By: Conner Salvia
I would like to start out by saying thank you to the DC chapter for sponsoring me to attend the National Railway Historical Society Rail Camp East at the University of Delaware. This camp was a great experience. I made a lot of new friends, visited so many interesting and unique places and learned a lot about opportunities I can pursue in the future.
On the first day, I got to camp and met my roommate. He was nice and pretty chill. There were two campers whose planes got delayed, so the rest of the campers had more time to hang out and make friends. We shared experiences, train tips for models and railfanning, and shared other hobbies (Nascar was a big topic for some reason). We all went to dinner, which was great. There were great options and everyone said it was good. We got back to the common room and people from the places we would go to later in the week gave presentations on what they do and how they got their jobs. After that, the camp counselors briefed us on what we would do on Monday and what to wear. Then we started to wind down and get ready for the first full day of rail camp.
On Monday, we went to the Amtrak facility in Wilmington, DE. It was amazing to see how they work on and test the locomotives. We saw 3 main things. The first was the electrical shop. They worked on anything that uses electricity, such as coffee makers, automatic door openers that are on the back of the locomotives and a few other small things. The next thing we saw was the machine shops. In these, they worked mainly on the wheel sets. They had a massive lathe that turned down the OD of the wheel and cut the flange of the wheel. The craziest thing we saw was a broken lathe that spit out a wheel while it was turning and almost killed the operator. The last thing we saw was the yard, which had old locomotives as well as two legacy Acela locomotives with no cars. We were allowed inside of the cab of the ACL-42 which was neat. After that, we went to the other facility and ate lunch. There we used the training simulators and got to blow the horn on the 250th ACL-42. But the coolest thing that we did was use the next gen Acela training software which costs $3,000,000. After we all finished our training we went back and had dinner, which was good as always. Then we had a zoom meeting and went to bed earlier than we liked because we had to get up early to not miss the train to New York City.
On Tuesday, we had to get up bright and early so as to not miss the train. We got breakfast as usual and went to the station. We saw a lot of trains while waiting but none were too special. The train that we took up was a north east corridor train but it had 3 extra cars. The first was a pantograph car that monitors the catenary. The second was a geometry car which made sure that the tracks did not bend or shift in an undesirable way. And the last was a theater car which had a glass panel for viewing. We got to Penn Station and went into the normal groups. We saw how Amtrak police dogs get trained, and toured Penn station. Then we got New York style pizza for lunch. The last two things we did was visit the Moynihan Station tour and the control center where they monitored the tracks. We had a little extra time before our train came so we were able to railfan for a bit. But then our train came and we had to go. We talked and got food from the cafe car, which was mildly good. Our train arrived late so we had to rush to dinner and the briefing for our next day, which was visiting the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
On Wednesday, we didn’t have to get up as early so we were able to get a bit more sleep. We of course went to breakfast and then left to spend the day at Strasburg in the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. My group went into the archives first. We saw old photos of certain trains, dishware that would have been in the dining car. But overall, the coolest thing that they had were the two live steam models. After that, we researched a train called the e44a, which we would give a presentation on, on Friday. We then had lunch and explored the place. We also went to the gift shop before the start of next rotations and got some things. We got a tour of the main show room and got to go into the cab of a GG1, snow plow, E7, E7 Atlantic, and D16sb. All of which were really cool. The final thing in Strasburg was the engine shop tour. We went into the engine shop as they were putting on the boiler jacket on the B6sb but nothing else in the shop. But outside we then saw a K4, L1, M1b, and H10. We had to get home and eat dinner fast so that we could railfan in Perryville. It was great, so many different trains came through, and I got a lot of good shots. We stayed much later than we should have, waiting for a train that never came, so by the time we got back it was well after 11:00. We went inside and I just went to bed.
On Thursday, we went to the Strasburg Railroad. Because of the lack of a rotation, we had to go into groups of 3 and we were late getting to the railroad, so we had turns for only 45 minutes instead of an hour. But it was still great. My group first looked at how air brakes work with the train cars. Then we took a shop tour on how they maintained the locomotives. The last thing we did before lunch, which was my favorite, was driving a steam engine which was so much fun! We then had lunch and watched trains. After lunch, half of us went railfanning and the other half went to a hobby shop. I went to the shop and got great deals on some trains. After that we went into 2 groups, seeing where they built and worked on trains and then we got to couple and uncouple train cars. We went to a diner called Casey’s for dinner and it was pretty good, and stopped for ice cream. We then went back to the dorms to get ready for the final day. Bob, one of the campers, read a large group of us a very funny bed time story.
On the last day, we got up at the usual time. We then go into the vans to head to Strasburg one last time. On our way, we ate at Casey’s for breakfast. We went to two locations on Friday, the first was the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. We all gave presentations on a set locomotive, all of which were great. Mine was on the P.R.R E44a. It’s an electric locomotive that was to be used on freight trains. They were great at getting long trains going quickly but because they ran on dc power instead of ac, which all electric locomotives run on, they had to convert the ac power to dc which was very loud. They were sold to Amtrak after the fall of Penn Central but were never used because they had pcb oil for the electronics which is now known to cause cancer. After that we had a bit of a break to explore on our own and saw locomotives that I found interesting. We then walked across the street to the Strasburg Railroad. We got to sit in the diner car for lunch, which was beautiful, both the car and the view. We had to wait for a bit to do the cab ride so we just walked around looking at stuff. Then the cab rides started. My turn was last, so I got to look at everyone else and see what to do and what not to do. I also went last to climb on the coal pile. After that, we went to a buffet for dinner. We got our money’s worth eating more than we should have and jokingly said that we did not fit in with the rest of the diner’s, as we were covered in coal dust with families eyeing us in confusion and a bit of disgust. The food was good and we went home. A few of us the campers went foaming but I had an early train so I had to pack. I said my goodbyes and went to bed.
This was a great experience for myself and all the campers that attended. I can’t thank the DC chapter enough for sponsoring me. I learned and met people that could help me with a Railroading career. I would like to say thank you one more time and to enjoy photos from the trip.
Below are two photos I took during my time at RailCamp. The first is a Next Generation Acela at the Wilmington Test Center and the second is USA 250 celebration Amtrak No. 639 locomotive at the Wilmington Shops.
