Another train-chase
DAY ONE; (the trip down, Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013):
The Hillary Clinton/Chuck Schumer Memorial Freeway is finally open, and my wife didn’t live to see it.
My wife died in April of 2012.
It’s probably called something else, but I’d call it that because you’d think those two blowhards could have made the guvamint do it.
Clinton was once NY senator, and Schumer still is. I don’t recall who replaced Clinton, but it may be Kirsten Gillibrand — not a heavy like Clinton.
The Hillary Clinton/Chuck Schumer Memorial Freeway replaces the final segment of the old Route-15 two-lane.
Funny, Pennsylvania replaced every segment of the old Route-15 two-lane, but as you drove north it narrowed from limited-access highway onto the old Route-15 two-lane at the NY state line.
I’ve driven that route hundreds of times.
Pennsylvania didn’t do it all-at-once; they did it piecemeal.
The infamous Blossburg hill — actually three lanes to add a lane for climbing trucks — was bypassed about 5-10 years ago. Other two-lane segments through difficult business districts were also bypassed. Segments were built as limited-access two-lane at first, then the other lanes added.
Another segment near Steam Valley was reconfigured to stop using the old road as southbound lanes.
There’s a segment south of Williamsport that isn’t limited-access, but it’s four-lane, and can be safely driven at 55-60 mph.
Go back far enough and into Altoona was a two-lane highway. What used to be a seven-hour trip now takes five hours.
That two-lane was partially bypassed by the Bud Shuster highway (Interstate-99).
Bud Shuster was a congressman from the area.
Now the Bud Shuster highway is built almost to Interstate-80, which is part of my route.
So a trip to Altoona was now a slam-dunk, except for that two-lane in NY.
Actually, I use two-lanes to get across NY. There is an expressway (Interstate-390), but it doglegs.
It takes as long as my back-roads route.
DAY TWO; (the train-chase, Thursday, October 24th, 2013):
This was my first train-chase with Phil Faudi in about a year. (“FOW-dee;” as in “wow.”)
He calls ‘em “Tours.”
His wife has Multiple-Sclerosis, and he had to stop.
At first he was doing it as a business, but he gave that up when it became dicey, plus he had bought a new car which he didn’t wanna damage, and he had been doing the driving.
He cut back to just leading me around, plus a few others, but he had to give that up too when his wife got worse.
Faudi lives in Altoona with his wife Rita. He’s a railfan extraordinaire.
My first “tour” was five years ago, and it blew my mind.
It was railfan overload!
We saw 20 trains.
Phil brings along his scanner tuned to only the Norfolk Southern radio-frequency, 160.8 megahertz.
With it he can tell the whereabouts of every train.
The line is quite busy, so he doesn’t have to wait long. It’s the old Pennsylvania Railroad mainline across PA, a conduit of heavy freight-traffic to-and-from the east-coast megalopolis.
The line is now owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Railroad.
“Pennsy” (the Pennsylvania Railroad) no longer exists.
Phil is familiar enough with the area to know if we have time to beat a train to a prime photo-location.
He also knows the schedule, so knows what trains to look for when.
The train-engineers have to call out the signal-aspects on the radio as they pass each signal, and often you can catch what track they are on, and what direction they are.
When the train-engineers call out the signal-aspects they identify their train — although that may be clipped.
What track they are on indicates direction. Track One and/or Two are east, Three or Four are west, and Two/Three can be either way. (That’s Three and Four at a location with four tracks.)
If the train-number is clipped, Faudi’s knowledge of the schedule comes to play — he may have heard enough to know what train it is.
If he hears static, he knows a train with a poor radio is moving.
There also are defect-detectors that transmit on the radio.
The defect-detectors sense hot wheel-bearings, dragging equipment, etc. One or the other or all. They also tell what track they are on.
I can monitor the radio at home via the Internet. There also is a webcam in Cresson (“KRESS-in”) aimed at the tracks.
If the detector at milepost 253.1 reports Track One, I know I’ll soon see that train. Track Three is a train that’s already passed.
I also often hear the train-engineers calling out the signals at “UN,” milepost 249.4, and “MO.” The letters are old tower telegraph call-letters.
When I hear that, I’ll soon see that train.
If the engineers call out signals eastbound on Track One west of Cresson, I’ll soon see that train.
What a pleasure this is! I used to not be able to make sense of signal transmissions, but now I can. Radio transmissions were “gibberish,” but now aren’t.
We began at Brickyard Crossing the only grade-crossing on the mainline in the Altoona area.
It’s actually Porta Road, but there once was a brickyard nearby — now it’s gone.
