RAILROAD:
The Port Road Branch extends from Perryville, MD to Enola, PA. Despite the "branch" title, this line is Norfolk Southern's main line for traffic headed to Baltimore, MD and Delaware. While a decent amount of traffic traverses this route, 95% of it runs at night, and thus is very difficult to document in photographs. In fact, when a train does appear in daylight, it is almost always coming out of the sun, and you still cannot get a good photo of it. It's a bit unfortunate, because this line, especially south of Washington Boro, is very scenic and also very remote. Bald eagles and other wildlife flourish along the tracks, which follow the Susquehanna River the entire way down. It's very relaxing and peaceful, and even if you aren't "looking" for trains, it is still an interesting line to check out.
The current Port Road is actually a combination of a couple lines. The C&PD (Columbia & Port Deposit) runs from Perryville to Columbia. This connected with the Columbia Branch and continued upriver to Royalton, where it connected with the original Pennsylvania Railroad mainline to Harrisburg. When the huge low-grade line project was completed between Trenton, NJ and Enola, PA, the C&PD connection was moved to CP PORT, near Washington Boro. The new low-grade line followed the old Columbia Branch to Shocks Mill, where the PRR built a large stone-arch bridge across the Susquehanna. The line connected to the old Northern Central route to York and Baltimore at CP WAGO, and then continued north to Enola yard (confused yet??...see map!).
The reason for the nocturnal nature of the line is very apparent when you see the southern end of the line, at Perryville, MD. Here the branch connects with the busy Amtrak Northeast Corridor. Obviously the Amtrak dispatchers favor the quick passenger trains, and only run the freights when the action dies down (which pretty much only happens at night). Also, there is a daytime speed restriction for freights on the NEC, which is lifted after 10pm. The best way to railfan this line is to stay up all night! The first eastbound leaves Enola around 7pm and the last westbound leaves Perryville around 5 or 6 am. A good rule of thumb: the farther north (railroad west) you are, the better your chances of seeing a train in daylight!
I hope that you find this website useful and/or entertaining. Don't hesitate to email me questions regarding anything you see or read, and please remember to be safe!
