Rail Cars

Past time to invest in improved transit I find it fascinating that in all the years I've sat in traffic on Interstate 83 or Interstate 695 or Light Street, sometimes for 15, 30, 60 minutes, I've never seen an article referring to the cars packed on our region's highways, going nowhere fast, as sardines ("Angry sardines," May 8). I think there is a clear bias here. Why can we sit patiently in traffic but are "frustrated and irritated," as Michael Dresser put it, waiting for the light rail?

A rush-hour collision between two crowded trains on Washington's subway system killed at least six people Monday evening and injured dozens, trapping commuters in a stack of twisted rail cars still being scoured for victims hours later. A six-car train stopped near the Fort Totten station on the Metro's busy Red Line was rear-ended by another six-car train on the same track. The impact launched the first car of the oncoming train atop the stopped cars ahead of it, tearing open the passenger compartment and leaving a two-level snarl of debris.

Moments before the passenger cars of an Amtrak Auto Train jumped the tracks, the engineer hit the emergency brake because he saw a buckled rail in the track ahead, federal investigators said yesterday. Four passengers died and 133 were injured when the northbound train derailed near Crescent City, Fla., an hour after leaving Sanford on Thursday afternoon. Twenty-one rail cars - including 14 of the train's 73-ton Superliner passenger cars - left the tracks, many crashing onto their sides.

Light rail riders have been getting to know each other a little more intimately over the past week as increased safety inspections have forced officials to run one-car, standing-room-only trains at rush hour and other times. Jawauna Greene, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Transit Administration, said yesterday that the agency has had to step up its inspections of its 53 light rail cars after a wheel on one cracked about a month ago. The MTA sent out an advisory late yesterday warning customers of possible delays and crowding as the light rail system operates with fewer cars than usual.

When the single-car light rail train pulled into Mount Washington station about 3:30 p.m., it was so crowded that David Utley couldn't board it with his bicycle to get to his job at Penn Station. He decided to wait for the next train - which didn't come for another 50 minutes. And it was so overstuffed that Utley just gave up. "Time for Plan B," he said as he wheeled his bike away from the station. The Mount Washington man is one of thousands of light rail riders who have had their lives disrupted as the Maryland Transit Administration grapples with maintenance issues that have sidelined more than three-quarters of its rail cars at peak travel times.

An article in the April 19, 1913, edition of The Argus announced the return of familiar face on the rail cars . Not content with sitting on a slow-moving auto truck, Charles Bujac of Catonsville, one of the oldest motormen in the employ of the United Railways, is back again on the cars and will probably remain in that position for the rest of his active days. The lure of the old "Speeders" proved too strong for "Uncle Charlie," as he is known by all the men on the line, and so, to the great delight of his many co-laborers and friends, he may be seen traveling to and from Towson to Catonsville Junction on the back of a United States mail car. He is no longer guardian of the brakes which he so greatly loved, but rides on the back of the car in charge of the bell.

State transportation officials have narrowed their list of potential sites for a $150 million truck-to-rail CSX container transfer facility along the main Camden rail line from 12 to four finalists, including two in Howard, one in Anne Arundel and one in Prince George's counties. One of the four sites is stirring controversy because its location — at Hanover and Race roads in Elkridge — is near a potential site for a much-needed new elementary school. The school, if built, would sit next to Coca Cola Drive in a planned 1,000-apartment, mixed-use development called Oxford Square, on the north side of Route 100 near the Dorsey commuter train station.

Baltimore County police have identified as a German citizen the man who was found crushed to death earlier this month in a rail car at the Coastal Steel Co. in the 6900 block of Quad Ave.Police identified the man as Fred Lenzen Glode, 27, of Germany."

An MTA light rail train that had nearly reached the Camden Yards station partially derailed Monday night, causing a "ripple effect" of inconvenience about an hour before fans filed out of Oriole Park after a game between the O's and the Chicago White Sox. No one was injured in the incident, Maryland Transit Administration spokesman Terry Owens said. The train was empty at the time. The derailment occurred about 9:45 p.m., when the two rear wheels of the two-car configuration left the track.

Roaming the streets that encircle Pimlico Race Course , I discovered so many places that I had trouble going back to the same locale twice. Outer Northwest Baltimore is a fascinating, at times geographically bewildering, place. When the Maryland Jockey Club members built Pimlico, they must have been thinking big and distant. It was a gallop from Druid Hill Park, and if you didn't own a carriage, you would have needed a ticket on the Western Maryland Railway to spend a day at the races.