The Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (NEC). Bower Tower, located along the NEC at Bowie, Maryland in the Huntington Railroad Museum, is a former Pennsylvania Railroad (later Conrail/Amtrak) Interlocking Tower saved and restored by the City of Bowie, MD. The National Railway Historical Society, Washington, D.C. Chapter, Inc. (DCNRHS or DC Chapter NRHS or Washington, D.C. Chapter NRHS) operates a library dedicated to railroad history in the base of the tower. The library, the Martin F. O’Rourke Memorial Railroad Library, has over 1,000 books on railroad history, hundreds of pieces of railroad ephemera, and over 1,000 periodicals. Parts the collection date back to the latter half of the 19th Century. Learn more about the library and https://www.railroadlibrary.org .
On November 28, 2021, DCNRHS sponsored a railfan day at Bowie Tower, encouraging members and all local railfans to come out, catch the action on the NEC, peruse the stacks in the library, check out the museum as a whole, and of course take photos and vides of the train action. This video shows highlights from that day.
If you didn’t get to join us for Train Day this year, check out the video and see what you missed. Make plans to join us in November, 2022, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, November 27th. Special thanks to DCNRHS’ Guerin Goldsmith for pulling this together.