GP38-2 #715 idles in the distance while SW7 number 2 does ALL of the work in this April 2024 shot at Waste Management’s Jessup, MD facility. I learned yesterday that such is not always the case. At times, two switchers work simultaneously side by side.
Waste Management’s Jessup, MD facility is one of my favorite rail fan locations. If you go during business hours, you are one hundred percent guaranteed to see heavy switching action. Located a stone’s throw from BWI airport, next to a major highway, it’s easy to get to. All of the action can be taken in from public property. Finally, they have THREE photogenic switchers. You never know which ones you’ll see on any given day.
Here’s an aerial view of the facility. The switchers shuttle gondolas back and forth across Brock Bridge Road all day.
The switching cycle involves three steps: Pick up empties from the CSX interchange yard and spot them for loading. Slowly pull the empties under a backhoe to be loaded. (I believe trash trucks also dump directly into empty gons as well.) Take the loads back to the interchange yard.
On past trips I’ve always seen just one loco. performing all three steps. Yesterday’s trip was fascinating from the standpoint that they had two switchers working at the same time. The locos didn’t have dedicated tasks. It was more of a circular cycle. A loco would load, and then pull the loads to the interchange. At the same time, the other loco. would be gathering empties. As I watched, they seemed to swap tasks. This would be a really interesting operations plan to model on a layout.
Just as I arrived yesterday morning, #8379 (GP10) ran light over to the CSX interchange to pick up a string of empties. In this view, he’s coupled onto them and is heading back to the industry. Check out the color and weathering!
Number 8379 is out of sight at this point, somewhere in the back with the empties. While that was going on, #715 (GP38-2) was slowly pulling a cut of cars (ten or so) under the backhoe in the distance where they were loaded. He then pulled the cut of loads across Brock Bridge Road to the interchange yard. The two engines repeated the cycle over and over, swapping duties in the switching cycle.