Things are different in Altoony!

Empty grain-train west at Cassandra Railfan Overlook. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

(“kuh-SANN-druh;” as in “Anne”)
Another foray to Allegheny Crossing in the Altoona, PA, area, where the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad crossed Allegheny Mountain in the 1850s.
Pennsy, once the largest railroad in the world, no longer exists. Although its railroad does, operated by Norfolk Southern Railroad, which purchased most of the ex-Pennsy lines from Conrail when it sold.
Norfolk Southern is a merger of Norfolk & Western and Southern Railway in 1982.
Pennsy had merged with arch-rival New York Central in 1968 to form Penn-Central, and that went bankrupt in 1970, the largest bankruptcy ever at that time.
Conrail, a government operation at first, was formed to keep northeast railroading going. Other northeast railroads beside Penn-Central were going bankrupt.
Conrail, which included both the NYC and Pennsy mains, succeeded and eventually went non-government. It was broken up and sold in 1999.
CSX purchased most of the ex New York Central lines; which is interesting because this is what was desired in the 1950s: Pennsy was trying to merge with Norfolk & Western, and Chesapeake & Ohio (now CSX) was trying to get control of New York Central.
Quite a few Conrail branch lines (former Penn-Central, etc.) were turned over to shortlines or abandoned, and much of its commuter-service was turned over to government authorities.
The current arrangement of CSX operating NYC and Norfolk Southern operating Pennsy is what was at first not allowed.
I’m a Pennsy-fan, and always have been. I’m a railfan, and have been since age-2; I’m now 70.
I started with Pennsy, actually Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (“REDD-ing;” not “READ-ing”), which was still operating steam-locomotives in the late 1940s and early ‘50s, when I first visited.
I was scared to death of thunderstorms, but I could stand right next to a steam-engine!

Things are different in Altoony compared to the world I come from, which is western New York.
People talk with the Philadelphia-accent, which is where I came from originally, actually south Jersey.
But I’ve been in western New York so long, almost 50 years, only a smidge of my Philadelphia-accent is left.
I embarrassed the check-in lady at my motel. “I’ve lived here all my life,” she said, when I pointed out her accent.
Like what accent?
“Well of course your accent is not an accent to you, but people in western New York don’t talk like that,” I said.
Flashing signs are everywhere, and giant roadside billboards that flash or change every couple seconds.
You don’t see that sort of thing in western New York, just small roadside entreaties to repeal the S.A.F.E.-act: “Protect our 2nd-amendment rights.”
Years ago we passed a hospital in Altoona with a flashing sign out front.
My wife, now gone, picked up on it immediately.
“Today’s special,” she said. “Liver transplants, only $895.”
I got lost this visit driving back to my motel.
I turned around in a shopping-mall parking-lot. At the exit onto the highway I faced a funeral-home.
It had a mausoleum attached.
A flashing sign was out front: “Ask about our specials!”
You don’t see things like that in western New York.
“No fancy funeral for for me,” my mother-in-law bellows, still alive at age-98.
“Just stuff me in a Hefty-bag, and drag me out to the curb.”
“Arrangements by Pratt Disposal and Flint landfill,” I once wrote into a suggested obituary at my newspaper.
“I better delete that,” I said; “lest it get printed.”
“Pratt Disposal” is my trash pickup. Out where I live trash is disposed of privately, not a gumint function.
“Flint landfill” is a giant trash landfill in the nearby Town of Flint. My trash ends up in that landfill.

Previous train-chases at Allegheny Crossing were led by my friend Phil Faudi (“FOW-deee;” as in “wow”), a railfan extraordinaire from the Altoona area.
He was doing it as a business at first; he called ‘em “tours.”
My first tours were with him as a business. But then he gave that up. Too many near-misses, and a newer car he didn’t wanna abuse. He had been driving me around in his car per his railroad-radio scanner.
But he continued leading me around in my car with me driving. He’d monitor his railroad-radio scanner and tell me where to go.
But his beloved wife has Multiple Sclerosis, and he was afraid of her falling while he and I were chasing trains.
So now he stays home monitoring his railroad-radio scanner, and calls my cellphone while I chase trains myself.
This works pretty well, although not as good as he and I together, in which case we snag nearly everything.

Congratulations if you’ve read everything previous.
The art starts here.
Since I checked in my motel by 3 p.m., I figured I’d begin chasing trains Wednesday afternoon, unlike usual.
I figured I’d try to find the location in Altoona where my brother and I shot last January.
In Altoona the railroad splits into two groupings I call “the express-tracks” and “the drag-tracks.”
Fast trains take the express-tracks, and heavy coal-trains the drag-tracks.
But I was unable to find the location where I shot a coal-extra negotiating the drag-tracks last January.
So instead I shot an eastbound stacker on the express-tracks.


Eastbound stacker threads the express-tracks through Altoona. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

That was the only location I went to on Wednesday afternoon.
That stacker stopped to clear a westbound train of auto-racks, but that’s not a successful picture.

