Another sojourn to Altoona

Here you see why I bought this car; a 2012 Ford Escape SUV with All-Wheel-Drive and high ground-clearance. Yrs trly is walking back to his car during a train-chase. It’s parked on a jeep-track up to the tracks through the woods. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

I started crying as I turned off Tunnel Hill Road onto the Route 22 Expressway toward Altoona (PA) to return home.
I glanced one last time at the blue riveted water-tower that signals I’m almost to Tunnel Inn, the bed-and-breakfast I use in the area.
“Back to reality,” I said through tears, what I always said to my wife as we left the area.
Now that my wife is gone — she died over a year ago — “reality” is much sadder than it was with her.
Back to my big empty house with only my faithful dog.
I had gone to Altoona to chase trains, what I’ve done many times — I’m a railfan and have been since age-2; I’m 69.
Altoona was the base of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s assault on Allegheny Front; the main impediment to trade across PA in the early 1800s. Allegheny Front is part of the Appalachian mountains.
Altoona was also Pennsy’s shop-town. Locomotives were designed, tested and built there, as were railroad-cars and other equipment. —Those shops once employed thousands.
Unfortunately mighty Pennsy, once the largest railroad in the world, is gone.
In 1968, partly in response to various pressures, Pennsy merged with arch-rival New York Central to become Penn-Central, and that went bankrupt in 1970, the largest corporate bankruptcy ever at that time.
Penn-Central, along with other bankrupt northeastern railroads, were folded into Conrail, a government enterprise that became profitable and privatized in 1986.
Pennsy’s fabulous New York City to Washington D.C. electrified line became Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. Amtrak is government sponsored.
Conrail was broken up and sold in 1999. Much of the New York Central lines went to CSX Transportation. many of the ex-Pennsy lines went to Norfolk Southern Railroad, a merger of Southern Railway and Norfolk & Western in 1982.
Conrail still exists as Conrail Shared Assets, terminal facilities that couldn’t be fairly divided between CSX and Norfolk Southern.
Pennsy’s original line across PA still exists, although now owned and operated by Norfolk Southern.
And Like Pennsy, the line still carries a lot of traffic.
Government regulation was also eased with the Staggers Act in 1980. Railroads once had immense power, but under regulation prompted by that, they could not effectively compete with alternate transit-modes, like trucking on government-built Interstate Highways.
(Truck-lines are not building and maintaining their pathway like the railroads.)
Altoona is no longer what it was under Pennsy. A huge locomotive shop still exists north of Altoona, but most everything else is gone.
Pennsy’s challenge of conquering Allegheny Front is still there. Norfolk Southern often has to add helper-locomotives to move trains over the mountain.
The number of trains and the challenge are why I’m attracted to this area.
Trains are always pulling or braking hard, and there are so many trains I don’t have to wait long.
People are always amazed. They think I’m waiting hours to see only one train. A while ago I saw 30 over nine hours.
My brother-from-Boston would accompany me.
He seems to have mellowed, perhaps because of my bereavement.
He used to noisily badmouth everything I said or did.
All because long ago I had the awful temerity and unmitigated gall and horrific audacity to question his driving, which at that time was crazy.
Other issues ensued, like my pointing out his recollection of how we got someplace was wrong.
My brother runs power-plants. He’s a manager. Questioning is not allowed.
My brother had ridden his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, so unlike the last time I would be driving my car.
I tend to be overly careful. and drive within my limits — I had a stroke almost 20 years ago.
As the “pokey-little-puppy” I can’t push like he would.
I had my railroad-radio scanner. With it I can tell fairly well if a train is coming. —And if we have time to move to another location or stay put.
I used to chase trains with an Altoona railfan very familiar with train-operations in the area.
He gave it up as a business after he had near-misses, and got a newer car. He had been chasing trains in his car. But he continued to lead me around, plus a few others, chasing trains.
But he had to give even that up. His wife has Multiple Sclerosis, and got worse.
So as far as I’m concerned, I’m on-my-own chasing trains. In past chases my friend gave me some excellent photo-locations, and I somewhat picked up his skill monitoring a scanner.
So here we were out chasing trains Thursday morning (August 22nd), my brother and I.
I get a call on my cellphone. It’s my Altoona-friend monitoring his scanner at home, to tell me where to be.
Train-engineers call out the signals as they pass: “Train 26T, east on One, 254.0, clear!” (That’s an indication he can proceed into the approaching track-block the signal is for.)
Track One is currently eastbound only, and when the engineer calls out the signal location I know where it is.
That is, Track One is eastbound, Three is westbound, and Two can be either way.
I’ve mastered the milepost locations (signal locations) to know well enough where a train is.
What track it’s on tells me which way the train is going, except if it’s on Track Two.
Another factor you monitor with your scanner is defect-detectors; they broadcast on the radio frequency.
Defect-detectors monitor a passing train for hot wheel-bearings, dragging equipment, etc., then broadcast the result.
“N-S detector milepost 258.9, Track One, no defects!” tells me an eastbound is coming if I’m east of 258.9.
A defect-detector can give you an idea which way a train is going if it’s on Track Two.
If an engineer calls out 254.0 on Two, and later the detector at 253.1 transmits, you can figure the train is probably headed east. (The engineer may also say “east” at a signal.)—Mileposts increase the farther they get from Philadelphia.
So here we were, my brother and I, on a highway overpass my Altoona-friend calls “High-Bridge.”


A stacker climbs the west slope. (Photo by BobbaLew.)


Eastbound solid auto-racks on Three pass a westbound stacker on Four, what my Altoona-friend calls “a double.” (Photo by BobbaLew.)