Eastbound at Brickyard. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
We were fighting partly-cloudy light. Sun out, then clouds. At that time of day — the morning — a train is backlit if I’m shooting from up on the embankment on the north side of the tracks.
That embankment is usually my best shot, although there is another location at trackside.
Here comes a westbound. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
We then drove up to Plummers Crossing east of Tyrone (“tie-RONE”), another grade-crossing. The mainline turns east at Tyrone.
Nothing!
We left and headed back to Altoona, the 17th St. overpass next to Alto Tower, now closed.
Train 25Z passes through Altoona towards The Hill. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
Train 25Z, a stacker, was headed west toward The Hill.
We then decided to go up The Hill using Sugar Run Road. It uses the same valley the railroad uses, paralleling it. Although the road is down in the valley, and the railroad is up on the hillside.
There it was beside us, 25Z climbing The Hill.
“I think we can beat it to Lilly,” Phil said.
Lilly (a town) is questionable for westbounds.
“So how about Carneys Crossing?” I said, another grade-crossing. “I’ve never shot anything there.”
Carneys is just before Lilly.
Hammer-down for the old stroke-survivor. Can we beat it to Carneys?
25Z westbound at Carneys Crossing. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
We did; the first time I ever got to a shot ahead of what we were chasing.
Phil could do it when he was driving, but now it’s me driving, so I’m the pokey little puppy.
We then headed railroad-east north of Altoona to McFarlands Curve in Tipton, and finally Bellwood.
There are three tracks at McFarlands; Two and One and a controlled-siding, meaning it’s signaled. (Bellwood is also three tracks.)
Westbounds negotiate an S-curve toward our location. Eastbounds are framed by an old Pennsy signal-bridge with six target-signals, three per side, one for each track.
I’ve never been able to get anything westbound with strong telephoto over that S-curve, but this time I got two westbounds.
21J negotiates the S-curve; it’s on the controlled-siding. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
I also got a crude-oil extra eastbound under the signal-bridge.
64R; crude on the move. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
From there we went back into Tipton to get lunch.
We shot a picture at the crossing there, then headed to Bellwood.
Bellwood has a new footbridge over the tracks, but it has cyclone-fencing with very small holes. You can’t photograph through it.
But you can photograph from the fence-ends.
Westbound approaching that footbridge is a small cut through the town. It makes a decent shot.
Eastbound is over a long tangent (straight track), but it works if you exclude the tangent and shoot just the locomotive.
Eastbound 10G at Bellwood. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
Which is what you have to do from the fence-end.
From there we headed toward the location my brother-and-I found on The Hill west of Brickyard Crossing.
23Z up The Hill. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
That location is not far from “Ledges,” a rock outcropping that overlooks the tracks.
Getting up to “Ledges” is challenging — it’s hiking a jeep-track. But it’s a nice photograph.
14G, down on One with helpers, passes 21M, up on Three. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
I got a double up there, one down on One passing a van-train up on Three.
But by then it was late-afternoon and we were losing our light.
We gave up.
Back down to Altoona to get Phil’s car, then the infamous spaghetti-joint, Lena’s Café, with Phil’s wife.
Rita is having a hard time getting around, but seems no worse than before.
I guess she’s not tied to a urine-bag, which she was a few months ago.
Stuff like that I understand.
I cared for my wife, and lost a really good one.
DAY THREE; back to reality, (Friday, October 25th, 2013).
At least I managed to not start crying like last time as I got on the Route 22 Expressway.
A pleasant diversion, but I return home to a big empty house — no longer a wife.
This trip felt like a dividing point: like what I returned to was less real than before.
But I lived with that lady 44 years.
And now she’s gone.
Of course my world is no longer what it was.
And so the infamous “Green Shingles Restaurant” is doomed.
“Green-Shingles” has been there as I’ve travelled that road, at least 50 years.
It became a travel-mark; you passed “Green Shingles” passing into PA at the state line.
Traveling north, you passed “Green Shingles” after you entered NY.
It’s on the old Route 15 two-lane.
There it was, down in the valley, as I arced off the mountain; bypassed, and looking rather decrepit.
It’s fallen into disrepair ever since they started the Hillary Clinton/Chuck Schumer Memorial Freeway.
Its roof is green shingles, and needs to be replaced.
I doubt it can survive if the old Route 15 two-lane is bypassed.
I (we) never patronized it; it seemed like a roadhouse.
I wouldn’t be surprised next time it’s gone or burned out.
• I had a stroke October 26, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered.
