few). They replaced lower-quadrant semaphore signals here as early as the 1920s.

Disregard the modern street signs and the out of place Wrigley’s ad and you can venture back to the American Civil War as a night passenger run rolls into Glen Rock, PA to pick up a few passengers as Union soldiers guard the train and her passengers. Part of the venture’s second annual railfan day was this night charter with lighting provided by Steve Barry.

GETTYSBURG, PA – Commanding the Union 1st Division of the First Corps during the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 was Major General James Wadsworth. This scene was captured on a recent evening at sunset. The monument depicts Wadsworth directing troops in defense of the railroad cut west of town. The General was mortally wounded during the Battle of the Wilderness in May, 1864.

HUNT TOWER

RELIVED GEEP

LIT UP LIKE DAYLIGHT: Q370 rolls under the B&O Color Position Light Signal Bridge at Great Cacapon, WV on Friday January 6, 2012. Thanks to Sean Hoyden for letting me have a try at this using his equipment

YARD VIEW

Posed under the ex B&O mainline between Philly and Baltimore at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum along Falls Road sits Brill 6119 From the BSM website “One of 150 “Baltimore” cars ordered by the United Railways and Electric Company These cars are called Peter Witt cars after the transit designer who promoted the front entrance, center exit car with a conductor’s station located just forward of the center doors…This allowed fast loading of passengers during rush hours. Due to the Great Depression economies, all the Witts were converted to one-man cars. The total order of Baltimore Witts was 150, 100 from J.G. Brill and the balance from the Cincinatti Car Company. Car 6119 was built by Brill. Restored during the 1980’s, this car design was used to collect data used in designing the PCC. Although designed as a two-man car, it served its entire life in Baltimore as a one-man car.”

30 stars decorate the cab of Pennsylvania and Southern Railroad SW7 #17 with 15 on each side to honor those American servicemen that perished in the 2011 Extortion 17 Chinook helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

GOOD FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHT: Norfolk Southern train 202 races by the village of Brandtsville, Pa on the former Reading Lurgan as it races towards Harrisburg just after sunset on Good Friday 2014.

A loaded coal train destined for the port of Baltimore passes under this classic Pennsylvania Railroad signal bridge at Summerhill, PA just after midnight on February 20, 2017.

CSX YARD

DORMANT TIMES

35Q moves high above the Potomac River on the Norfolk Southern H Line during a frigid winter sunrise.

H28.3 Charles Town, WV

H22.7 NS 994619

GENERAL OFFICES

Built in November of 1959, 752 an ex-Conrail 7527, PC 7527, NYC 5972 continues to be a work horse on the Winchester and Western roster in the Virginia Division. This and an assortment of other first generation EMD’s engines along with a few later models grind their way up and down the rails. Weak and Weary no more!

October 29, 2016 saw another NS heritage unit leading a train through the area. Here is NS 8102 the “Pennsylvania Railroad” leading 36Q by the N&W Depot in Boyce, VA just shortly before 11pm.

HERSHEY HISTORY: Sitting on a spot of history where chocolate was made for over 100 years. The Hershey Chocolate, a staple from the area and helped develop the confection to the country once stood at this spot beginning in 1903 and built into sections. Now, torn down in 2013, the land is bare minus a section renovated into commercial office space and the iconic smoke stacks and power plant as seen here. A new facility was finished in late 2012 west of town and has taken on the duties once performed here.

WAITING ON A CREW:

A 3000 series CSX locomotive is parked along a local road in Brunswick, MD which allowed me to painted the Boxcar Logo using a spotlight aimed at the ground to diffuse the light.

H16.8 DIVERGING APPROACH

CORNING YARD

NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE: Kansas City, MO that is… Cutting though the light drizzle and thick fog in South Central PA on the Norfolk Southern Lurgan Branch is “Belle” Kansas City Southern 4765 on NS intermodal 204 as it makes it’s way to Harrisburg and the Rutherford Terminal. Many thanks to Sean Hoyden for the use of his lighting equipment.

ALL THAT SHIMMERS IS GOLD

DUSK AT HOBBS

SNOW LIGHT: A westbound train is about to exit the Gallitzin Tunnel and lights up the inside liner, heavy moisture in the air and the blowing snow.

H22.7 LOOK GOOD ON THE MARKER

ORBISONIA STATION

OVERALL, VA – Along Route 340 between Front Royal and Luray, VA in the Shenandoah Valley at the Warren and Page County lines is a trestle where the former Shenandoah Valley, Norfolk and Western Valley Line crosses over Overall Run. Here at 5:30am NS 15T with an Illinois Central leader flies overhead. Lighting provided by Sean Hoyden.

W&W NEW YEAR’S LULLABY: Holding down the fort during the 2015 New Year’s holiday are an assortment of power in Corning Yard. On the left is GP9 403 (not pictured), GP10 752 and GP9 709. On the right are the newer GP38s 2196, 2689 and 2182 under a moonlit sky.

CEMENT PLANT RUINS: Nestled just west of Hancock on the former B&O “East End” (today’s Cumberland Sub) stand the ruins of an industry long gone near Grasshopper Hollow.

STEEL ROAD TO THE STARS

H46.2 A northbound lights up the right of way as the Lady in White, the Boyce Norfolk and Western Depot stands ready to greet it. 2013 marks the buildings 100th birthday and a cookout and slideshow presentation was held earlier to celebrate.

FOGGY APPROACH

THE LAW

The Dunkard Church at Antietam witnessed some of the most vicious fighting of the American Civil War on the morning of September 17th 1862. Today it sits quietly as it did before that terrible day but this time as a reminder of the battle fought in America’s bloodiest day.

eastbound train passes by the roundhouse and station complex

WINCHESTER AND WESTERN AFTER DARK

Women are from Venus, Men are From Mars and the cow jumped over the Moon. February, 2015

RAILS ON FIRE

CACAPON GETAWAY

H34, NS LURGAN BRANCH, MASON DIXON LINE