While the H Street bridge over the tracks neared completion, one of the first clear signs of railroad activity picking up from the early 1970s doldrums was the addition of an automobile parking deck behind Union Station.

A second, larger deck would follow a couple decades later. The turntable at bottom center was removed around that time. K Tower is at bottom left, not far from K Street sneaking under the tracks.

Links: LoC source photo, from ground 1977

Washington Metro (left) and Amtrak trains meet near Metro's Red Line NoMa / Gallaudet U station. The station sits between N and M Streets. L Street crosses under the tracks at photo bottom, as does K Street seen in the next panel.

K Street is one of several that was presciently grade separated when Union Station began. Double striping along a street's center line did not become standard until the 1970s.

Link: DDOT photo source

Almost underneath K Tower is a combination of stone, steel, and modern concrete that permits K Street traffic to pass.

On the right is a non-standard application of a traffic signal as a warning blinker. The red and green went unused. Since photo time this signal has been removed.

The H Street bridge/tunnel, whichever perspective you prefer, shows its original form in this circa 1960 photo. The leftmost two automobiles are easy to identify (1957 Chevrolet, 1959 Chevrolet), the details and others I'll leave as a challenge for readers.

Those are oddly placed windows and coverings on the PRR coach above. I asked around but no one knew what that's about. A converted car?

Link: DDOT source photo

Before the H Street bridge spanned Union Station's yard, auto traffic used this underpass. At photo time, "Amtrak" had not yet been painted onto all rolling stock, hence the "Penn Central"-labeled coach waiting above. (That lettering is difficult to see through lamp glare.)

Just two years after this H Street underpass was relighted with the mercury-vapor lamps seen here, it would be closed to make way for the H Street bridge. Those bluish mercury-vapor lamps on many city streets would in a decade or two be swapped out for brighter, orangish sodium-vapor ones.

Many sodium-vapor street lamps gave way to LEDs during the 2010s. Though LEDs existed at the time of this photo, decades of research were needed to make them bright enough for street lighting. You'll have to wait until, oh, perhaps the 2040s to find out what lamp comes next.

Links: DDOT source photo, DC street lighting

At the northeast corner of H Street and the rail yard was an REA Express will-call office.

American Railway Express Agency formed in 1918 by a consolidation of smaller companies that offered package shipment services via railroad. The name shortened to Railway Express Agency, then REA Express by the time of this photo. After World War II the company lost business to roads, cars, and trucks, and declared bankruptcy in 1975, but not before losing the shipment of the first MITS Altair 8800 microcomputer.

Link: DDOT source photos

Public funding for roads and airports, plus wage/price controls took their toll on railroads. By 1974 the REA office had closed here, and the building, broken windows and all, was left to deteriorate, sadly like much of the Union Station area.

Assigning simple letter names to streets is both democratic and a way to avoid intersecting numbered roadways. In the Maspeth area of New York City, 60th Street, Avenue, Road, Drive, Lane, Place, and Court confusingly intersect each other within a stretch of less than 1000 feet. The trouble is single letters are difficult to hear distinctly, much to the chagrin of physicist Richard Feynman upon his first visit to Washington while consulting about the space shuttle Challenger disaster. For an important NASA meeting, a taxi took Feynman to what was an empty lot on 8th Street rather than the proper office on H Street.

Links: DDOT source photo, Every Street Is Named 60

The H Street bridge would soon cover this section of passenger platforms. Construction required approximately 3 years. Note the probably-original lamp pole near photo center. The zoom at right shows both the pole and a baggage cart that likely date to well before the 1970s.

Links: DDOT source photo, 1978, 1978

This is a reverse view of the construction as of 1977.

Link: LoC source photo

What's old is new. Streetcars of the past ran on H Street below the tracks here as part of the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Railway (WB&A), and as of 2016 they returned in the form of DC Streetcar. The cost of bringing streetcars back to the H Street corridor was so high (over $100 million for the first mile or so) many have questioned if it is an efficient, wise use of taxpayer money.

Change for: WB&A tour at this site
Link: similar view ~1910

As trains wiggle through switches near K Tower, when seen from afar they begin to resemble chromosomes.

Link: interior 2015

Of these four switchers, the ones on the end, AMTK 597 and AMTK 599, are National Railway Equipment (NRE) model 2GS14B. Both date to the 2010s and are nicknamed Luke and Ella, respectively. In the middle, AMTK 533 and AMTK 541 are 1970-built examples of EMD model MP15DC.

Diesel engines like this MARC Motive Power MP36PH-3C unit (left) can depart Union Station and follow any of three commuter routes, the Brunswick, Camden, or Penn Line. Diesel units are expected to be banned from the Penn Line for regular service once Baltimore's Frederick Douglass Tunnel opens. Only the Penn Line is equipped with electric catenary.

Someone with a wry sense of humor posted a RR crossing sign within the yard.

You'll note this train is not headed by a diesel locomotive. After leaving the station, it will follow the Penn Line north toward Baltimore, a direction opposite that of this tour.

During January 1953, Pennsylvania RR's runaway "Federal Express" train led by GG1 4876 roared through here and rammed into Union Station, just days before crowds were expected for a Presidential inauguration.

Links: Wreck of the Federal Express, 4876 pics

By the 1960s a confusing array of overhead semaphore signals had given way to trackside dwarf CPLs. On the right is Washington Terminal switcher model RS1 number 59.

Links: 1946, Number 59 in 1978

AMTK 941 exhibits my personal favorite paint scheme on model AEM7 engines.

Links: Walter Johnson here 1924, 1977 with MP54, Amtrak ICE 1993

On both MARC 4912 and AMTK 652 the red lamps of reverse movement are illuminated, something not often seen on ACS-64 engines while they ply the Penn Line.

Links: PRR 5401 in 1929, The Senator in 1929, The Senator in 1929, 1980

An overhead passageway was removed during 1984 with help from the Schramm 100 Pneumapower air compressor at right.

Link: DDOT photo source

A very 20th-century-looking telephone handset contrasts with the ACS-64's more modern-looking instrumentation. That speedometer registers up to 160 mph, or about 260 kph.

Yes, I was tempted to climb in the cab for a better photo, but did not wish to make anyone nervous. Security staff and cameras are numerous.

Fortunately Amtrak has already done the necessary cab-climbing, and offered the main photo, the old-looking phone handset curiously absent.

Operator cabs from 60 years prior (right) were a wee bit less cushy. No cupholders back then either though.

Links: Amtrak source photo, MP54 cab 1977