The Hillary Clinton/Chuck Schumer Memorial Freeway is finally open, and my wife didn’t live to see it.
My wife died in April of 2012.
It’s probably called something else, but I’d call it that because you’d think those two blowhards could have made the guvamint do it.
Clinton was once NY senator, and Schumer still is. I don’t recall who replaced Clinton, but it may be Kirsten Gillibrand — not a heavy like Clinton.
The Hillary Clinton/Chuck Schumer Memorial Freeway replaces the final segment of the old Route-15 two-lane.
Funny, Pennsylvania replaced every segment of the old Route-15 two-lane, but as you drove north it narrowed from limited-access highway onto the old Route-15 two-lane at the NY state line.
I’ve driven that route hundreds of times.
Pennsylvania didn’t do it all-at-once; they did it piecemeal.
The infamous Blossburg hill — actually three lanes to add a lane for climbing trucks — was bypassed about 5-10 years ago. Other two-lane segments through difficult business districts were also bypassed. Segments were built as limited-access two-lane at first, then the other lanes added.
Another segment near Steam Valley was reconfigured to stop using the old road as southbound lanes.
There’s a segment south of Williamsport that isn’t limited-access, but it’s four-lane, and can be safely driven at 55-60 mph.
Go back far enough and into Altoona was a two-lane highway. What used to be a seven-hour trip now takes five hours.
That two-lane was partially bypassed by the Bud Shuster highway (Interstate-99).
Bud Shuster was a congressman from the area.
Now the Bud Shuster highway is built almost to Interstate-80, which is part of my route.
So a trip to Altoona was now a slam-dunk, except for that two-lane in NY.
Actually, I use two-lanes to get across NY. There is an expressway (Interstate-390), but it doglegs.
It takes as long as my back-roads route.
DAY TWO; (the train-chase, Thursday, October 24th, 2013):
This was my first train-chase with Phil Faudi in about a year. (“FOW-dee;” as in “wow.”)
He calls ‘em “Tours.”
His wife has Multiple-Sclerosis, and he had to stop.
At first he was doing it as a business, but he gave that up when it became dicey, plus he had bought a new car which he didn’t wanna damage, and he had been doing the driving.
He cut back to just leading me around, plus a few others, but he had to give that up too when his wife got worse.
Faudi lives in Altoona with his wife Rita. He’s a railfan extraordinaire.
My first “tour” was five years ago, and it blew my mind.
It was railfan overload!
We saw 20 trains.
Phil brings along his scanner tuned to only the Norfolk Southern radio-frequency, 160.8 megahertz.
With it he can tell the whereabouts of every train.
The line is quite busy, so he doesn’t have to wait long. It’s the old Pennsylvania Railroad mainline across PA, a conduit of heavy freight-traffic to-and-from the east-coast megalopolis.
The line is now owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Railroad.
“Pennsy” (the Pennsylvania Railroad) no longer exists.
Phil is familiar enough with the area to know if we have time to beat a train to a prime photo-location.
He also knows the schedule, so knows what trains to look for when.
The train-engineers have to call out the signal-aspects on the radio as they pass each signal, and often you can catch what track they are on, and what direction they are.
When the train-engineers call out the signal-aspects they identify their train — although that may be clipped.
What track they are on indicates direction. Track One and/or Two are east, Three or Four are west, and Two/Three can be either way. (That’s Three and Four at a location with four tracks.)
If the train-number is clipped, Faudi’s knowledge of the schedule comes to play — he may have heard enough to know what train it is.
If he hears static, he knows a train with a poor radio is moving.
There also are defect-detectors that transmit on the radio.
The defect-detectors sense hot wheel-bearings, dragging equipment, etc. One or the other or all. They also tell what track they are on.
I can monitor the radio at home via the Internet. There also is a webcam in Cresson (“KRESS-in”) aimed at the tracks.
If the detector at milepost 253.1 reports Track One, I know I’ll soon see that train. Track Three is a train that’s already passed.
I also often hear the train-engineers calling out the signals at “UN,” milepost 249.4, and “MO.” The letters are old tower telegraph call-letters.
When I hear that, I’ll soon see that train.
If the engineers call out signals eastbound on Track One west of Cresson, I’ll soon see that train.
What a pleasure this is! I used to not be able to make sense of signal transmissions, but now I can. Radio transmissions were “gibberish,” but now aren’t.
We began at Brickyard Crossing the only grade-crossing on the mainline in the Altoona area.
It’s actually Porta Road, but there once was a brickyard nearby — now it’s gone.
