The VRE will also be building its own yard on the east side of the NEC north of Union Station because Amtrak wants the Ivy City yard for more long-distance trains. The only reason I bother to mention it is that at the north end of the proposed yard, there would be a brand new turntable, which is a bit unusual in the 21st century.

That’s something I had in mind on my next visit to Washington D.C. a train trip to Baltimore to visit the B&O Railroad Museum. And back. However I plan to make it Amtrak all the way. Regional one way. Acela another way.

Thanks, Roving Railfan! I lived in DC 27 years and it was cool to see old train spots. At 16:00 , the building with the odd curved roof, formerly Washington Coliseum, was the site of THE BEATLES first US concert in February, 1964, days after their first ED SULLIVAN SHOW appearance.

Sometimes, I see marc cars on the csx Pittsburgh division on the end of the train

Thank you, Austin. I spent a year in Charm City integrating a fleet of new locomotives into MARC's motive power pool. Got to spend a lot of time on the Penn and Camden Lines.

Good morning, I wish I had known you were planning to visit my city. I would have bought you lunch. Would have enjoyed talking trains with you

A trivia note here: that arched roof building at 16:00 minutes is the old Uline Arena where the Beatles played after taking the train (Pennsylvania Railroad) down from New York City from their performance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

@paulw.woodring7304

7 ай бұрын

Beat me to it. I would add that that entire area has changed drastically in the past 20 years. When I went to work for Amtrak in DC In on-board service in the mid-'80s people were told not to wander northeast of the station, it was a bad area, and they meant it. I rented a parking space at the REA Building for several years (the open lot just before the train enters the platforms), and drove to and from work that way. Not somewhere I wanted to walk around late at night after getting off a long trip. TRR's Acela train arrived on Track 20, the last upstairs track. 21 no longer exists and the downstairs tracks are 22-30. 22, 29 & 30 were not passenger accessible when I was there, they were for either temporary equipment storage or motive power runaround/waiting tracks. It looks like they may have made 22 a platform track since then.

Been almost 18 years since I've been North of DC on the NEC and all three times it was dark. The Superliner cars that were at the station were powered from the wrong end for the run of the Capitol Limited. Only time I have ridden in one of those was when on the Auto-Train or one trip on the Cardinal. If they decided to send the Cardinal out with those cars, the locos would have been on the right end. That has happened before when one of the sets of equipment wasn't ready. But as this was late in the day, the Cardinal would have already left town. One trip out of DC we were part of an equipment move. Weirdest train you ever saw as it had regular Amtrak and Coaster locos, regular Amtrak cars and Superliners, us in the oldest Budd built car allowed to operate on Amtrak, the Coaster cars, Amtrak express cars, and a heavyweight obs on the tail end. Obs got dropped in Pittsburgh. We got dropped off in Chicago. The other equipment got sent out on the run to Denver. An Amtrak engineer or conductor made the comment that our train looked like the circus was leaving town as we left DC.

@robertwallace6868

7 ай бұрын

??? nothing wrong with the placement of the engines on the Capitol Limited. The train had recently come in from Chicago, on the east end of the train, not Chicago bound, where the engines would be on the west end of the train.

I've been here since the Brightline content first started, and I absolutely love how outside of the railfan box you've gone! I also appreciate you sharing when you go to specific locations to trainspot. I tried out the bridge just past Crystal City and it was lovely!!

@RoamingRailfan

5 ай бұрын

Funnily enough, these were the types of videos I was making pre-Brightline and Brightline Construction was only going to be a one off video

Great video! The B&P tunnel is in bad shape, I think it's restricted to 35 mph. I bet Amtrak can't wait for the new FD tunnels. Never been though there on the Acela, only regionals, twice on MARC and once the Metroliner as a kid. One time I had a view out the back of the MARC bi-level which was pretty cool. The waiting room of Baltimore Penn Station is nice to see. Time permitting, light rail runs from Penn up to Hunt Valley Towne Centre were you can get an LRT ride and something to eat. Southbound it goes to BWI airport, through downtown, and past MARC's Camden (Yards) station. I wouldn't take the LRT south at night. I did ONCE returning from a hotel convention. Had to wait a while for the shuttle to Penn station.

Appreciate your coverage of the Ivy City Yard. This is where I caught my first glimpse of the ACS-64s before they were activated for revenue service.

If you had ended with "Thanks for Washington" I wonder how many would have noticed.

You went to Baltimore ON PURPOSE?! 😮

@RoamingRailfan

7 ай бұрын

Yes and I know I will again

What's with all the deserted buildings during this stretch 10:16 - 11:22

@RoamingRailfan

7 ай бұрын

A combination of just being a run down area Baltimore and potentially some being bought out in advance of the tunnel work.