Railfanning MARC question

I am planning on doing some video along the NEC in Maryland sometime in March or April. My plan is to spend a weekday PM rush from about 3:30 to 6:30pm getting Amtrak and MARC action. I call upon those who know best down there: between Seabrook and Bowie, which would be a better station to be at? Or do you have some better ideas? I want to avoid New Carrollton and BWI stations.

Likewise, does anybody have suggestions for locations along the CSX Capital Sub for Camden trains?

Well if you want to go just north of BWI you get Halethorpe MARC station on the NEC with a low level platform and signals to the SOuth that are visible. A good place to go. From there St. Denis MARC is less than 2 mins away driving on the Camden Line/ Cap Sub. Between Bowie and Seabrook I might say Seabrook would be better with a longer straight-away, while Bowie is on a curve and SB's fly up on ya. Odenton next stop North of Bowie and south of BWI is a great spot with long platforms a station and plenty of good angles but it has curves on both ends which don't always help. The Bowie railroad museum is alos a cool vantage point and fun to check out, its trackside on the NEC adjacent to the Popes Creek wye.

A favorite spot of mine on the Cap Sub is Riverdale Park MARC Station. It has a a grade crossing (one of the few on the sub) and the platforms and staion but right up to it. You have B&O Signals to the visible South indicating any SB movements. Great spot, highly recommended. Also, the Hyattesville wye just south of Riverdale has plenty of good spots on all legs and trains tend to hit every leg while you're there, area can be sketchy at times though. This line has MARCs going both ways alike the NEC because there is a lot of commuting both ways between Baltimore and DC. Another nice station on the line is Dorsey and I mentioned St Denis already.

I am packing for a trip now so I wish I could help more, please ask any questions if you want to clarify.

Davis

Thanks for the info! I'm printing your post out so I can do some plotting for my trip in the spring.

http://suncalc.net/

Good tool if you plan to take pictures.

I don't much care for Halethorpe, the light angels are bad almost all year long and you have only a few good hours.

Washington DC, New Carlton, Baltimore Penn are all off limits because the tracks are located in areas you must have a ticket to access. BWI I think you can walk up to the tracks

gprimr1 wrote:Washington DC, New Carlton, Baltimore Penn are all off limits because the tracks are located in areas you must have a ticket to access. BWI I think you can walk up to the tracks

I can confirm that you can film at BWI without an issue (I have done so many times). Another benefit of BWI is both platforms are now completely opened to their 12 car length. DC there's not a chance of filming, Baltimore very small chance but not something I would count on. Contrarily New Carrollton I have found to be as easy to film at as BWI or any wayside point along the line. One of my earliest videos was at New Carrollton this summer. The walkway that runs perpendicular to the NEC and WMATA platforms underground has a hallway that branches off with escalators up to the platform, free to walk right up. I can say one annoying thing (especially for videos), which you can hear in my linked video is that there is a alarm/buzzer thing that rings when a train (usually non-stop) train is approaching. That can be best avoided by filming more towards the South end of the platform where i believe there aren't any buzzers but don't count on it.

Davis

Thanks again. I may avoid BWI only because I want to get Amtrak at speed through a station, but I may pick something at that end of the route so I can get to Riverdale Park fairly quickly...

Another vote for Riverdale Park. It's a great little spot that stays busy throughout the day and night. It's been years since I was there, but loved to go. Signals in each direction and lots of variety, considering.

Seabrook was my favorite spot on the NEC that close to DC. I visited each of the other NEC MARC stations and didn't like any of them as well as Seabrook. Plenty of sight lines, plenty of warning and lots of time to see the trains as they pass. Photo lines are decent as well. If I could spend one afternoon in the area, I'd go to Riverdale from lunch until about 4pm and then head over to Seabrook for the afternoon rush show.

You can also always head over to railpictures.net to see pictures from each spot, something I did a lot of trying to figure out where I wanted to go.

Thanks for the ideas, everybody!

Likely I will need to do two trips to the area anyway, so I'll do PM rush hours on both lines. Perhaps Riverdale Park and Seabrook for the win...

Riverdale is a pretty good spot as you can get trains heading off of the Alexandria Extension on the RF&P (most trains) and trains coming around the curve.
Seabrook is pretty good as well as you get alot of Regionals and Acelas going at speed and is some distance from New Carrollton. Also, bring a scanner (I carry mine with me all the time when I ride the Regional and MARC).

Seabrook and Bowie are both nice for MARC and Amtrak action.

I did a calculation (because I assume you don't want ugly backlit pictures) and you might get more shots at Seabrook. Also, last time I went to Bowie, there is a fallen tree that hangs on the chain link fence and gets in the way of good pictures if the train is on the left most track (facing north).

Personally, I'm partial to Odenton - here's some of the shots that I've gotten there:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=3919443 ... ton&m=text

Any suggestions for places to photograph MARC diesels and B&O CPLs, preferably in good light?

Deval wrote:Any suggestions for places to photograph MARC diesels and B&O CPLs, preferably in good light?

Dorsey and Greenbelt are the best. Riverdale can be as well.

gp40marc69 wrote:

Deval wrote:Any suggestions for places to photograph MARC diesels and B&O CPLs, preferably in good light?

Dorsey and Greenbelt are the best. Riverdale can be as well.

Dorsey's CPLs, except at the crack of dawn at the hight of summer near the solisice, will always be back or side lite.

Go on google maps, go up to Baltimore and look for Bush Street where it crosses the railroad. There's a hive of CPL's still standing there that can be photographed with proper light.