Virginia Railway Express RFW Manassas-Washington DC on train

Video came out nice and there’s good radio chatter in the background. The occasional crackling sound you hear is because I had difficulty holding the camera up against the slippery glass. It was all I could do to keep it steady but I think the video and the radio chatter will more than make up for that little imperfection!! It was quite a thrill to take a ride for the first time on a dynamic commuter railroad like VRE. Happy 30th anniversary VRE!! I hope you can increase your ridership and service in the coming years 

[@alexbrown8569]

Nice video! That pedestrian bridge at 25:46 is a great place to get up close and personal with a train sounding its horn before the Accotink trestle. Bring ear protection.

[@brianhenderson9124]

That's my old home system! Thanks for riding. I have some videos of VRE and Washington Metro from Cherry Blossom Festival time (and even earlier) I've been meaning to put on KZbin.

[@blowtorchhonor]

Please do!

[@jamesyourse6611]

I grew up in Greensboro NC. In the early 60’s Southern ran 10 mainline passenger and 6 branch line and 4 mail trains a day thru Greensboro. They routinely ran 79mph the entire distance except when they got to the Potomac bridge. The Southerner was all coach and the Crescent was all Pullman But that changed and eventually they merged the trains. I miss the original Piedmont and the Greensboro to Asheville trains thru Winston Salem. South of Danville Va now the main is single tracked.

[@NYCSKYSCRAPERS-hp6pm]

Enjoyed this my friend, a little different from NY, at least to me.

[@bjornlillpers498]

Very nice video, beautiful scenery and I really enjoyed the commentary. Im an engineer and former dispatcher in Sweden so it's always interesting to get some insight in operations in different parts of the world. I particularly like that you use regular radio for communications, gives you an idea what goes on around you (and also great for railfans!). We use secure cab radio here, so calls are between you and the dispatcher only. Only emergency can be heard by everyone. I also like that these cab cars offers a "railfan window", it's usually not possible here due to our cabs mostly being "full width".

[@3985uprr]

I’ve seen Swedish rails on KZbin. Beautiful countryside between Stockholm and Malmo. Also Borje Salming was one of the greatest hockey players.

[@timofeegraaay8165]

After college my friends and me would go down to the tracks near Burke Centre and Fairfax Station and drink beer and smoke whacky tobacky and this was before Potomac Yards was closed. Lots of freight trains went by plus Amtrak trains to Lynchburg and New Orleans. It was much busier then. We all grew out of the getting buzzed phase of life and got married, had children, worked in the corporate or trades worlds, so on. But it was a lot of trains even at night back then. Now everything heads west to Riverton Junction and Hagarstown, MD at Manassas. This stretch does see a rock train but no other freight runs this line that I know of. Way back, in 1968/69 Southern actually ran a mixed train thru this line, freight up front and two coaches on the tail end! I will never forget that. Good video.

[@wdd6864]

This seems like something I would do if I can retire

[@3985uprr]

Got to do a run from Fredericksburg to Washington

[@3985uprr]

I did it in November

[@njtrailfan4508]

Very cool that’s pretty rare to get a double header

[@donarmstrong5872]

I lived down there from 1978 to 2001. I remember when the entire area was the RFP freight yards. Caternary came from DC for the Penn freight trains. The big talk was all the development to come once the freight yards were gone. By he way much of the route from Manassas up looks like it's rural and trees but in fact it is now densely overdeveloped. Fairfax county was allowing developments of 30,000 houses at a time surrounding vast office complexes. In 1978 it was all back roads and many were dirt roads. Now it has some of the worst traffic in the US with 6 lane feeder roads going all over the place but you can't go anyplace fast. Many areas have streets that consist of 50 townhouses on each side of a street with zero on street parking. They have a 6 foot lawn in front and an 8 foot yard in back and it is street after street built like that.

[@3985uprr]

The scenery by the tracks is deceiving as I am well aware of that areas burgeoning population

[@isaquesantoschilo]

1:08 Manassas 5:13 Manassas Park 18:51 Burke Centre 23:10 Rolling Road (Skipped) 28:02 Backlick Road (Skipped) 39:32 Alexandria 48:32 Crystal City (Skipped) 55:48 L' Enfant (Skipped) 1:01:28 Washington - Union Station

[@anthonystrains1672]

Absolutely love this video, can you do the fredricksburg line next?

[@3985uprr]

I want to but I have to get down there the day before because there’s no train that goes down there to meet a morning rush-hour train. That’s why I wish they had off hour service on that line

[@anthonystrains1672]

@@3985uprr i agree, hopefully you can do kt, keep up the good work

[@normanriggs848]

I honestly don't know if it is your new scanner but the audio sounds like a rotary phone dialing like mad! Other than that another great video

[@3985uprr]

It’s new and I’m still trying to figure it out. Sometimes a rogue channel would come in that I don’t want and I have to get rid of it so you hear me punching buttons.

