15_the_circle | Sunday: linking North and South - a day out on the RF&P (Reply)

[OT from cottage renovations]
[some images crossposted to texture]

when the estimable Mr. Frailey declared that his spirits would be lifted by a day out along the RF&P and that he wouldn't mind company for the venture, I jumped at the chance to tag along.

brief history

the RF&P -- Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad -- was an oddity not so much in actually connecting its eponymous cities and river as in its status as a neutral bridge carrier owned by its connections at both ends. with roughly a hundred miles of main line it brought freight and passenger traffic up from the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air Line to the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Baltimore & Ohio. with charter protection against competition it efficiently handled movements for its owners who were at once rivals and joint venturers -- an arrangement similar in many ways to the satellite company where I spent so many years.

but I never spent any time out along the RF&P and my understanding of its presence encompassed the river crossing at Long Bridge and Potomac Yards but then faded to near nothing somewhere along the climb up Franconia Hill. it was, after all, so solid and reliable and it was always going to be there.

as the industry consolidated its owners merged into each other, and as land use patterns in Northern Virginia changed the value of its real estate holdings incurred an opportunity cost that became compelling, and suddenly it wasn't there any more. though it's been years since the RF&P was absorbed into CSX, its personality lingers on at least in part.

today

my shortcomings in giving the RF&P its due were more than compensated for by the diligence of Mr. Frailey, and his kindness in sharing his extensive knowledge made for a fine day out indeed. starting from the N we followed the line down to Doswell and then back again, and by monitoring the railroad's voice radio we managed, with a single exception, to see every train that was out on the line. the ATCS Monitor was an excellent predictive tool for over-the-horizon movements from the North but the control system for that part of the railroad communicates via [insert a string of nasty adjectives here] optical fibre cable - no way to pick that up with data radio.

traffic

the mix of traffic on the RF&P is different from what we see here in the Grove. for starters there are a lot more passenger trains: the RF&P is an extension of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and hosts plenty of regional trains as well as long distance trains to Florida and the Auto Train. there's lots of freight: rather than our many coal trains it hosts an abundance of hot intermodals (trailers and containers), a unit train dedicated to orange juice, and a high volume of garbage shipped from New York, New Jersey and Maryland to landfills in Virginia. some of the trash (the marketing folks prefer the euphemistic term "municipal solid waste") moves in unit trains but the mixed manifest trains all have hefty blocks of it.

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

Neabsco Creek

the canonical view of the Neabsco Creek trestle is that of trains in profile, silhouetted against the sky. but up at track level there are different elements that catch the eye.

guard rails (the extra set between the running rails, tapering inwards at the ends) have fallen out of favour with the industry for some years now but can still be found here. look carefully and you'll also see some rather abrupt vertical curvature at the far end of the span, as well as a slow order for the track to the right (it starts with the yellow paddle marker and ends with a green one, barely visible on the other side).

between Powell's Creek and Possum Point

this stretch of track runs right along the Potomac and there's a riverside crab shack.

these crab pots give the impression that they take freshness seriously, but we didn't stay to investigate.

a couple of minutes later this northbound passenger train emerged from the morning mist.

between Brooke and Daffan

a southbound passenger train was headed our way and the grade crossing for Mt. Hope Church Road provided an excellent vantage point. but before it turned up I found myself looking down

leaf litter

at this found composition.

and then, of course, the train came, its pose accentuated by the track's sweeping curve.

we then moved down to the Eskimo Hill Road overpass where this southbound freight train was passing its disabled northbound counterpart.

this picture, if you click through
to the higher resolution image,
does a better job of catching the
detail of catwalk shadow across
the locomotive's nose

there's nothing like a G.E. locomotive for emitting gouts of oily smoke.

horizontal lines predominate the tops of both trains' blocks of trash containers (empties on the L, loads on the R) glinting in the morning sun.

lots of vertical going on here: the containers' ribbed sides, the stakes for securing poles and the trusswork of the centre beam flatcars.

the stopped freight train had a mechanical malfunction with its 110^th car. dealing with it took the crew and the dispatchers the rest of the day.

Daffan VA

southbound intermodal freight Q173 came roaring past, its first few cars on the span over Potomac Run.

Q173

once again there's a speed restriction on the track to the R where it crosses a bridge. visible in the distance is the tail end of the same stopped freight from before.

decorating the edge of the right of way nearby was this stack of ties, its plates and spikes so new they haven't had a chance to weather from foundry blue/grey.

tie plates, spikes, ties

Woodford VA

this old depot dozes in the afternoon sun while another southbound freight passes by with the inevitable block of trash containers.

a careful look at the foreground shows how soggy the ground was; by stepping from one tuft to another it was possible to remain dry shod.

Guinea VA

second only to Robert E. Lee in the Confederate pantheon is Stonewall Jackson; the spot nearby where he died is a shrine with a marker informing the visitor that his remains were buried elsewhere, in Lexington VA.

Guinea Station also has a concrete loading ramp said to be retained for the convenience of nearby Fort A.P. Hill. one never knows when it might be useful to drive something onto or off from a flatcar though from the look of things it's been a while since there's been any call for it. the siding leading to it has a runaround track, slumbering the afternoon away in rusty disuse.

the sides of the ramp are reinforced with cut sections of old rail.

the ramp provided a handy vantage point for observing the passage of Q401, a train out of Cumberland that had passed the Grove earlier in the day, seen first in the distance, framed by the grade crossing signal:

and then in a more conventional view.

Brooke VA

there's a little country store in Brooke, right across from this simple bridge. with a southbound passenger train due I pointed but there wasn't a click -- camera balk, sometimes it happens. that wasn't too much of a problem, though, as another one came along behind it a few minutes later and, well, you know, they all look alike anyway.

take 2

we then went up to the commuter station platform to watch two more passenger trains: the southbound Auto Train (not shown) and the northbound Palmetto, up from Jacksonville.

coming back up Interstate 95 we ended up pacing this train as it crossed the Occoquan Creek bridge, a fitting end to the day.

Sunday: linking North and South - a day out on the RF&P