Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS (Port Deposit MD)

I live in the northeast part of Maryland, and have travelled through Port Deposit a few times. There is an NS line that runs from somewhere in PA down to Perryville, MD to join the NEC. The line looks well used, but I have spent a *lot* of hours trying to catch a train on it, and have only ever seen one. What cargo is generally carried on this line, and when would a good time to catch a train be?

There is also an interchange track where the NS (ex-CR,PC,PRR) branch crosses under CSX's Philadelphia subdivision. Is this ever used, or just a relic from days gone by?


PhillySub

Phillysub,
I live in Baltimore, and have been up to Perryville and farther north to see NS. This trackage is the Port Road. I have seen mixed freight and NS coal trains, headed down to Consolidated Coal downtown.
I've seen all of my trains on weekdays, in the morning and early afternoon along here.
Don't know about the branch under the Philly Sub though.

for a schedule-based lineup of trains scheduled to pass through Port Deposit MD on the Port Road, see http://www.pacerfarm.org/cgi-bin/wtp17.cgi?t_div=CPD&t_mp=4.7&tday=127&sortby=hms or, in a more general way, the Pacer Farm's Mid-Atlantic Train Finding Tools page at http://www.pacerfarm.org/wta.htm. while you're there, don't forget to scroll down to the 'sources and credits' section for pointers to other sites containing further information on railroads in the region.

When I lived back east and worked for Conrail, you rarely saw much on the Port Road in daylight hours due to the Amtrak "window" which limited freight trains on the NE Corridor to the hours of 10pm to 6am. Therefore, CR would usually start running westbounds out of Baltimore after 10 and those wouldn't reach the Port Road until midnight or so. Eastbounds would usually start moving out of Enola/Harrisburg around 6 or 7pm so as to be at Perryville after 10. It's unfortunate, since the Port Road is a very scenic piece of railroad to photograph. I would say about 20 trains a day but as stated earlier, most of them between 10pm and 6am.

Bob Davis
Thayne, WY