You-tube

Yesterday morning (Wednesday, July 25, 2007) I fired up my mighty Curve story because it has that You-tube link of Cassandra Railfan Overlook.
You-tube has a search-window, so I cranked in Horseshoe-Curve. Whoa! Obviously You-tube has 89 bazilyun videos, as I got 89 bazilyun Horseshoe-Curve hits.
The first one I clicked on was Railfan Bob on the HorseShoe Curve..Video #3 (Give that man a tripod).
It was dreadful. First the video-camera was tightly focused on shrubbery, but a train could be heard climbing.
Then the camera started dancing all over, zooming in-and-out.
It was the mighty Curve all right: there’s 7048, and there’s the funicular-pagoda, and there’s the small stone switchtender’s shanty that’s been there for eons (all fleeting glimpses thereof).
Back-and-forth we go, zooming and angling all over the place.
Tightly zoomed on the shrubbery again, the train creeps slowly into view, baby-blue Conrail units partially hidden by branches.
The train rumbles slowly around the Curve, GramPaw zooming in-and-out.
By now the slow-moving train is almost to the viewing-area, and is blowing its horn.
So GramPaw decides to pan the whole Curve, angling madly around like a drunk.
GramPaw is along the fence, and the climbing train passes 7048, so GramPaw zooms in on the cab, then the hood (by mistake); then the trucks-and-wheels — then backs off to swallow the entire unit; what appears to be an SD50.
GramPaw is in his glory; gaily pirouetting his camera all over the Curve, zooming back-and-forth.
Slowly the train starts across the south fill, so GramPaw booms-and-zooms all over it.
It’s a train of empty coal-hoppers; so GramPaw whips around and zooms in on the passing hopper-trucks.
As the train slowly departs up the Hill we get a tightly-zoomed rendering of the rear panel of the last hopper.
I would be embarrassed to fly such a disaster. It reminded me of GramPaw madly aiming the web-cam all over the Curve when you could do that. (Thankfully they gave that up.)

Horseshoe Curve (the “mighty Curve,”) west of Altoona, Pennsylvania, is by far the BEST railfan spot I have ever been to. (Horseshoe Curve is a national historic site.)

“7048” is a retired diesel-locomotive on display in the Curve viewing area. It’s in Pennsylvania Railroad paint.

The Curve viewing-area can be accessed by a steep funicular inclined railroad.

The viewing area is fenced.

The part of a locomotive over the diesel-engine is “the hood.” The crew rides in “the cab.”

Two fills comprise major portions of Horseshoe-Curve; a north fill and a south fill. By doing so the tracks jump across a large valley.

RE: “The Hill.” Horseshoe-Curve, opened in 1854, is part of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s crossing of Allegheny Ridge. That crossing is known as “The Hill.” Pennsylvania Railroad merged with New York Central (Penn Central) and went bankrupt. It was replaced by Conrail, which was eventually split and sold to Norfolk Southern Railroad and CSX (railroad). Norfolk Southern operates Horseshoe-Curve.

Horseshoe-Curve has a web-cam. (A while ago viewers could control it.)