Goodnight, Raleigh!

The 4000 hp General Electric Genesis

Bloomsbury Estates in the background

Collecting passengers

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A stopped train on the tracks at the intersection of West Jones Street and Glenwood Avenue proved to be no obstacle for revelers on a Friday night. At first, many hopped under it like the gentleman pictured above.

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The car in the first photo has been undergoing restoration for some time (since 1998, according to one account). As recently as last Sunday there was someone doing welding work on the inside of the car.

There’s an interesting (old) discussion at Greenspun about the history of this particular car:

The Villa Real is a Pullman plan 3411 10 section 3 double bedroom car. This car is shown on the 1950 Pullman list of cars as not being owned by any railroad. It was one of the cars that remained in the Pullman pool. Interestingly enough, the car is shown as not being air- conditioned, perhaps that being a reason why the car was not sold to a railroad and then leased back to Pullman. The car was apparently sold sometime before 1961, as it is not shown in the 1961 Pullman list of cars, either as in the Pullman pool, or in government storage.

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“Villa Real” was built by Pullman in 1910 as “Lenover”. This was a 12 section, 1 drawing room and 1 compartment sleeper, Lot 3800, for assignment to the Pennsylvania Railroad. In January, 1931 it was converted to a different plan and renamed “Villa Real”.

When commenting on my post about the Seaboard Station RR turntable, a reader (Dave) gave the following account of the importance of Seaboard Station in New York to Miami trips:

The turntable was part of the complex used by the CSX predecessor railroad, Seaboard Air Line Railroad for their New York to Miami passenger trains. A set of diesel engines would pull the coaches from Richmond, VA to Raleigh. Then, the trainset would be passed off to a fresh set of engines to continue on to Florida.

The engines from Virginia would be refueled and turned around on the turntable to take a northbound passenger train back to Virginia. And, those engines from points south would be refueled and turned back around to head south again. This was necessary back in the late 1930’s because diesel train technology was still very new and didn’t have the ability to go the whole distance like engines of today.

The reason that the Seaboard didn’t pull their trains all the way to New York was simple. A passenger leaving Pennsylvania Station on say the Orange Blossom Special would be carried by the Pennsylvania Railroad’s electric GG1 engines as far as Washington, DC on PRR-owned tracks. Then, they would be passed off to the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac to Richmond who owned those tracks. Then, the Seaboard Air Line would continue the journey to Florida on their trackage. Even with all of that maneuvering, the travel time from New York to Miami was only 24 hours because the running times at night through the Carolinas would be as much as 100 miles per hour. That’s a far cry from what it is today!!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted images of trains, so here are two. These photos were taken off of the bridge on Hillsborough Street where it intersects Glenwood Avenue.

If you are not a new reader of this blog, you may have noticed that I have a fondness for railroad related items. Raleigh has a rich history with railroading, and it shows in some of the artifacts around town.
I can’t say that I know the purpose of this dilapidated structure. My guess is that it was a direct route in to the warehouse to the last building on West Martin St..

I’ve decided to stop appending these moving trains post titles with roman numerals. The hope is that I will continue to make these posts, and it doesn’t make sense to try and keep the running tally in my head. These photos were taken in front of the Raleigh Amtrak Station.

I’m not sure what this is. It is at the end of the tracks above Peace St., and looks to be some sort of bridge over a cylindrical pit. It was kind of eerie.

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Several times I’ve driven down Peace St. and wondered what exactly the CSX engines were doing on the bridge near the Archdale building. This past weekend after going to the Oakwood dog park, I decided to find out after spotting it again. What surprised me the most was that there were only two engines on the tracks, and nothing else. The engine was idling, and the sound was really interesting. It was futuristic sounding, and a blowing off of air every now and then. Very menacing sounding, but also remarkably silent considering the power behind them.
Today, while driving my gas guzzler Toyota Solara and listening to NPR, I heard something interesting.

Trains can move a ton of freight 423 miles on a single gallon of fuel.

This, in my opinion, is truly remarkable. Hearing it (an advertisement for CSX) made me remember the pics I took of two of their engines, so I decided to use them and offer my praise.
The CSX web site goes on to say that

Moving freight by rail is three times more fuel efficient than other over-the-road alternatives. … Since 1980, through technology and innovation, the railroad industry has improved locomotive fuel effieiency by around 80%. In 2006 alone, U.S. freight railroads consumed 3.3 billion fewer gallons of diesel fuel and emitted 37 million tons of carbon dioxide less than they would have if their fuel efficiency had remained constant since 1980. … According to the EPA, freight railroads account for just 2% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from transportation sources and well under 1% of greenhouse gas emissions from all sources.

To be more precise, it is the Raleigh Amtrak Station. Fairly soon I’m going to give trains their own category on this blog, as I’ve photographed them enough. And God bless Wikipedia:

The Raleigh Amtrak Station, located in Raleigh, North Carolina, is served by three passenger trains, the Silver Star, Carolinian and Piedmont. The street address is 320 West Cabarrus Street, and is located just to the southwest of downtown Raleigh.

Southern Railway built the station in 1950 after leaving Union Station. The station was not used for passenger trains from 1964 to 1985, when a pending abandonment of track by CSX Transportation forced Amtrak to move there from the former Seaboard Air Line station north of downtown.

The station is Amtrak’s second busiest in the southeast (North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky). Transportation agencies are studying a replacement station, possibly in conjunction with SEHSR or commuter service.

I really hope the idea of commuter rail travel takes off. I really do not like driving automobiles at all. I’m not just saying that because I spend a solid 20-25 minutes on the civil engineering disaster known as the Harrison Ave/Wade Ave split. Several local blogs have covered the possibility or idea of light rail travel or streetcars, so read up on it. It will take a hot load of consumer demand to bring about something as big as rail service.

Am I being delusional in thinking it has a shot? Am I a hypocrite because I normally dislike government subsidization of business and development projects? Maybe and definitely yes. Rail is one of those things like highways that will never happen as a result of free market economics. It just cannot come to fruition without the assistance of state and local governments. I would be willing to pay higher taxes if the money went directly into a fund to create more rail service. Anything that reduces the dependence of petroleum on a day to day basis is a very good thing. If it means less noise and less congestion, and less damage to the environment, that’s good as well. Throwing more money at adding more lanes of traffic isn’t going to solve the congestion issue–which really isn’t that bad here, especially in contrast with so many other cities. If freaking Charlotte can have service, why can’t Raleigh?

Back in August, I made a post titled “Moving Trains, Part I“. I had the intent of following up with another moving trains post, but haven’t got around to it until now. I’ve always loved trains. I’m sad that my current residence isn’t close to one. This particular junction is on West Hargett St.