The Track Work Tardy Carolinian to Cary to Thunderstorms

This Post is Part of my Finally the Piedmont Trip

After enjoying photographing my first ACS-64 that has powered my southbound Carolinian to Washington, D.C. We leave Union Station at 10:55 and directly enter the long, slow tunnel beneath Washington, DC.

11:00 – re-emerge, as a joking conductor. We pass the National Botanic Garden as our tickets get scanned for the second time, and passing office buildings. As the conductor continues to radio. Then we pass a construction project.
11:03 – Pass L’Efant Plaza for VRE, it only has a single platform
11:04 – Its into another tunnel, leaving D.C. As we slowly start heading over the Potomac over islands, go over East Potomac Park.
11:06 – Go over the main body of the Potomac and enter Virginia, the Metro is visible. We head through Alexandria.
11:09 – A northbound Amtrak train passes. The Metro joins us. Our speed has clearly decreased from the NEC. I see new transit oriented development with dense houses this part of Alexandria is known for.
11:12 – Pass the Braddock Road Metro Station.

See the King Street Metro Station. and arrive in Alexandria at 11:14, with a sort of island platform with an extra freight track beyond it. A bunch of people head out to the platform, maybe waiting for a different train? We pass the new development. We leave at 11:16, there doesn’t appear to be any baggage for our train. Already 4 minutes down. Then we pass a freight train.

11:21 – Metro passes over us and takes the opposite side of the ROW. Pass Eisenhower Avenue and keep following Metro. Metro is beating us. The kids in front of us haven’t stopped talking, we should have moved in Washington DC. I think we could have gotten away with it!
11:26 – Pass Franconia/Springfield VRE Station. Pass a new car lot (not intermodal)
11:31 – The Lorton VRE Station
11:32 – Then the Amtrak Lorton Auto-Train Terminal, were sitting on the wrong side of the train to get a decent view. Were just in trees, this is pretty much what the whole ride is going to be like. Then its over the Occoquan River.
11:35 – Woodbridge also served by Amtrak we skip. A modern station with a pedestrian overpass. We enter another community.
11:38 – Rippon
11:39 – Two quick bodies of water as we follow the Potomac Estuary getting some quick views of it.
11:44 – Pass Possom Point Power Station

It’s over Quantico Creek and we arrive in the Quantico Station at 11:46 for our quick stop. 7 minutes late. It’s a neat little station in the middle of a town in the middle of a military base. There is no military presence on the platform. I think I can get away with making a photo stop here.

11:49 – See the Potomac and pass the marine base of Quantico. We rejoin the turns. They make another announcement that electronic devices must be used with headphones or in mute.
11:55 – Pass more water, the Aquia Creek
11:57 – Brooke, a simple platform with access to a parking lot.
12:01 – Pass Leeland Road, a simple side platform station

We get the announcement for Fredericksburg, cross the Rappahannock River and arrive in the station at 12:05. A bunch of people are waiting for a northbound train. The daytime regional that starts in Newport News, the station has two platforms on an elevated viaduct with the station house along the Richmond-bound platform.

12:16 – The Northbound Newport News train passes the line. The view is just trees that will take us all the way into North Carolina, much better in winter.
12:29 – Pass a unit train full of green boxes.
12:41 – Pass the junction of the Buckingham Branch
12:47 – Slow down, approaching the town of Ashland. We pretty much go right down the middle of Railroad Avenue. I don’t see the station. It’s on the otherside of the trains.
1:01 – Entering Richmond very slowly, just before the platform. We pull up short. We then get a first freight train delay. We’re waiting for it to come through the station. Were officially late. The train comes going Southbound PASSING US. Seriously CSX. Why is a freight train going in front of us?

We get the double-toot at 1:15 from the siding to switch tracks and being entering the station. At 1:15. It’s a ten minute stop. I get a daytime photo of the station building from the platform and walk up towards business class. The attendant at the door isn’t friendly even though her door is closer to our seats (via the cafe car, where not even passing through the Business Class seating, just the compartment) than the rear door. She says she’ll let us on as a one

We slowly leave at 1:25 and come to a stop at the end of the platform. We sit at the edge of the station platform, clearly waiting for signal indication. We finally start moving at 1:30, passing Location Q. The last one on the platform is S. We’re really on the move 20 minutes late.

In the yard the babies keep crying and we discretely move to the last car. The train feels empty Near the back of the car to get away from the screaming babies. We don’t bother to tell our attendant but have a feeling that if we did she would completely understand, I can’t believe we lasted until Richmond.

