North Platte or Bust: Part 12, Finale

FRIDAY AUGUST 17, 2012

Our last overnight stop was to stay in the Elkhorn Inn in Landgraff, WV.  It was a bit off the beaten path but it came highly recommended by "The Wheelman".  We were not disappointed.  The main trick for us was crossing West Virginia on US 52.  We were approaching from the west, which allowed us to really sample a variety of the states roads.  We veered off the road now and then to see rail activity in such N&W railroad towns as Williamson, Jaeger and Bluefield.  The area was worthy of more attention than we could give at the moment.  Unfortunately, lighting was fading and good camera access was challenging as we headed east. 

From the Elkhorn Inn, Landgraff, WV

Elkhorn Inn, Landgraff, WV

"Short range sensors"(GPS; Star Trek reference) constantly showed us squiggly lines representing roads that made US 52 look pretty good, that is, when it showed anything other than our road.  This was an area that made me think of towns in Maine like Rumford, Livermore Falls or Millinocket, which are prosperous by comparison.  The Wheelman concurs that Newcastle, PA also comes to mind.  Abandoned buildings and blight were mixed in with the homes of people hanging on somehow.  Statistically the same amount or more of coal is moving, but technology has made manpower to produce it less necessary.  It's also true that in this part of the world, if there is any flat ground, the railroad got there first.  Roads, building plots and sometimes even streams, had to be carved out of the hillsides.  Industry got what level land there was so any that happened to be leftover had houses. 

Elkhorn Inn, Landgraff, WV

The Elkhorn Inn is a restored coal company boarding house and entertainment hall.  The owners have taken it from a wrecked shell and turned it into a small hotel.  It is perfectly located for the rail

Elkhorn Inn, Landgraff, WV

enthusiast.  You are right across the street from the old Norfolk and Western mainline.  You cannot miss any train that goes by.  Charles and I were the only guests, so they gave us two single rooms with the best view of the tracks for our stay.  There was a balcony we could survey the tracks from or you could wander out to the tracks.  I tried both.  A computer with ATCS gave us some warning that traffic was near.  It appears that they have a receiver that gets signals several miles each way in the valleys.

Elkhorn Inn, Landgraff, WV

Elkhorn Inn, Landgraff, WV

I was intrigued by the many old N&W color position signals that were still in place.  Some were located a bit west of us.  I found that I could pull them in a bit with a telephoto.  It was just a matter of time before I had a train running under them.  ATCS helped.

Elkhorn Inn, Landgraff, WV

When I came back to check ATCS and shoot the breeze with Dan the owner, I saw yet another train coming.  This one happened to be a

Elkhorn Inn, Landgraff, WV

local.  It also had a caboose!  As it turned out, old cabooses are common in this part of the world in order to give a train a "pushing platform" for back up moves.  A crewman can hang out back there and keep in touch by radio with the locomotive.  I suspect it doesn't hurt to have the shelter and a place to work in this relatively isolated part of the world.  This particular caboose looks like it hasn't changed much since the old NW logo was applied to the side originally.  However, it did appear that the numbering crew had a rough day applying new painted numbers.  This caboose also appears to have missed the usual "sterilization" that "riding cars" usually get in the form of removing windows, ladders and appliances. 

Elkhorn Inn, Landgraff, WV

Bluefield, WV

Around 11am or so Charles and I decided to move on.  We had had a blast chatting with the owners and watching trains but we had a long drive ahead.

Research Locomotive

  We bought some things from the gift shop and said our goodbyes.  Bluefield was down the road about 20-30 minutes.  We got lucky and found a geometry train parked at the depot, across from the locomotive shop.  There was an experimental research locomotive in the middle of the set. 

Bluefield, WV

Roanoke, VA

Once we left Bluefield, it wasn't long before we found four-lane highways again and made our way back to the Interstate Highway System.  Our route took us through Roanoke so we figured we'd detour in for a quick look at the Virginia Museum of Transportation.  The bulk of the museum is

Roanoke, VA

indoors and under cover but a few things were visible outdoors.  We could see some cool stuff as we drove over a bridge next to the museum.  Outdoors at the far end of the former warehouse we found a few good items, including the latest steamer to arrive for restoration. 

Roanoke, VA

There was an active yard next to the museum yard and just beyond the steamer we could see a few more of those cabeese.  Next to this area we could see some interesting and large locomotives from the past.  The place was full of stuff I'd like a closer look at someday.




The weather turned rainy as we moved north.  It was dark, gloomy and damp the rest of the way to Mohnton, PA.  But we got there in good shape, if kinda late.  But we had just finished a pretty good adventure.  We arrived in the middle of a power outage, but apparently it was being worked on because power came back about the time I was climbing into bed.  The fan was a great relief.



SATURDAY AUGUST 18, 2012

In the morning we cleared out the car and I said goodbye.  I was headed to my brother's new home

Ellicott City, MD

near Ellicott City outside of Baltimore.  His furniture hadn't arrived yet, but they had painting and such to do. 

