Rail activity around Baltimore

This account was kindly received from a trainsimmer who lives in the Baltimore area and will give you a feel for train activity on the NEC, CSX Camden line, and the Baltimore and Washington metro and LRV systems. Along with the NEC 4 route documents, Chris Bogley's NEC Guide, necguide.zip and the NEC 4 maps, nec40map.zip - both of the latter available from Train-sim.com - you'll have a better understanding of the operations of the different lines contained in the NEC 4 route by Vince Cockeram and the NEC Team.

There's a great deal of interesting railroad activity here in the Baltimore area. On the expressways on the east side you pass over/through both Norfolk Southern and CSX yards, which of course also have a lot of locomotives still in Conrail markings. Where the railroad spurs run close to the harbor there are lots of giant cranes used for loading/unloading containers from ships, and there are also big areas for unloading bulk cargo, transferring between ships, trucks and railcars. There's also a lot of traffic in automobiles here, transferring between trucks, ships and railcars.

To the east of Baltimore, along the outer beltway (I-695) it is fairly dramatic. After crossing the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the harbor (very beautiful and dramatic) you see the vast Bethlehem Steel industrial area. They work on ships here, as well as manufacture other steel products. It has both a grandeur and a sadness to it. The sadness is that it is prototypically a "rust belt" type of institution that has seen much better days. When you think that this is where they built the Liberty Ships that carried troops to Normandy in World War II, and that this was a major industrial powerhouse, it is sad that Bethlehem Steel now is so bankrupt that the state of Maryland had to step in to guarantee pensions for its retirees.

Though it is largely in decay, the Bethlehem Steel area certainly gives a glimpse of a busy railroading history for most of the twentieth century.

For passenger travel going from Washington to Baltimore the NEC is really two distinct lines--the Camden line and the Penn line. These use separate timetables, and are very different in character and stations.

The Camden line

The Baltimore-Washington MARC service at Camden MARC station

The "Camden" line goes from Union Station in Washington to the old B&O Camden station from Camden Yards (the baseball stadium) which is at the southern edge of downtown. The old B&O station is not used as a railroad station anymore, but it is well maintained. Frankly, I don't know its current purpose. MARC (Maryland Rail Commuter) commuters embark/disembark on a long concrete platform next to the Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles) ballpark. The spur to this MARC platform is a dead-end here in downtown Baltimore.

Just before the Camden line reaches Camden yards in Baltimore, a part of it goes underground and goes under downtown. This is where the CSX train caught on fire underground a couple of years ago, a pretty big disruption to downtown life due to the risk of toxic chemicals being released. This route under and through the city is the 'through' route going north/south.

The Camden line is the line represented in NEC4. To the best of my knowledge none of this line is electrified in reality, though I think it is electrified in NEC4. That is a fairly glaring discrepancy to someone who lives here and takes an interest in trains.

Also, I noticed the other day that NEC4 portrays Savage as a fairly big city with tall modern office buildings, looking a lot like Silver Spring or other Washington satellites. In reality, Savage is a very small town with a beautiful old mill (Savage Mill) from the mid nineteenth century and a lot of small, quaint houses. It is getting a lot of retail development (suburban sprawl) on US Route 1 in the last few years, but the town itself retains the impression of being charming, small and old-fashioned. We make a special trip there for Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches at Ma's Kettle, the local hangout.

I enjoyed trying NEC4, but it doesn't really remind me of the actual route very much. The place names are right, but the feel and the look seem more like a map than a refection of the real places. However, I plan to spend more time on NEC4 and my impressions may evolve over time. Most importantly, strict adherence to literal facts is not the primary criteria in creating a good game experience. I am glad that independent fans are making interesting alternatives to the Microsoft default routes.

I'm not sure to what extent Amtrak uses the Camden line. I have only witnessed MARC trains plus lots of freight on it. In contrast, Amtrak always has first priority on the Penn line. I think it owns the Penn line, which is more oriented to high-speed travel.

The Penn line

The default NEC in MSTS represents the Penn Line, which runs from Union Station in Washington to Penn Station (old Pennsylvania railroad) which is north of downtown in Baltimore. Note that although these two routes are parallel, they are very distinct in their history, their station names and in their character.

I had the pleasure of riding MARC to Union Station daily for a couple of months earlier this year, when I had an assignment in downtown Washington. Thus, I'll tell you a little about it.

The Penn line is fully electrified. This is the route that the Pennsylvania GG-1 locomotives used to barrel down, and on which the Acela and Metroliner trains now travel at very high speed. There are three parallel tracks for most of the route between Washington and Baltmore, and there are no at-grade crossings. MARC trains (both electric and diesel, e.g. SD-45) have stations every six or eight miles or so, and are very popular with commuters.

The electric trains are extremely quiet and move so fast that it is exhilerating, and perhaps even a little frightening when you're waiting for a MARC train to arrive and the Acela swooshes by sudddenly. They are impressive vehicles in spite of the occasional questions about their long-term durability.

The MARC trains on the Penn line are of two types. One type uses older streamline cars that look like they might be from the fifties. The other type uses much more modern looking bilevel commuter cars. I like both, though the ride is smoother and the climate control is more effective in the modern cars. The older cars feel like a real piece of nostalgia. Usually the modern cars are used for "express" service which skips some of the stations closer to DC.

The platforms at Union Station are very accurately portrayed in MSTS in both NEC and NEC4. What you don't see is the retail shops and the grand hallways; it really is a beautiful piece of architecture, which I'm glad has been preserved.

I should mention that at the Amtrak yards just north of Union Station you also see a lot of locomotives and passenger cars marked for VRE (Virginia Rail Express), a commuter line that runs from Union Station south and west down into Virginia.

Baltimore's Light Rail, subways for Baltimore and Washington

We won't take long to catch that LRV heading to the Baltimore Airport LRV terminal.

Baltimore's Light Rail line starts in the suburbs south of town in Glen Burnie, passes by the MARC platform at Camden Yards in downtown, and proceeds north through town to Timonium ending at the northern suburbs of Hunt Valley. Along the way it has a spur to Penn Station, though not all cars stop there. The Light Rail is a modern, popular and well-run line, though not terribly glamorous. The cars are all white with black hardware, and very boxy. They look like something from the old sci-fi show "Space 1999", a 1970's vision of the future. They still look 'futuristic', though in a very utilitarian way. Sort of like a futuristic computerizede refrigerator turned on its side and given wheels. Some have the Maryland flag as a logo, which gives them some needed color.

Baltimore's "subway" train is above-ground for the majority of its route from Owings Mills in the northwest suburbs into the city. It is underground once it gets downtown, and then you don't really know it's there unless you are looking for it. It doesn't have the omnipresence that the subways in New York and Washington have. It really is just for commuters, since it doesn't have the extensive network that bigger cities have. Washington's subway is clean, efficient and well-patronized. I like it a lot, and it goes everywhere you might need to go. The stations are arched and spacious. Though it is very busy and often crowded, people are generally well mannered. All levels of society use the subways and light rail equally and with great civility.