The 3 state tour.

Our first road trip of the year took us in search of a train museum I remember seeing multiple times on US - 11. For some reason I thought that is was in Pennsylvania, but lo and behold it was in Maryland. We hit the road late that day but made the best of our time (and what little day light we would have left). We headed up US - 15 to US - 340 and then to US - 40 before jumping on the interstate (our last resort of travel).




We got into Hagerstown and found a Sheets to grab a bite to eat before we headed over to the museum. When we pulled into the parking lot at the museum there was a lot of train activity in the yard.



We headed into the museum and were a little disappointed to find that it is mostly geared towards model railroads.


(click on picture to see full view...for some reason it is getting cut off)

While we don't mind watching the model trains for a few minutes we were hoping to find a museum along the likes of New York Central depot in Elkhart, Indiana. Though we were met with disappointment we talked with some of the gentlemen there and they gave us some pointers on places that are decent for railfanning.

We headed back to the car and back down US - 11 to Shenandoah Junction, WV to locate and mark on our GPS a possible railfanning spot. It is usually pretty quiet in our neck of the woods as far as train travel goes (on the weekends that is) so we hope to make it out there on a week day at some point.

After we got the place marked we headed towards home with a stop in Brunswick, Maryland as we heard some chatter on the scanner of a possible west bounder. Not to long after we heard whistles and the arms went down and we were met with Amtrak 29. Though it was a train it is never as exciting as your old freighters.

After the Amtrak went through we went full steam ourselves towards home.

Another good day on the road, another 3 state tour* and a couple trains to boot.

It is not down in any map; true places never are. ~Herman Melville

*editors note: The 3 state tour is when you hit Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland all in one trip. ;)