Whether it is the symbol for traveling from one place to another while listening to the rhythmic clickety-clack below or a classic exercise in perspective and symmetry while I attended art schools in high school and college as a student — or whether they are real or model to scale on an elaborate landscape on top of a large table — I have always been fascinated with the concept of railroad tracks.
Sunday Morning Photograph January 23 2022: Railroad Tracks in Maryland.
The Brunswick line runs through the small unincorporated community of Boyds in Maryland between the District of Columbia and Martinsburg in West Virginia — and one can also travel to Frederick in Maryland via a branch on this line as well.
The passenger rail transport service on the Brunswick line is operated by MARC — which used to be known as Maryland Rail Commuter — and is administered by the Maryland Transit Administration, which is an agency of the Maryland Department of Transportation. The service is operated under contract by Bombardier Transportation Services USA Corporation and Amtrak over tracks which are owned by CSX Transportation and Amtrak.
MARC is purported to be the fastest commuter railroad in the United States, with some equipment reaching speeds of 125 miles per hour — or 201 kilometers per hour — on the Penn Line, which runs from Union Station in the District of Columbia to Perryville in Maryland along the far southern leg of the Northeast Corridor.
Final Boarding Call
I used to travel as a passenger on the Northeast Corridor between Pennsylvania Station in New York and Woodbridge Township in New Jersey when I was in college — sometimes aboard a train which was operated by New Jersey Transit Corporation; and sometimes aboard a train which was operated by Amtrak. Some songs — such as Queen of Hearts by Juice Newton — remind me of traveling by train, as the rhythm of the song would coincide with the aforementioned clickety-clack of the tracks below as the train sped along…
…and that was years before I ever saw the official video for the song.
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All photographs ©2018 by Brian Cohen.
