Tag Archives: Acela Express

Rail Photo of the Month: September 2025

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Acela Express Power Car 2030

Location: Boston South Station, Boston, MA
Operator of Vehicle: Amtrak
Date of Photo: December 26, 2000

Last week, Amtrak’s “NextGen” Acela entered service on the Northeast Corridor, marking the beginning of the end for the original Acela trainsets that have been in service since late 2000.  I had the opportunity to ride Acela for the first time two weeks after it entered service and have been on it countless times since.  The first generation Acela was definitely an upgrade over the Metroliner service that it replaced, but it is still a far cry from what high speed rail travel is like in places such as Europe (where I’ve been) and Japan (where I have not).  That said, the Acela trainsets did not age well.  Additionally, the experience of riding them was always impacted by the fact that unlike high speed trains in the aforementioned locations, Acela shares tracks with slower conventional trains and the Northeast Corridor has many curves and other speed restrictions, limiting the amount of time on each journey that the train can reach its maximum speed.  

I don’t have any firm plans to ride the NextGen Acelas yet, but I’m sure I’ll have an opportunity in time.  What about you?

For more photos of Amtrak Acela Express, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: November 2020

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Acela Express Power Car 2019Acela Express Power Car 2019

Location: Halethorpe MARC Station, Halethorpe, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Amtrak
Date of Photo: November 25, 2018

Most years, railfans look forward to Thanksgiving weekend because of all the special services Amtrak runs to take people to and from their holiday celebrations.  For example, in 2018, over 846,000 passengers used Amtrak over Thanksgiving week, and over 160,000 trips were made on the Sunday following the holiday, often Amtrak’s busiest day of the year.  Some years, Amtrak has even chartered commuter rail equipment to operate extra trains, resulting in MARC and NJTransit trains being sighted well outside of their typical territory.  And railfans gather at favorite spots along the Northeast Corridor and elsewhere in the country to see the unique and frequent Amtrak service go by.  In 2018, I spent some time on the Sunday after Thanksgiving at the Halethorpe MARC Station, just south of Baltimore, and this is one of the photos that I took while I was there.

We’ll all be able to travel again sooner if we heed the medical advice, stay home, and celebrate the holiday with loved ones over Zoom. There will be Thanksgiving week railfanning in future years instead.

For more photos of Amtrak’s Acela Express, please click here.

OTP Update: New section and lots of new photos!

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Gillig Advantage 911 (right) and Gillig Advantage/CNG 264
After a tease on the Oren’s Transit Page Facebook page a few weeks ago, I have finally made it through my photo queue to add a slew of photos from all over the US to the website this morning.  Highlighting this update is the newest section of the website from Richmond, Virginia.  Richmond has a 175 unit bus fleet and is building a new bus rapid transit line and you can now see some of their current operations here on the website.  Richmond is also home to the Triple Crossing, the only known spot in North America where three Class I railroads cross each other at the same spot, and there is a photo on the Norfolk Southern page from that location.

If you wanted to travel by train from Richmond to other places featured on Oren’s Transit Page, Amtrak would be a great choice, and you can now see photos of the relatively recently restored Main Street Station in downtown Richmond on the Amtrak Stations page, as well as Amtrak’s Genesis P42 Locomotives serving the station.  New photos were also added to the Amtrak ACS-64 Locomotives and Acela Express pages.

Kawasaki 7140
Further along the Northeast Corridor, a number of Washington, DC area galleries got updates, too.  New photos of the DC Circulator, as well as WMATA’s now retired New Flyer C40LF buses were added to the respective galleries.  On the rail side of things in DC, there are new photos in the Rohr (1000 Series), Breda Rehab, and Kawasaki (7000 Series) galleries.  

Even further to the north, there are two new Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority bus photos in this update.  If you travel very far to the east, a single photo of an Israel Railways Bombardier trainset that was not included in the most recent update from Israel is now on the site.  

Despite my constantly telling myself there isn’t all that much in the photo queue, getting through it all always seems to take longer than I expect.  I have a number of interesting articles to profile on Oren’s Reading List, and also plan to share more commentary on some of my photos through the Viewfinder, including some of my favorite photos from this update.  In addition to adding new photos from a variety of sections, I also hope to have the New York section rebuilt sometime in the next 6 months.  But while you’re waiting on all the content to come, I do hope you enjoy the new content that was just added or revisiting the content that I’ve posted over the past 16+ years.