Eastern Railroad Discussion > No longer in Baltimore...

I started becoming a frequent visitor to the mid-Atlantic region about five years ago.  Most of my trips had me flying into BWI, and I made a habit of booking the return flights later in the day so I could spend the mornings railfanning.  Since I didn't have a TO membership at the time, most of what I found was based on google maps and luck.

1 - With just an hour or two to burn before flight time one Nov 2011 morning, I decided to check out a small CSX yard that was nearby.  And found it occupied by...WLE?  What on earth?  I knew they didn't have tracks here; I had no idea they had any trackage rights or run-through arrangements.  Score one for luck!

2 - The landlord made its presence known as well.

3 - On another visit the next month, with a little more time to spare, I headed out to the steel mill at Sparrow's Point and found an SW1500 working amid a sea of coiled steel.  I came across another WLE train that same day (not pictured) and started to get my hopes up that I'd cross paths with their Rio Grande tunnel motors at some point.  But it was not to be...after those two, I never saw another WLE train there again.

Fast forward to 2014, I finally got around to returning to Sparrow's Point...and found the mill in the process of being demolished.  D'oh!  A search of the internet to find out what happened also revealed that the mill was the destination of the WLE trains, so their disappearance was also explained.

Guess it was good while it lasted.

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Nice photos. The trains with the W&LE power were joint efforts by W&LE and CSX. The Wheeling handed the trains, complete with run thru power, off at Connellsville, PA. CSX crews handled the trains between Connellsvile and Baltimore and return.

That is a lot of steel in Pic 3.......

CSX granted N&W haulage rights from Connelsville to Baltimore as part of the WM abandonment.  These rights were transferred to W&LE