Last Saturday, June 23, I went to Baltimore to photograph a southbound CSX freight train approaching the North Avenue Bridge (west of of North Avenue and Howard Street and near the MTA North Avenue Light Rail station). The CSX tracks cross the former Pennsylvania (Northern Central) tracks, and they pass the Baltimore Streetcar Museum as they approach the North Avenue Bridge. A southbound CSX freight train came just as I arrived at the bridge, and I missed it because I didn’t have my camera ready. I left because I figured CSX wouldn’t send another southbound train that way for several hours, and by then the lighting would go away.
I plan to go back to the North Avenue bridge in the near future to try to photgraph a southbound train, but my question is, how safe is that area in the daytime?
You should be fine, but as anywhere, be aware of your surroundings.
CSX tends to send trains around here in clusters at least during the week. I often eat lunch at a restaurant just north of DC that has a view of the tracks from some of the tables. There will be 3-4 trains in 40 minutes. You might have been surprised.
Rudy, I would tend to agree with Carl and others, in that daytime is OK but watch yourself. I haven’t been back to Balt. for about 10 years but my daughter & her family used to live there and I visited frequently. (That’s where I became infatuated with the B&O, although I used to see them here in St.L. also).
I used to take Falls Road from the north to get to the streetcar museum. This led to the north parking lot and you could take the streetcar the rest of the way.
Lots of good railfanning there. I have some nice shots from Hanover, PA of the Ma&Pa on former Pennsylvania trackage, as well as WM units in the old Chessie System colors.
You may want to try the Mt Royal Light-Rail stop, which overlooks the same tangent of track. Lots of photo angles there. I only go to the Street Car mueum during NRHS meetings. Now, that being said, here are a couple other spots in and around Baltimore from east to west:
Bayview yard - Rte 40 (Durret-Sheppard parking lot) especially from 0930-1130 hrs
Bailey’s Wye - Warner St just south of Raven Stadium.
Bush St - parallel to Washington Blvd (a hop-skip-jump from the B&O Museum)
Patapsco Ave - overlooks Mt Winans yard from the west
Hammonds Ferry Rd - Lansdowne, lots of angles along both sides of tracks, plus the cabooses are parked there.
St Denis/Relay - a local railfan hangout.
This isn’t all, but should be a good start, and fairly safe to boot.
Off topic, but my asking about Beano Country being in “Bawlmer” came as a result of this article in the January Smithsonian Magazine My Kind of Town feature by Frank Deford “Bleeve It, Hon”
Thanks very much for the article from the Smithsonian. Although off topic, it was an interesting analysis of the city in which two of my grown grandkids were born, and of which I have many fond memories.
One thing which puzzled me was the reference to the high homicide rate. St. Louis and Detroit have been switching places atop the murder lists for the last five years. After last year’s World Series, T-shirts were seen which stated that St. Louis beat Detroit in baseball and murders.
Baltimore is known as “Mobtown” ever since they tore up a few Union troops trying to transit the city in the Civil War.
With that in mind, fights, shootings and other problems are very common downtown. I think we lose about 350 each year. For every person we hear about in the news there is probably 5 or 10 you dont hear about.
I have had some good luck and not too much trouble.
Now I can recall a number of places where I discover a bullet hole or two, put some duct tape on it and write it up for the shop to fix when they get a chance. Jersey City off X15C comes to mind.
Specifically for Baltimore, they do work hard to make the Harbor safe for day people and at night the Greyhound Station and the Block areas are pretty bad. But for one bad person there are like 10 good people so there is hope yet.
Crime happens. Our little semi rural burg of 8,000 was the source of nationwide news leads after a murder/suicide with 6 victims.
We go to Maryland about two times a year to visit family in Columbia. Have gone sightseeing in the Baltimore harbor area and made some trips up to the “Beano” Museum. I have nothing bad to say about the town and had there been a good reason, such a job, I wouldn’t have hesitated to move into the area. But, as I did living in and around Chicago for 25 years, I would want to avoid visiting some neighborhoods.
I got a chuckle out of Deford’s illustration of the local dialect. Beano sounds exactly the way B&O would come out.
A good tire thumper is good to have around “just in case”, even in a good part of town. Have an off-topic question for you: Did the powers that be ever figure out a viable use for the old power plant building near the harbor? That’s a neat building, and it would be great if some commercial use would enable it to survive. Thanks.
I think they turned it into a Hooters or some kind of Hard Rock Cafe… I have not seen the harbor in a number of years yet so I dont even know what is still on that part of the area.
The last time I looked at that part of town, the hard core Brewery, warehousing and factory are going out to be replaced by yuppies, monied folks and condo after condo. I will have to take another look at the place… Google Earth might be a place to start or the WjZ 13 website, I dont know yet.