Ellicott City, MD

I tried to make myself useful.  As the afternoon wore on we headed downtown to the old part of the city.  The B&O Museum in Baltimore has an annex at the Ellicott City station because it is the oldest depot building in the country and is located on the original mainline.

A Civil War reinactors group was encamped at the depot so there were people in period clothing wandering about and playing their parts.  This would explain some of the extra decoration too.

Ellicott City, MD

I found this depot area interesting because, as I read earlier, a lot of the design and architecture

Ellicott City, MD

was new at the time it was built.  No one had built a depot before and the bridge designs in the area were ground breaking engineering.  Thus, everything here was quickly surpassed by the thousands of other designs around the country to follow.  Leading edge.

Ellicott City, MD

Ellicott City, MD

These last two photos are pretty mundane.  I wanted a picture of the clock with the bridge in the background.  I also stuck my mini-camera through the fence to show the track in front the station.  I probably would have forgotten about the shots except for a tragic derailment on the following Monday night.  It took place on this piece of track and involved the same bridge in the background. 
A Baltimore Sun Article
I didn't know about the derailment when I got home on Monday night.  News hit Maine on Tuesday.




I was pretty much worn out from so much traveling when I got home finally.  5600 miles over 18 days was the final tally for me.  Suffice it to say, I vegetated for a couple of days afterward.  I spent quality time with my computer editing photos but it took a while to begin this report.  No one could have asked for better weather, better friends and better locales for this trip.  Charles and I will have some good war stories to tell for years to come.

BC

Annual Accidental Railfanning

Every Memorial Day Weekend since 2008 my speech and debate team has traveled to a national tournament in some major city where time to chase trains was non-existent.  I've also managed to find something rail related despite the odds each time.  Here are a few photos from this year's trip to Baltimore.

Here is the team's first encounter with the light rail system.  We would ride from the Timonium (Maryland Fair Grounds) station to the downtown Convention Center station three times.  Each trip had its own adventures involved.

Next to the Convention Center stop is the Hilton Hotel Baltimore where our tournament was headquartered.  Next to that was Camden Yards ballpark and the former Camden Station. 

I was somewhat surprised at what was left of the old B&O around the ballpark.  The massive warehouse building still dominates the skyline of the ballpark.  It appears that the building is being restored for various commercial applications. 

We happened to be in town when
Camden Station was being restored.  That meant staging all over the place around the front of the building.   The back side was open as part of a museum complex featuring sports and local subjects.

The lower photo shows the two buildings together.  The very end of the warehouse, under the awning is the Orioles ticket offices where we bought our tickets to see them play against Kansas City that night.  (KC lost 8-2 Orioles)


A brief lull in the day's action meant I could hang out at the station with one of my team members and take a ride south.  I didn't take many photos but I saw a few sights.

Catching a couple of passing light rail trains was about as good as it got in that place.  These two didn't have the obnoxious plastic wrap advertisements that some cars had.


Late in the evening at the ball game.  I had to grab a shot or two of the ballpark interior to show the links to the railroad history here.


The warehouse is seen past the outfield.  At this particular angle the top of the Camden Station can be seen.

At the Timonium Station this historical marker notes that this piece of line was originally the Baltimore and Susquehanna, built on iron rail with marble sleepers.  It later became the Northern Central line to Buffalo and later an important part of the Pennsylvania RR.  I think Conrail did away with the line.  It used to be big time PRR commuter rail territory and a vital passenger link to Baltimore.

On Saturday night we were at the Hilton for a late night party which gave me the time to use the skyways by the light rail station at Convention Center.  The shots aren't great but not terrible for just pointing and shooting.

I did play with the aperture override to get the station.  It was washing out in the light.  The lights on the far right are from the ballpark.



Back at Timonium on Sunday.  Trains don't begin running until about 11am so I actually had time to shoot these bicycle lockers.  I didn't examine them to see how they were used.  Timonium was the temporary end of the line while repairs were made north to Hunt Valley.  The bus loop was filled with shuttles that rode in circles to the remaining stations on the light rail system. 


Somewhere around Timonium station was this sign describing the marble ties originally used by the B&S.  Many were quarried in Cockeysville, where our motel was located.  The ties were simply buried by subsequent layers of ballast.

I returned to the skyway to see what I could see.  Some of that was the artery of light rail heading north.


Our tours included the World Trade Center of Baltimore.  The top floor is an awesome observation deck.  Well worth the $5 elevator ride.   Aside from being able to spot old stations, the B&O museum and port facilities, there are signs describing many of the things you see.  There was even an N scale model of a container facility.

My last photo was something that semi-surprised me.  I knew Baltimore was more or less a southern sympathizing city during the Civil War.  What I'd long forgotten was that the first bloodshed of the war was caused when some Union soldiers got off the train at one station and marched to Camden Station.  The good citizens of Baltimore didn't like that and started antagonizing the soldiers.  Four days of bloodshed followed.  I suppose that's a bit more trouble than getting between North and South Station in Boston.


Who says I can't find railroad content in a purely school activity!

BC