Today we relocated from Cumberland MD to Fredericksburg Virginia, calling in to Hagerstown, Point of Rocks and Alexandria on the way.
I set the SATNAV to avoid toll roads, so it theoretically took a bit longer.
Hagerstown was an unknown to me, and since it was 'just down the road' from Cumberland, I was reluctant to spend any great deal of time here (I don't like the idea of spending an entire day railfanning in one place when you've still got a 4 hour drive to get to your final destination). I had three targets lined up, all within walking distance of each other:
- The CSX yard had excellent photo opportunities to increase my 'roster shots' as all the locos were shut down and pointing towards me. I managed to get a few without trespassing.
- Next door is the museum where I managed to take quite a few shots of old ugly stuff.
- And lastly, the model train shop which should have been open but wasn't - he was supposed to open at 9am on a Saturday but was still closed at 9:45 - his loss, my saving.
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| CSX6540 - re-furbished GP40-3 - the intent was probably good, but the new cab design is mighty ugly. |
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| WM132 - restored Baldwin VO1000 - museum piece. |
Next stop was Point of Rocks - I was going to call into Harpers Ferry but for reasons unknown, decided against it. POR produced one CSX freight and a light loco move then lots of nothing.
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| CitiRail CREX 1515 ES44AC leads a CSX freight through Point of Rocks. |
I plugged in the address to the hotel at Fredericksburg and realised that the driving time was going to be almost 2 hours and that this needed to be broken in two, so we re-directed to the Amtrak station at Alexandria, an old haunt of mine from 2003. Amtrak traffic was good, CSX not so good - only two freights passed through, however it was an ideal environment - sitting on the grass, shoes off, overcast and warm. I forgot to take photos as I was concentrating on video only - the trains turned up almost unannounced.
The drive 'home' was awfully slow - I95 was jammed up and we spent a long time doing only 20 mph - lots of fender benders witnessed, but the apparent cause of the jam was just poor design at one particular interchange. Once we got past that point traffic was free flowing again.
Dinner at Ihop - where we froze to death sitting under the aircon outlet - food was good (I ate Lloyds broccoli - yes, really), service was mediocre - probably due to an ineffective and hovering manager - I watch Bar Rescue so I know about this stuff...
As for the Super 8 in Fredericksburg - not recommended, and to think we're staying 2 nights here.
Tired as. Tomorrow we go exploring. Hmmmm.
EJ
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