{"id":41644,"date":"2025-05-10T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=41644"},"modified":"2025-05-05T04:56:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T08:56:54","slug":"port-road-at-washingtonboro-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/port-road-at-washingtonboro-pa\/","title":{"rendered":"Port Road at Washingtonboro, Pa."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kris asked, ‘Is there some train that you’d like check out tonight?’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, yes there is. I’ve been hoping to catch another move on Norfolk Southern’s Port Road Branch near Columbia, Pa. This line is the former Columbia & Port Deposit line, which in its heyday was a key route for Pennsylvania Railroad and an electrified line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conrail discontinued electric operations in the early 1980s, but the catenary supports largely remain in place. Owing to a curfew on the Northeast Corridor, Norfolk Southern’s operations are largely nocturnal. However, since we are moving into the longer days there are opportunities to catch trains at dawn and dusk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We tried to find a train on the move few weeks ago without results. So we repeated the exercise by driving to Washingtonboro along the Susquehanna River. First, I checked the intermediate signals for a westward move (toward Harrisburg) and concluded that nothing was lined in that direction. However, when I observed the signals for an eastward train, I was delighted to see that the No. 1 track had been cleared for a movement; the signal was displaying ‘yellow over green’, which indicates Approach Medium. This was the clue I’d been seeking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, ‘We are in luck!’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Working with my Nikon Z7-II, I made these photos of an eastward carload freight, probably symbol freight 36A that runs from Conway Yard to Edgemoor, Delaware. Kris filmed the train with her phone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our patience on the old Port Road paid off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been hoping to catch another move on Norfolk Southern’s Port Road Branch near Columbia, Pa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6060,10,6108,48],"tags":[7626,8298,8299,7980,5073],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Norfolk_Southern_Port_Deposit_Branch_symbol_36A_at_Washingtonboro_PADSC_3709.jpg?fit=2048%2C1054","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-aPG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41644"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41644"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41653,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41644\/revisions\/41653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}