1:53 – The James River.
2:03 – An abandoned military base as we speed fast, past it.
2:05 – Pass Mile 12 and slow down. Going slowly as they announce track work.
2:14 – A northbound freight passes us
2:22 – We stop again in the woods. Just the hum of the ventilation fan in our new quiet car. Were 8 miles from Petersburg. We’re waiting for permission from the CSX road foreman that his equipment is out of the way.
2:29 – The northbound Carolinian Train #80 Passes, it has a heritage locomotive on it. P42 #184, the phase IV Paint.
We finally get the double-toot at 2:34 and leave the siding behind.
2:41 – each the track work zone. There a bunch of cars with extra ties on them and crews enjoying their breaks because of us.
2:45 – Go over a closed grade crossing. The track work keeps coming.
2:50 – Come up to a building

We arrive in Petersburg at 2:52. The concrete northern end of the platform where no trains every stop is getting jackhammered up. Were now over an hour late, on the platform on the outside track. It’s a very quick stop. The conductor comes back and says we will only get later. I guess I’m waking up early tomorrow to head out to Burlington.

The train leaves Petersburg, crossing the Appomattox River.

We reach mostly trees of southern Virginia. The cafe attendant announces her lunch break.

3:08 – Historic Carson Depot.
We head into a Forest and pass wetlands. It’s definitely a rougher ride in the rear car over the trucks.
3:20 – pass the town of Jarratt
3:23 – Go under I-95.
3:28 – Emporia
3:33 – Tiny Skippers, VA
3:36 – According to Google we’ve entered our final state of today, North Carolina.
3:40 – Small Garrysburg
3:44 – We slow down, approaching the rail junction in Renoake Rapids. We pass junction B, go over the Renoake River via an island pass the abandoned Renoake Rapids train station, and a track curves around to meet us.
We slow past on jointed rail some boxcars. The sky turns dark, a storms a coming!
4:03 – Pass the Northbound Palmetto in the trees. The skies are dark but no rain.
4:07 – Enfield with an abandoned depot. It’sd a big enough town to have Parks and Recreation department as we pass its ball fields.

I doze off and soon were going down the grade crossing into Rocky Mount. We pass Bottoms insurance and stop at 4:24. We leave at 4:27, 75 minutes down.
We leave passing a freight yard. At 4:33 were back in the fields.

4:36 – We pass Elm City and the announcement for Wilson, our next stop. It’s back to trees.

We arrive in Wilson at 4:42, stopping over a grade-crossing. There more people getting on than off. We leave at 4:44, 72 minutes late. The car gets more crowded.

4:54 – Lukecama
5:05 – Selma-Smithfield’s announcement, where I would have spent an hour had we not been using a companion coupon.
5:07 – Go over a switch after Lizzy Mill Road in the fields.

At 5:09 Curve off the Palmetto’s route into Selma-Smithfield and stop on the curve (at the one real platform, the platform for the Palmetto is almost fenced off). I’m finally on new trackage today, after my ride on the Palmetto last December
We cross some murky water continuing south. The cafe car reopens as we get the cafe menu.

5:22 – pass a town, Clayton, as a North Carolina volunteer train host walks the train.
5:25 – Pass a warehouse with refrigerator cars coming out of it and over a freeway. Trees protect industry.
5:32 – Zoom by Garner.
5:33 – Pass Johnny’s precast and explosives inc.
5:39 – Pass a fence in paddock without any trains inside, it must be the ND dot train yard.

We arrive in Raleigh at 5:41 for a fresh air stop. The last car is stopped directly over a grade crossing. A thunderstorm pouring rain is so hard I decide to stay on board before our 12 minute ride to Cary. I just assume get off here and walk to our hotel but it is impossible for me to get both Durham and Cary during my morning layover tomorrow after going out to Burlington. I see a trespasser walking around the train. We can hear the thunder.
We get the double-toot at 5:51 and the conductor (I think waring an orange jacket walks up asking for passengers going to Cary). We say yes and are told to walk up two cars.

We arrive in Cary at 5:55 after the split of the Silver Star. The Cary Station in between two platforms and two tracks with a nice modern depot in between. It’s raining too hard to take pictures out in the open and the platform at Cary just has two tiny bus shelters, we dash through the parking lot to the depot. My photo essay consists of depot interiors and a couple looking out from the entrances inside. Oh well, at least I got something.

I head out the other side of the station, which is where Triangle Transit (the Regional Bus Provider) connects with C-Tran, the local bus provider and see a 301 heading for downtown Raleigh approaching. I tell Robert, the friend I’m traveling with, the bus is here, a little late from the rain. I’ve gotten really all the photos I can take in the pouring rain. We pay our $2 fares, struggling to get the GFI farebox to accept our dollar bills. It’s a slow ride downtown because of the rain and flooding. We arrive at the Moore Square Station at 6:45 and the rain has let up enough that we decide to walk to our hotel a short ways away, the Hampton Inn and not wait for the R-Line Free Downtown Circulator Loop to take us there.

After a brief rest in the hotel we head out again for dinner to go to a really good barbecue place. The Pit Barbecue restaurant that’s right across the tracks from the train station. It’s full and we have a twenty minute wait for our table. I take advantage of the time to start my photo essay, knowing I’ll probably be cutting it close before my 6:45am train tomorrow.