Passenger Trains > Question about Bacon Interlocking on the NEC

I'm riding train 141 westbound/southbound and was looking out for where the tracks narrow from 3 to 2, and it is at Bacon Interlocking. What I'm wondering is when the track was reduced to 2 to Perryville, and why. Does it present a capacity constraint if present? I know Amtrak limits NS movements but they do sometimes occur in daylight. That seems like a spot where it would be hard to mix an NS freight in.

Another question, does anyone know when the NS local serving industries between Wilington and Elkton works? There still are a couple with cars at then.

It's been just two tracks between Bacon ("Northeast" under PRR/PC) and Prince ("Principio" under PRR/PC) since the line was built. Most NS freight runs after 2200 so conflicts are generally not a problem. With no commuter service north of Perryville or south of Newark ("Davis") this two track segment isn't a major problem.

BTW - there are also two track segments between "Bush" and "Gunpow" as well as between "Landover" and "CP Avenue". Both of these segments have MARC commuter rail service. While there is no freight between Landover and CP Avenue there is freight between Bush and Gunpow. Like the segment between Bacon and Price most of the freight between Bush and Gunpow runs at night. This is primarily because of Amtrak's 30 MPH speed restriction on freight trains between 0600 and 2200. This restriction was imposed after the wreck at Gunpow in January of 1987.  

https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/RAR8801.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Maryland_train_collision 
http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/10404.aspx

Replying to the first question, the two track territory extends between Bacon (MP 51.0) and Prince (MP 57.3).  I have employees timetables from the Pennsy that go back to 1963 and there had always been two tracks in this general area, the only change being that Amtrak replaced the old North East interlocking with Prince some time in the 1980s.  I have heard that there had been some track reductions south of Wilmington in the 1950s, so this may have been a casualty of that program.
Andy

inCHI Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm riding train 141 westbound/southbound and was
> looking out for where the tracks narrow from 3 to
> 2, and it is at Bacon Interlocking. What I'm
> wondering is when the track was reduced to 2 to
> Perryville, and why. Does it present a capacity
> constraint if present? I know Amtrak limits NS
> movements but they do sometimes occur in daylight.
> That seems like a spot where it would be hard to
> mix an NS freight in.
>
> Another question, does anyone know when the NS
> local serving industries between Wilington and
> Elkton works? There still are a couple with cars
> at then.

Thanks for all of the answers. That is interesting. It seemed like the MOW road on the east side of the ROW was where another track might have been. If if did exist and PRR cut it, I didn't realize they did that sort of reduction that far back.

Going back to PRR/PC freight traffic, there would have been quite a bit on this segment, right? The Shellpot branch alleviates it from going through downtown Wilmington, but everything North-South would have funneled onto that segment I would think.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/19 17:31 by inCHI.

inCHI Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for all of the answer. That is interesting.
> It seemed like the MOW road on the east side of
> the ROW was where another track might have been.
> If if did exist and PRR cut it, I didn't realize
> they did that sort of reduction that far back.

The PRR designed and built the entire right of way from Landover to Ragan for 4 tracks except the bridges and tunnels in Maryland between Baltimore and Perryville.  The catenary poles are all spaced at 61 ft. on center the entire distance - 4 tracks at 13 ft. centers and 11 ft. side clearance to each pole.

If there aren't 4 tracks, its simply because PRR never installed them because they weren't needed at that time, not because the PRR retired the extra tracks like they did from Paoli to Lancaster.

If there is a ROW access road and its inside the catenary poles, its the graded roadbed for the future tracks that were never installed.

You figure there's room for four tracks here?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/12332161644/in/album-72157640558561145/

In 1950, tracks 2-3-4 Ragan to Davis; add track 1 at Davis -- it ended about six miles south. Then 2-3-4 to North East (two words).

Think it was the late 1950s they cut a couple miles off the south end of Track 1. When Metroliners started, tracks 2-3 were their tracks, and track 4 ended at North East. NECIP switched the high-speed tracks one track over-- what had been track 4 became hi-speed, so they didn't want to end it at North East, so they ended track 2 at North East instead. Which presumably is when it became Bacon.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/19 19:32 by timz.

timz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You figure there's room for four tracks here?
>
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/1233
> 2161644/in/album-72157640558561145/

Yes.  I'm not aware of anywhere in that stretch that the poles were not spaced at around 61' edge to edge or around 62' center to center.  You can go on Google Maps and measure them.  The poles at the coordinates you give in that picture are 62 ft. on center.

> Think it was the late 1950s they cut a couple
> miles off the south end of Track 1. When
> Metroliners started, tracks 2-3 were their tracks,
> and track 4 ended at North East. NECIP switched
> the high-speed tracks one track over-- what had
> been track 4 became hi-speed, so they didn't want
> to end it at North East, so they ended track 2 at
> North East instead. Which presumably is when it
> became Bacon.

NECIP moved tracks around all over the place on the 4 track wide right of way to ease a lot of 1 degree curves to 53 minutes to achieve first 120 mph and later 125 mph speeds. Its hard to tell now where the tracks used to be.