Passenger Trains > Train Time at Harpers Ferry

Harpers Ferry, W.Va., is quaint and historic little town that sits astride the ex-Baltimore & Ohio mainline between Cumberland, Md., and Washington/Baltimore. Given its location on the Potomac River where the Shenandoah River branches off, Harpers Ferry had strategic significance during the Civil War era.

The town is perhaps best known, historically, as the site of an ill-fated October 1859 raid by abolitionist John Brown upon the federal arsenal there. The raid was eventually quelled by federal troops led by Col. Robert E. Lee and Lt. J.E.B. Stuart, both of whom became key military leaders in the Confederate Army.

Brown was captured and hung after being convicted by the State of Virginia, of which Harpers Ferry was a part of at the time of the raid. He was hung in nearby Charles Town, now part of West Virginia.

Today, the National Park Service maintains a park dedicated to the history of the Brown raid along with the town's significance during the Civil War.

The B&O station is part of the Park and has been restored. Although not initially part of the Amtrak system when it began in 1971, Harpers Ferry has been a stop for many Amtrak trains including the Potomac Special, Shenandoah and, now, the Capitol Limited.

The B&O's commuter service to Martinsburg, W.Va., was not incorporated into Amtrak and today is operated by MARC, which operates three roundtrips on weekdays between Martinsburg and Washington, D.C.

On a late Wednesday afternoon, I was able to photograph the arrival and departure of Amtrak No. 29 from the deck of a private home with the permission of the homeowner.

The train arrived at 5:33 p.m., 17 minutes late, behind Amtrak Phase IV heritage unit No. 184. That was a pleasant surprise. Otherwise, the Capitol was its usual self with three coaches, Sightseer lounge, dining car, three sleepers (one of which houses the crew), baggage car and two P42 locomotives.

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Photos 4 and 5 are panoramic views of No. 29 sitting as passengers board. In the background of both photos at the upper right is the Potomac River.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/14 04:01 by SDP40F600.

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Photos 6 and 7 shows some close up views of two of the cars in the consist. In photo 6 some of the sleeping car passengers can be seen gazing out the windows of their upper level rooms. Photo 7 shows the Sightseer lounge.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/14 04:02 by SDP40F600.

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I'm glad to see that whoever is responsible for the rail-side platforms at the station has painted yellow warning lines on them since 2011:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,2595340,2595340#msg-2595340

Ray

Here is an interesting episode during the Civil War involving the B&O at Harpers Ferry (taken from Wikipedia)...

May 23, 1861 Raid

Colonel Jackson, gathering intelligence on freight passing on the line, determined that coal was being shipped in large quantities from the Ohio Valley to Union naval bases in Baltimore that were fueling U.S. Navy warships attempting to blockade the southern states. "During early May, dozens of heavy coal and freight trains were moving daily over the double-track line in the Harpers Ferry area."

About the middle of May Jackson then devised a covert plan to destroy B&O Railroad operations while simultaneously benefiting Virginia and possibly the Confederacy. Jackson complained to the B&O Railroad that the "noisy night railroad traffic" of the trains disturbed the rest of his troops, and notified John Garrett that trains would only be allowed to pass through Harpers Ferry at first only during daylight hours, but within a few days demanded a tighter timetable restriction between the hours of 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. in order to ensure their rest was not disturbed. Delagrange notes "He complained strongly that the trains were disturbing the rest of his tired troops at Harper’s Ferry. Garrett agreed to run as many trains as possible through around noon." Thus only two hours in the day, centered around noon, were allowed for train traffic through the Harpers Ferry area after the middle of May. This timetable bottleneck caused the B&O Railroad to pile up trains in yards and along the lines on the double tracks on either side of Harpers Ferry in order to maximize their throughput during this new curfew.

