I spent my high school years in a Montgomery County suburb of Washington, DC, and I was always fascinated by the Georgetown Branch, which crossed River Road at grade and ran into Georgetown beside the C&O Canal. In my high school years (1967-71), usual power was an F-M H12-44 with a horn that sounded like a ruptured duck. The train usually had anywhere from a handful of cars to 15 or 20 (in the winter, when the GSA steam plant in Georgetown was taking coal deliveries), and always a B&O bay window metal caboose.
When I started working at AAR in 1977, I decided a good use of my time would be some "familiarization" rides on the head ends of freight and passenger trains. In my position, this was easy to arrange (I worked directly for the AAR's president). I rode an E60 to New York on Amtrak, a GP40 from Pot Yard to Philadelphia on NE84 (B&O manifest), and of course, I rode the Georgetown Branch.
The F-M locomotive was gone by 1977, replaced by a high-hood GP9. I remember the exhortation on the cab wall, "This is your office! Keep it clean!" It seemed offensive to me even at the age of 24. In any case, I boarded with the head-end crew at Eckington Yard north of Union Station (now vanished except for a few random ties and piles of ballast). We put the train together, including about a dozen loaded coal hoppers for the GSA plant, and were on our way. With the train we had, it was a tough climb to Georgetown Junction. Even in notch 8 we couldn't make track speed. At the junction, the operator headed us down the branch (the junction was, I think, run from QN Tower). From that point it was 10 MPH into Georgetown, and even slower across the wood trestle in Rock Creek Park. In the 1970s the line was bucolic, even though it ran through developed suburbs. We crossed the Chevy Chase Country Club golf course, flagged the road crossing at Connecticut Ave., eased through the tunnel under Wisconsin Ave. in Bethesda, and flagged the crossing at River Road (even though it did have flashers). From that point to the river, the line was pretty well back in the woods. It crossed Massachusetts Ave. on a handsome brick bridge, went through a short brick-lined tunnel near Dalecarlia Reservoir, and then curved down the bluffs to the C&O Canal. Our engineer made a big brake set to hold speed to 10 MPH, and flanges squealed as we curved down the bluffs and then rumbled across the double truss bridge over Canal Road and the canal itself. Soon we were right next to the towpath, where we stayed for a couple of miles into Georgetown.
Approaching Key Bridge, the track dropped below the level of the canal, and ended up in the middle of K Street, underneath the elevated Whitehurst Freeway. The track was on the south side of the street, so going into Georgetown we were on the "right" side of the road, but coming back out we would be running against traffic. The head brakeman told a funny story about an old man who, angered by the sight of the train on the wrong side of the road, honked his horn, flashed his lights, and finally simply drove head-on into the engine (because it refused to move to the "right" side of the street).
The branch ended in a small yard adjacent to the GSA steam plant. We shuffled cars around, spotted some of the coal hoppers at GSA, and put together empties and loads to take back to Eckington. I decided to ride in the caboose on the way back, since it was (properly) on the end of the train. Crews had no radios at that time on B&O, so the conductor told the engineer he'd like to "go to beans" on the return trip, at a place just short of River Road.
Back up the bluffs we climbed, I enjoying the view off the back platform of the caboose. We came to River Road, and the engineer slowed to let the head-end brakeman flag the crossing but showed no indication of stopping, so the conductor dumped the air from the caboose. We then dismounted and walked into the Roy Rogers restaurant next to the track to get lunch. It remains the only time I took a train to a fast food restaurant.
After lunch, I got back on the head end. We had a leaking air hose somewhere, and the engineer had to keep the engine in about notch four to keep pressure up in the trainline. This became a problem after we got back on the main at Georgetown Junction, since it was all downhill to Eckington. At one point, the brakes bled on and we came to a stop. But we eventually got the train back in the yard, and so ended my trip on the Georgetown Branch.
When I started working at AAR in 1977, I decided a good use of my time would be some "familiarization" rides on the head ends of freight and passenger trains. In my position, this was easy to arrange (I worked directly for the AAR's president). I rode an E60 to New York on Amtrak, a GP40 from Pot Yard to Philadelphia on NE84 (B&O manifest), and of course, I rode the Georgetown Branch.
The F-M locomotive was gone by 1977, replaced by a high-hood GP9. I remember the exhortation on the cab wall, "This is your office! Keep it clean!" It seemed offensive to me even at the age of 24. In any case, I boarded with the head-end crew at Eckington Yard north of Union Station (now vanished except for a few random ties and piles of ballast). We put the train together, including about a dozen loaded coal hoppers for the GSA plant, and were on our way. With the train we had, it was a tough climb to Georgetown Junction. Even in notch 8 we couldn't make track speed. At the junction, the operator headed us down the branch (the junction was, I think, run from QN Tower). From that point it was 10 MPH into Georgetown, and even slower across the wood trestle in Rock Creek Park. In the 1970s the line was bucolic, even though it ran through developed suburbs. We crossed the Chevy Chase Country Club golf course, flagged the road crossing at Connecticut Ave., eased through the tunnel under Wisconsin Ave. in Bethesda, and flagged the crossing at River Road (even though it did have flashers). From that point to the river, the line was pretty well back in the woods. It crossed Massachusetts Ave. on a handsome brick bridge, went through a short brick-lined tunnel near Dalecarlia Reservoir, and then curved down the bluffs to the C&O Canal. Our engineer made a big brake set to hold speed to 10 MPH, and flanges squealed as we curved down the bluffs and then rumbled across the double truss bridge over Canal Road and the canal itself. Soon we were right next to the towpath, where we stayed for a couple of miles into Georgetown.
Approaching Key Bridge, the track dropped below the level of the canal, and ended up in the middle of K Street, underneath the elevated Whitehurst Freeway. The track was on the south side of the street, so going into Georgetown we were on the "right" side of the road, but coming back out we would be running against traffic. The head brakeman told a funny story about an old man who, angered by the sight of the train on the wrong side of the road, honked his horn, flashed his lights, and finally simply drove head-on into the engine (because it refused to move to the "right" side of the street).
The branch ended in a small yard adjacent to the GSA steam plant. We shuffled cars around, spotted some of the coal hoppers at GSA, and put together empties and loads to take back to Eckington. I decided to ride in the caboose on the way back, since it was (properly) on the end of the train. Crews had no radios at that time on B&O, so the conductor told the engineer he'd like to "go to beans" on the return trip, at a place just short of River Road.
Back up the bluffs we climbed, I enjoying the view off the back platform of the caboose. We came to River Road, and the engineer slowed to let the head-end brakeman flag the crossing but showed no indication of stopping, so the conductor dumped the air from the caboose. We then dismounted and walked into the Roy Rogers restaurant next to the track to get lunch. It remains the only time I took a train to a fast food restaurant.
After lunch, I got back on the head end. We had a leaking air hose somewhere, and the engineer had to keep the engine in about notch four to keep pressure up in the trainline. This became a problem after we got back on the main at Georgetown Junction, since it was all downhill to Eckington. At one point, the brakes bled on and we came to a stop. But we eventually got the train back in the yard, and so ended my trip on the Georgetown Branch.
Randy Resor, aka "NellieBly" passed away on November 1, 2013. We honor his memory and his devotion to railroading at railroad.net.