CSX Capital Sub questions

Hey

First off the columbia branch that branchs off from the sub near Jessup Yard, is it still in use? Today I saw some railcars underneath the bridge on I-95.

Secondly how do I read the signals in St. Denis? The three rows of signals with three signals in each row.

When is the best time to watch trains in St. Denis, I've had luck on the weekends and around noon.
Lastly when I was in St.denis I noticed a GEVO sitting with what appeared to be sitting there on the siding on the OML, usally trains sitting there leave the lights on and such. But this train wasn't even sitting at the signal. and from the photo it looks like it has two cars behind it. I waited for about an hour, no luck, the train didn't even move. Maybe because the holiday?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21329050@N ... 6"%20/></a>

tjsingle wrote:Hey

First off the columbia branch that branchs off from the sub near Jessup Yard, is it still in use? Today I saw some railcars underneath the bridge on I-95.

It's been out of service for years. Older aerial photos show cars on a customer siding at Oakland Mills Road.

The boxcars under I-95 showed up just a few weeks ago. With the downturn in the economy railroads are storing cars. There's about a half mile string of boxcars there, and more gondolas just on the other side of Mission Road.

Presumably the branch hasn't been torn up just in case MARC decides to use it to serve a Columbia station someday.

interesting, I remeber about 7 years ago i saw a few boxcars down there. It would be nice to have some trains in columbia, only a 5 min drive from my house

At St Dennis, the signals are read vertically with each column being under of near it's respective rail.

Most of the time you will see all three solid red. If one changes color to any combination besides 3 solid red, a northbound train is coming.
http://www.railroad.net/forums/index.php
If the signals remain solid red for a long time, that indicates either nothing happening, or a southbound train coming.

Here's a page with all possible signal combinations:

http://www.trainweb.org/amtrakflorida/signal_apects.htm

St. Dennis is most active around the morning and evening rush hours. CSX will sometimes take tracks out of service for work during the mid-day, but will have to return them to service for MARC which starts around 3pm.

As for the Columbia branch, I think it would be a great option for MARC to expand service by running some trains to Columbia. If Marc is complaining that ridership is low on the Camden line, why not use the ROW that already exists. All Marc units are push-pull, so there's no issue with it being a stub end branch.

gprimr1 wrote:At St Dennis, the signals are read vertically with each column being under of near it's respective rail.

Most of the time you will see all three solid red. If one changes color to any combination besides 3 solid red, a northbound train is coming.
http://www.railroad.net/forums/index.php
If the signals remain solid red for a long time, that indicates either nothing happening, or a southbound train coming.

Here's a page with all possible signal combinations:

http://www.trainweb.org/amtrakflorida/signal_apects.htm

St. Dennis is most active around the morning and evening rush hours. CSX will sometimes take tracks out of service for work during the mid-day, but will have to return them to service for MARC which starts around 3pm.

As for the Columbia branch, I think it would be a great option for MARC to expand service by running some trains to Columbia. If Marc is complaining that ridership is low on the Camden line, why not use the ROW that already exists. All Marc units are push-pull, so there's no issue with it being a stub end branch.

It seems that the weekends are sometimes more active then during the work week

True, I was there one Saturday and saw 5 trains in a 2 hour period.

I've also spent 6 hours there and not seen a train on the weekend. It's all about luck, but at least on the week days, your guarenteed some MARC.

Except, they run engine first northbound, so the light is only good in the AM.