[@martinmcdonnell8058]

I’ve been hearing the rapid clicking in the video too. Sounds like possibly a dodgy microphone connection.

[@3985uprr]

@@martinmcdonnell8058 No. it wasn’t doing that when I took other videos. Only seems to do that on the front views. I had the same issue when I did those Chicago videos but some were worse than others. If I used a GoPro I think that would eliminate it. I have to get one

[@CTrail1711]

This video has about 1/3rd of VRE's weekday ridership.

[@3985uprr]

I didn’t think they were doing well with ridership

[@skeptical2649]

Horn sounds similar to trains in Viet Nam railroad videos

[@3985uprr]

Oh really? Very mellow sound unlike anything I’ve ever heard

[@geoffbarry9540]

On another clip you referred to Amtrak as "the worst possible service at the lowest possible cost", to which I can relate as a former user of British Railways in the 1960s. Interesting then that they lost out on the contract to run these trains to Keolis. Perhaps bumping up their prices for sub-contract work to try and offset sone of their own operating losses - and bidding too high? Greetings from Australia. Wish I had your opportunities to spend my retirement gallivanting around the country's local railways, but there aren't that many here and the costs are prohibitive for any of the long distance treks.

[@3985uprr]

I don’t recall making that comment about Amtrak.

[@davidoliver3415]

The reason Amtrak didn’t get the contract was the cost of liability insurance which they didn’t want to pay for. I don’t remember how Keolis worked it out with the MBTA.

[@donarmstrong5872]

When you pointed out Slaters Lane interlocking that track diverging right actually goes to the Old Town Alexandria waterfront. It used to feed the coal cars to a big PEPCO power plant on the waterfront. When they came out with deregulation of the power industry there the plant shut down and unlike we were promised the electric rates skyrocketed. The track continued down to the waterfront where there was several warehouses and a boat dock on the Potomac river. They would get in freighters of foreign made printer paper rolls. The warehouse would transfer those to freight cars. Their sidings held about 15 freight cars and they would hook a cable to the cars and move them with a bucket truck. Once completed thy had the railroad pull the cars and bring in empties.

[@normanriggs848]

At least VRE keeps it's equipment clean. You might want to try that Amtrak!

[@donarmstrong5872]

It's La'enfant interlocking to go with the plazza above. The state of Virginia has purchased the tracks through the former Potomac yards and the plans are to build a second two track bridge over the Potomac because of traffic capacity restrictions plus CSX has had multiple derailments at RO interlocking. VRE plans to partner up with Maryland's MARC transportation and provide connecting trains from Maryland through to Virginia once they get more capacity.

[@marcuswalton2922]

Is it true V.R.E. is made up of Chicago Metra Cars?

[@3985uprr]

The cars I ride in were ordered nee

[@JaxBrubaker-po8ld]

I love this video

[@failsrus96]

14:29 fun fact, at that point you were passing over the infamous Bunny Man bridge

[@bflewis9713]

Looks like the Harlem line, minus the 3rd rail.

[@PGHammer21A]

That subway station being built will serve Amazon's HQ2 campus - which will be in this area.

[@davehammer1278]

those VRE bilevels are the same ones that were made out here in IL before Nippon shut the plant down. Those are (for the most part) the same cars you rode in Chicago :)

[@CSullivanmeerkatmandude]

Metrarail.

[@darrylwmurphy738]

You may want to check a trip by Amtrak, From Buffalo- Depew to Niagara Falls, NY That route by Amtrak was interesting

[@NorthAtlanticRails]

Very cool.

[@danielwaitzman2118]

Wonderful! Thank you!

[@rickporvaznik5030]

How did you get in the engine for the ride ?

[@3985uprr]

It was a cab car and that was a passenger access area. It was this type of car in similar ones in Chicago where I was able to get so many of these type of rides

[@CSullivanmeerkatmandude]

Metrarail from Chicago, IL.@@3985uprr

[@JaxBrubaker-po8ld]

Great video! I like the cab

[@3985uprr]

I’ve done several cab rides on VRE

[@JaxBrubaker-po8ld]

Cool! Glad you did! The VRE is fun! To film the cab!

[@loocpoc]

My old office was behind L' Enfant plaza station. 600 Maryland Ave. Many a day I would sit and eat lunch at the station and watch the parade of trains (generally Amtrak and CSX) go by. I lived there for close to 17 years and I was never on a VRE train despite living in Virginia.

[@jerzypytka7347]

The slowest express train I've ever seen

[@edkammerman2533]

That was something different 🙂

[@ViewpointUnique]

Nice! Ridden the Crescent through here many a time.

[@Nvideofilmsproductions]

0:30 I have no clue where this is

[@PGHammer21A]

The VDI dates from (and was owned by) the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Petersburg; their Crystal City Yard was where Potomac Yards (shopping complex) is now - because I worked in Crystal City in 1987, I remember when the RFP Crystal City Yard was still doing business - on the right side of US 1 betweem Old Town and Crystal City.

