Eastern Railroad Discussion > Sun & Sunset over the Susquehanna River

Last week, A friend and myself made a hard charging 4 day road trip to Pennsylvania with the aim of making the most of every second of daylight we could. Carmon stayed home this time, so it was a guys only trip (meaning we could hit the trains even harder).. We had a pretty tight schedule to keep, and achieved everything we set out to see, along with a whole lot more. 1600 miles in 4 days netted us steam at Strasburg, Amtrak action on the Harrisburg to Philly line (plus on CSX in Maryland and NS in PA) and Two whole days on the NS Pittsburgh line and Middle Division. I will share my results as I get around to process them, and here is round #1...

We left Kentucky early Wednesday morning (July 23rd) and made a quick 6 hour drive to Cumberland, Maryland for lunch. As luck would have it, Amtrak (The Capitol Limited) was running several hours late, so after a quick bite we headed up the mountain a bit to shoot them but not before nabbing a Eastbound CSX stack train with a nice set of B&O CPL's at CP Mexico at the East end of the yard. All of that killed about an hour and a half, and we hit Interstate 68 again with Harrisburg PA (Rockville) as our destination for the night. I had never been to Rockville bridge before, and we had reservations at the Bridge-view B&B for the night...

We arrived in Rockville in the middle of a nasty thunderstorm, but after we got checked in and settled for the night the weather cleared up. After driving over 600 miles in One day, it was nice to be able to hang out there on the deck and the side of the Susquehanna river and let the trains come to us! Lazy railfanning is not normally our style, but when you have such a scenic spot (and comfortable chairs)....hey, why not! We stayed out until dark shooting the endless parade of trains and enjoyed a great sunset before calling it a night..

The next day was spent hunting steam and Amtrak to the East (more on that in a few days) but we found ourselves back in Rockville that evening (hey it was on the way to Altoona, so why not!) and we enjoyed some more great light before calling it a night.

If you have never stayed at the Bridgeview before, I would highly recommend it! Great view, clean rooms and some friendly folks made it a nice experience. I usually avoid those type of places, but I will be back to this one.

Here are a few samples from 07/23 & 07/24 at Rockville Bridge. You can find the whole set at this link >>> http://www.pbase.com/kd4jsl/nspitt14

#1 "Symmetric" The low evening sun lights up the weather beaten arches of Rockville bridge as an empty unit oil train (65R I think it was) crosses above. After spending several hours shooting steam at Strasburg last Thursday, , this was a good way to end the day.

#2 "Golden" After an oppressively hot and humid evening, the sun finally starts to set, creating a golden glow that reflected in the waters of the Susquehanna River as a Eastbound train crosses Rockville Bridge. Even though I was being eaten alive by the biggest skeeters you can imagine (swarms of them) I found it hard to go inside and not watch the show....

#3 "Susquehanna Sunset" A NS SD70Ace is silhouetted against the setting sun as it leads a Westbound train across the famous stone arches of the Rockville (PA) bridge

E.M. Bell , KD4JSL
Salvisa, KY
Jreb.org NS group



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/14 16:57 by EMBell.

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Very nice!! That's the first time I've gotten to see the arches lit up. Thanks for posting, and the link. I look forward to seeing your other shots from the whole adventure.

Greg

AWESOME trio!
JB

It's a grand show and you really caught the essence of the Rockville Bridge and the Susquehanna river there.

Very nice Mr. Bell
John

Beautiful images.

FDF

Nice shots Emmett. Really like shot 1.. One of the better shots from that side of the brdige I have seen in years. Ben

Thanks guys...glad yall liked them! I want to get back up that way and do some more exploring before long.

Stay tuned for a LOT more in the next few days..I have just scratched the surface of material from this trip.

E.M. Bell , KD4JSL
Salvisa, KY
Jreb.org NS group

GREAT pics!!! Thanks for sharing.