Underneath pass the tracks of the old Pennsylvania Railroad climbing eastward toward the summit of the Alleghenies.
My brother had never seen a five-track mainline. except one track is mainly storage for coal-trains awaiting locomotives to take them over the summit.
Left-to-right (or right-to-left in the bottom picture) the tracks are numbered Four, Three, Two, One, and Main-Eight.
Four is westbound only, Two and One are eastbound. and Three can be either way.
Clear of this area Track Four becomes Three, Track Three becomes Two, and the two tracks at right merge into One at the summit toward Altoona.
East of Altoona are only two mainline tracks, Two and One. In Altoona Two westbound becomes Three.
My brother and I debated the track-numbering.
He claimed Four was Three, and Three was Two.
“21T, UN, west on Track Three, clear,” my scanner would say.
“That’s Three, I tell ya,” my brother said, pointing to Four.
“The engineer said UN,” I said. “Before UN he’s on Track Three, but after UN three becomes Four.
That’s Four below us, and if you don’t like it, I’ll sic Rush Limbaugh on ya!” I said.
“21T, MO, west on Track Four clear!” said my scanner.
UN and MO are signal-locations, locations of old towers with “UN” and “MO” telegraph call-letters.
“Did you hear that?” I said. “Between UN and MO Three becomes Four.
We took a few pictures, but it was cloudy.
There were other locations to hit.
By now my Altoona-friend was calling frequently to lead us around.


A mixed-freight approaches Slope Interlocking. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)


Alto Tower, closed, is at right. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

We stopped at “Slope Interlocking” and “Alto Tower,” now closed, both in Altoona.
“Slope Interlocking” used to be a tower at the start of the grade over the Alleghenies.
Now it’s just an interlocking, the tower is gone.
Interlocking means switches and crossovers are interlocked to avoid route conflicts between trains, or cause switches to be thrown against a train.
An overpass is above the interlocking. The interlocking is there to route trains into vast Altoona yard.
By now my intent was to show my brother some of my Altoona-friend’s great photo-locations.
Plus we wanted to get to a great photo-location we had found on our own.
That’s where my lede picture was taken, driving a wooded jeep-trail to get to the location.
We took a few pictures there, then started to leave. But my Altoona-friend called to say a train was coming, and was nearby.


At our location. (Photo by BobbaLew.)


Also at our location. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

My Altoona friend had saved the day. We turned back and set up again. My brother got the picture he failed to get earlier.
I called my Altoona-friend, and let my brother thank him.
We then drove south (railroad west) to hit a few locations my brother wanted to try.
By now the sun was out, so we stopped again at “High-Bridge.”
Trains were coming and two had heritage-units.
My Altoona-friend wouldn’t know that.


#1072, the Illinois-Terminal heritage-unit, leads 61Q (empty ballast-hoppers) eastbound on Track One up The Hill. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)


PRR heritage-unit #8102 leads 65N (a train of empty crude-oil tankcars) westbound on Track Four down The Hill. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

Norfolk Southern has painted some of its new locomotives in colors of the many old railroads that comprise its system.
One locomotive, #8102, is Pennsy colors, Tuscan Red (“TUSS-kin;” not “Tucson, Ariz.”) with gold pinstripes, the colors Pennsy used on its passenger diesels.
#8102 was on train 65N, a train of empty crude-oil tankcars returning out west to load up again. (The lead covered-hopper is an idler to protect the engines and crew in case of a crash.)
We also got #1072, the Illinois-Terminal heritage-unit. leading 61Q, a train of empty Herzog ballast-hoppers. Illinois-Terminal was Chicago-based.
Both heritage-units were leading.
From High-Bridge we headed south (railroad-west), but it began to rain. Not hard, but a big dark cloud was overhead, and my weather-radar indicated an approaching squall-line.
But the rain dissipated as we continued south, almost to South Fork.
South Fork is where I wanted to get a fabulous late-afternoon shot on a big curve. I got one a while ago, but it was only helpers — I need a train.


Helper-set on Track One at South Fork. (Photo by BobbaLew.)



At Lilly looking west. (Photo by BobbaLew.)


At Summerhill looking west. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)


Almost to South Fork looking east. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

We shot off three overpasses, Lilly and Summerhill and just north of South Fork.
But it was late; we didn’t go down to the curve in South Fork.
I would have, if I’d heard an eastbound coming. My scanner was silent.
We drove back to Cresson (“KRESS-in”) to eat supper.
(Cresson is where the helper-sets are maintained.)
Our restaurant was locking up as we left; they close at 8.
Another pleasant diversion chasing trains in the Altoona area. We missed maybe six, but got at least 18 — not bad for chasing trains without my Altoona friend, although he was calling to give directions.
But I return home to the same sad, sorry situation I left.

• My beloved wife of over 44 years died of cancer April 17th, 2012. I miss her dearly. —She’d have come along, even though she wasn’t a railfan.
• I had a stroke October 26, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered.
• My “Altoona friend” is Phil Faudi (“FOW-dee,” as in “wow) a railfan extraordinaire from Altoona, PA, who supplied all-day train-chases for $125. —I did my first three years ago, alone, and it blew my mind. He called them “Adventure-Tours,” and that’s just what they were, railfan overload. Faudi would bring along his railroad-radio scanner, tuned to 160.8, the Norfolk Southern operating channel, and he knew the whereabouts of every train, as the engineers called out the signals, and various lineside defect-detectors fired off. He knew each train by symbol, and knew all the back-roads, and how long it took to get to various photo locations — and also what made a successful photo — lighting, drama, etc. I’d let Phil do the monitoring. I have a scanner myself, but I’d leave it behind. Phil knew every train on the scanner, where it was, and how long it took to beat it to a prime photo location. My first time was a slow day, yet we got 20 trains. Next Tour we got 30 trains in one nine-hour day. Phil gave it up; fear of liability suits, and a new really nice car he’s afraid he’d mess up.