[@billclements3879]

Thanks for the ride along

[@RMTStudios]

Hi there! I ride this train in all the time, and made my own video! Check it out sometime! Love that ride in from Manassas.

[@3985uprr]

I want to do same kind of video from Fredericksburg to DC

[@steveember8972]

Loved your time machine reference to a brace of Southern FP-7s as well as those handsome E-8s on the Crescent, both of which I well remember! Might have been a wicked-hot day, but you were certainly lucky with those dramatic skies, at least for part of your ride. You came right through my neck of the woods! P.S: Should you ever re-edit this, you crossed over Lake Accotink, a popular recreation spot in North Springfield, on a high trestle at 26:00. View is actually a bit more remarkable looking up from the lake as trains cross high above. ;-)

[@deepnation10009]

Awesome video. Love this!

[@Robbi496]

Great video! Like the new opening too!

[@scott5055]

Love seeing you go all over the country. This is great

[@jonharris9259]

Very nice headend view.

[@Jeff-uj8xi]

Ahhhhhh....wonderful head end shots !! Just think, if this was the fools from SEPTA in Philly, they'd have it roped off so you couldn't do it. Are you going to tell me they aren't NUTS? I love your new Bearcat scanner. It adds a great touch of class and makes for an awesome, interesting production. PLEASE continue to use it for all future productions, onboard and offboard. Again, a million thanks for the scanner and the spectacular head end shots. Just think, if this was side window shots, you'd have an hour looking at trees. By the way, while in D.C., did you ride and video the new streetcar line? Unfortunately, it doesn't go directly in front of Union Station, like the old streetcars did and the new ones should. It's about a block and a half walk out the back of Union Station.

[@3985uprr]

I’m reluctant to use the scanner because I don’t want to irritate other passengers what the car I was in was empty. I will use the scanner when appropriate. I did do a little video on the DC street car last summer you have to go back and look for it

[@Gojira160]

​@@3985uprrIs the Virginia Railway Express an express commuter railway?

[@3985uprr]

@@Gojira160 that’s just their official name but they’re basically locals although some do skip stops. The one I was riding skipped a few stops

[@jackchen7003]

Nice video! You’ve been all over the place recently. Ever thinking of going to California?

[@3985uprr]

I would hardly think Virginia is all over the country for someone who lives on Long Island compared to California

[@3985uprr]

Not for the foreseeable

[@musicforaarre]

Why did you draw the 'What's This?' arrow in Arizona; Wyoming is considerably further northeast ! I wasted some time trying to find out about a volcano in Arizona. It was interesting though. Aarre Peltomaa

[@TrainSounds]

I hope you could do LA someday.

[@richardmaryman3494]

RRHG-- you mentioned that you are retired LIRR....when you were working, what was you job? I had an uncle thqt was a brakeman on LIRR, moslty worked at the Long Island City yard.I like hearing you commentery...it's like listening to my relatives that live in 5towns

[@3985uprr]

I did not work for the Long Island Rail Road

[@413TomaccoRoad]

What's RFW?

[@3985uprr]

Railfan window

[@413TomaccoRoad]

@@3985uprr That's a thing? I didn't know.

[@Hogger1225]

Love your videos, quality is great. Did notice in this video there seemed to be an excessive amount of "Morse Code" sounding rattleings? Would that be from a bracket, if you're using one? If you're hand holding your Cam, you're one of the most rock steady video makers I've seen!

[@3985uprr]

I just plop it hard against the window. The window is sometimes a bit slippery plus the case has a slight bulge where the lenses show. That bulge may tap if I have a hard time holding camera. The stabilizer in that camera does an excellent job. I recently bought a heavy duty case that doesn’t have the bulge so that problem hopefully will be eliminated.

[@elliotwelz9793]

Any chance you can get rid of that woodpecker you have in your camera ?

[@3985uprr]

It’s not the camera. It’s the resistance it has to somewhat slippery glass.

[@jayo_z]

What kind of horn is that?

[@3985uprr]

C5A-CWP. I’ve never heard anything like that

[@williamerazo3921]

Why they running slow

[@3985uprr]

Track conditions due heat

[@gregorymontgomery6666]

Is this the part of the corridor

[@3985uprr]

No. It sees far less passenger service. The Fredericksburg line is part of the corridor now as it has seen a lot more passenger service.

[@JimAllen-Persona]

I appreciate that you enjoy these trips and share them with us… but don’t you get bored of seeing peoples backyards? It’s really one of the things stopping me from a long distance train trips.. I get bored from Ronkonkoma to Penn. I took Amtrak from NYP to Route 128 quite a few years ago and was climbing the walls from New Haven up.

[@3985uprr]

Doesn’t bother me

[@JimAllen-Persona]

@@3985uprr you’re a better man than I