On the night of May 22, Jackson sent the 5th Virginia Infantry under Kenton Harper to Cherry Run, west of Martinsburg, and he sent Captain John D. Imboden's cavalry to Point of Rocks, east of Harpers Ferry. The 5th Virginia positioned themselves at a bridge spanning the Potomac River near Cherry Run, thirty-two miles east of Harpers Ferry on the Potomac River north and west of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Martinsburg Shops. Imboden's cavalry staged themselves at the signal tower west of Point of Rocks, twelve miles (19 km) east of Harpers Ferry.

The following morning, May 23, the trains waiting to the east and west of this forty-four mile section "arrived on schedule" and began moving across this curfewed span at 11:00 a.m. "freely entering the zone for an hour after eleven o'clock." This one hour period allowed for just enough time for these trains to make it only part way into their forty-four mile stretch without reaching the other end on the doubled-up tracks of that main stem section. Then, "at the end of the busy noontime traffic," just as all these trains had filled up the east and westbound lanes, practically coupler to coupler, "Imboden and Harper suddenly halted traffic at midday" by emerging forth and not allowing the trains now coming toward each of their positions to pass and get out of this double-track stretch. Thus Col Jackson had now "bagged" the "largest single haul of rolling stock taken intact during the war" on the very first day of the war from Virginia's perspective: May 23, 1861.

NOTE: Jackson was able to move the captured trains over the Winchester & Potomac Railroad (which runs from the B&O mainline at Harpers Ferry to Winchester, VA) and use them for the Confederacy. The Winchester & Potomac Railroad became the present-day CSX Shenandoah Subdivision and the line is still intact from Harpers Ferry to Strasburg, VA.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/14 05:22 by RFandPFan.

Nice work. That is a really nice perspective on Harper's Ferry. Have never seen that view before. Love the sleeping car window. That's different. Thanks for sharing.

Does the shack across from the station provide either shelter or a tunnel under the tracks?

ctillnc Wrote:
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> Does the shack across from the station provide
> either shelter or a tunnel under the tracks?

It is a pedestrian tunnel.

Where were you standing for these (excellent) photos? I've never been able to get that angle at HF.

Edit--oops, sorry, didn't read the part about bein in a private home. Great photos!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/14 12:47 by march_hare.

RFandPFan Wrote:
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> ctillnc Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
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> > Does the shack across from the station provide
> > either shelter or a tunnel under the tracks?
>
> It is a pedestrian tunnel.
The "shack" should be restored and painted to match the station.

Yes, the shack really should be painted and upgraded to match the refurbished station. National Park Service did a great job on the Harpers Ferry station, but it's a shame that the shed on the "outbound" track didn't get the same treatment.

And look how much shorter the platforms are these days. The platform used to extend out onto the bridge on each track, as well as much farther west from the station. The yellow-painted platform on the station side looks like it's maybe 2 or 3 car-lengths long, and I've seen the platform on the outbound side. It's lower than the station side, with ballast all over it, and even shorter than the inbound side. I imagine MARC trains load and detrain from 2 or maybe 3 doors, but Amtrak's Capitol Limited always double-stops if it has sleeper passengers. That's a high step on the outbound side, even with a stepbox. I've watched boarding passengers try to climb up into a sleeper, and it's a big step.

Harpers Ferry is WORTH A VISIT if you are visiting near this area. good train watching, great history, Civil war, C&O canal, Appalachain trale etc.) Point of Rocks station to the east of Harpers Ferry is also worth a visit as well as a couple of famous B&O viaducts. I'm just saying!!!

Very nice coverage and I love your angle.
Harpers Ferry is definitely on my visit list next year.

Danny Harmon
Tampa

Great shots from an angle we don't see much....

I was in Harpers Ferry recently, and talked to a man who was either an Amtrak employee or a laison person for Amtrak, the Nat. Parks and the state. He was doing a preliminary engineering assessment on the passenger shack at HF. Perhaps we'll see some rehab to that forlorn, run-down shack at HF sometime. Sometime, maybe?