Eastbound at Brickyard. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
We were fighting partly-cloudy light. Sun out, then clouds. At that time of day — the morning — a train is backlit if I’m shooting from up on the embankment on the north side of the tracks.
That embankment is usually my best shot, although there is another location at trackside.
Here comes a westbound. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
We then drove up to Plummers Crossing east of Tyrone (“tie-RONE”), another grade-crossing. The mainline turns east at Tyrone.
Nothing!
We left and headed back to Altoona, the 17th St. overpass next to Alto Tower, now closed.
Train 25Z passes through Altoona towards The Hill. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
Train 25Z, a stacker, was headed west toward The Hill.
We then decided to go up The Hill using Sugar Run Road. It uses the same valley the railroad uses, paralleling it. Although the road is down in the valley, and the railroad is up on the hillside.
There it was beside us, 25Z climbing The Hill.
“I think we can beat it to Lilly,” Phil said.
Lilly (a town) is questionable for westbounds.
“So how about Carneys Crossing?” I said, another grade-crossing. “I’ve never shot anything there.”
Carneys is just before Lilly.
Hammer-down for the old stroke-survivor. Can we beat it to Carneys?
25Z westbound at Carneys Crossing. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
We did; the first time I ever got to a shot ahead of what we were chasing.
Phil could do it when he was driving, but now it’s me driving, so I’m the pokey little puppy.
We then headed railroad-east north of Altoona to McFarlands Curve in Tipton, and finally Bellwood.
There are three tracks at McFarlands; Two and One and a controlled-siding, meaning it’s signaled. (Bellwood is also three tracks.)
Westbounds negotiate an S-curve toward our location. Eastbounds are framed by an old Pennsy signal-bridge with six target-signals, three per side, one for each track.
I’ve never been able to get anything westbound with strong telephoto over that S-curve, but this time I got two westbounds.
21J negotiates the S-curve; it’s on the controlled-siding. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
I also got a crude-oil extra eastbound under the signal-bridge.
64R; crude on the move. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
From there we went back into Tipton to get lunch.
We shot a picture at the crossing there, then headed to Bellwood.
Bellwood has a new footbridge over the tracks, but it has cyclone-fencing with very small holes. You can’t photograph through it.
But you can photograph from the fence-ends.
Westbound approaching that footbridge is a small cut through the town. It makes a decent shot.
Eastbound is over a long tangent (straight track), but it works if you exclude the tangent and shoot just the locomotive.
Eastbound 10G at Bellwood. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
Which is what you have to do from the fence-end.
From there we headed toward the location my brother-and-I found on The Hill west of Brickyard Crossing.
23Z up The Hill. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
That location is not far from “Ledges,” a rock outcropping that overlooks the tracks.
Getting up to “Ledges” is challenging — it’s hiking a jeep-track. But it’s a nice photograph.
14G, down on One with helpers, passes 21M, up on Three. (Photo by BobbaLew with Phil Faudi.)
I got a double up there, one down on One passing a van-train up on Three.
But by then it was late-afternoon and we were losing our light.
We gave up.
Back down to Altoona to get Phil’s car, then the infamous spaghetti-joint, Lena’s Café, with Phil’s wife.
Rita is having a hard time getting around, but seems no worse than before.
I guess she’s not tied to a urine-bag, which she was a few months ago.
Stuff like that I understand.
I cared for my wife, and lost a really good one.
DAY THREE; back to reality, (Friday, October 25th, 2013).
At least I managed to not start crying like last time as I got on the Route 22 Expressway.
A pleasant diversion, but I return home to a big empty house — no longer a wife.
This trip felt like a dividing point: like what I returned to was less real than before.
But I lived with that lady 44 years.
And now she’s gone.
Of course my world is no longer what it was.
And so the infamous “Green Shingles Restaurant” is doomed.
“Green-Shingles” has been there as I’ve travelled that road, at least 50 years.
It became a travel-mark; you passed “Green Shingles” passing into PA at the state line.
Traveling north, you passed “Green Shingles” after you entered NY.
It’s on the old Route 15 two-lane.
There it was, down in the valley, as I arced off the mountain; bypassed, and looking rather decrepit.
It’s fallen into disrepair ever since they started the Hillary Clinton/Chuck Schumer Memorial Freeway.
Its roof is green shingles, and needs to be replaced.
I doubt it can survive if the old Route 15 two-lane is bypassed.
I (we) never patronized it; it seemed like a roadhouse.
I wouldn’t be surprised next time it’s gone or burned out.
• I had a stroke October 26, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered.
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posted by BobbaLew at 5:50 PM
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