Day Two, the day of my full-on train-chase, Thursday (8/21):
I began at Cassandra Railroad Overlook (I call it “Cassandra Railfan Overlook”), an old overpass over the main.
The bridge is on the original highway alignment into Cassandra, and is supposedly the original highway-bridge.
The highway was rebuilt bypassing Cassandra, but that old overpass was a way for Cassandra residents to get to jobs across the tracks, without actually crossing the tracks at grade.
The bridge is iron and concrete, single-lane, wide enough to pass a Model-A.
From west the railroad threads a deep rock cut approaching the bridge.
Previously the railroad went right through Cassandra, but that was bypassed by a straighter route in 1898.
Cassandra Railfan Overlook is better than Horseshoe Curve, since it’s shady.
Horseshoe Curve is part of Allegheny Crossing, a trick to ease grading over Allegheny Mountain.
Horseshoe Curve is a railfan pilgrimage spot; the BEST I’ve ever been to.
I set up on Cassandra’s park-benches, hoping to repeat a view I saw in a Norfolk Southern Employees’ Photography-Contest calendar.
I carry a railroad-radio scanner myself, and heard a grain unit-train being cleared at Cresson (“KRESS-in”).
Norfolk Southern delivers a unit-train of corn to a shortline in Cresson.
That shortline then takes the train up to an ethanol plant in Clearfield, PA.
What’s pictured (lede picture) are the empty covered-hoppers going back for another trainload of corn.
From there I began chasing trains with Faudi; he called about 9:45.
Unfortunately Faudi is on the east side of the mountain, and can only monitor that side. I was on the west side of the mountain.
All he could tell me about was westbound trains up the east slope. Eastbound up the west slope I was on-my-own.
But I figured I’d do all right, because -a) there are many, and -b) I have a railroad-radio scanner of my own.
I figured I’d go to the small town of Portage, Portage and Cassandra being the two locations I wanted most.
Portage is where the 1898 bypass starts. It’s a long straight to Cassandra Railfan Overlook.
Actually the original Pennsy went right through Portage, and that railroad still exists.
It passes a coal-tipple, so is used as a branch.
I had to wait a while, but Phil had told me a westbound was coming.


Westbound stacker at Portage. (Photo by BobbaLew.)


Helpers push mixed east through Portage. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

Then came an eastbound string of coal-hoppers, with SD80-MACs at each end.
The SD80-MAC was the premier EMD (“Electromotive Division”) locomotive a few years ago. It has the V20 engine, and AC (Alternating-Current) traction-motors. —Most road diesels are V12 or V16 and Direct-Current.
It’s rated at 5,000 horsepower, and the “M” stood for “modified cab,” a wide-nose cab.
The V20 engine was first used in the SD-45 of the late ‘60s, and had a habit of breaking that long crankshaft.
The V20 worked fine in a boat, but not in railroad operation, which subjects it to heavy vibration.
EMD fixed that.
Conrail got the SD80-MACs hoping to reduce locomotive use over its storied Middle Division by one locomotive.
The Middle Division is Pennsy’s old Middle Division: Harrisburg to Altoona.
That didn’t work. But the SD80-MACs were excellent for slow heavy coal-drags.
They were transferred to Allegheny Crossing, where there are coal-loadouts.
You might see those MACs moving heavy coal-trains up The Hill.
I took pictures, but they’re blurred. I was using strong telephoto which I mount on a single-leg pole.
Actually, a tripod might make more sense, since that single-leg pole is as unstable as hand-held.
In Portage Faudi suggested I go to Carneys Crossing, a road-crossing at grade. north of Portage.
But then the westbound he predicted was slow getting going, so he suggested I go to the Railfan Observation-Deck in nearby Cresson.
The railroad goes straight through Cresson, and is where that shortline, once a Pennsy branch, intersects.
The railroad also services its helper-engines there, along with the MACs. That service-terminal is visible from the Observation-Deck.
I’ve never done very well from that Observation-Deck, but Faudi said a westbound was coming.
After Cresson, it was after one o’clock, and during the afternoon until maybe 3 p.m. activity slows on the railroad. So I drove back to Portage, a McDonald’s, to get lunch.
I was going to eat lunch in the restaurant, but Faudi called and said a very important train was coming, that I should immediately get trackside. It’s a new train, a Fed-Ex hotshot, trailer-on-flatcar, even some Fed-Ex ground trailers.
So I had McDonald’s change my order to “to-go,” which was really just bag it.
And off I roared into Portage to find the location Faudi suggested.
I saw the hot-shot, but I didn’t have my camera on.
Then another westbound came, but it snuck up on me while I was changing lenses.
A third westbound came, but I managed to snag it.


Westbound mixed at milepost 258.8. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

Take note the train has foreign power, a BNSF unit, the orange second unit.
A GP-38 was also in this consist. That’s the third unit.
GP-38s aren’t even turbocharged.
“Not enough power, Boss; it’ll stall on The Hill.”
“Take that GP-38. That’s all I got.”
GP-38s usually serve local-freights; they’re not road-power.
A railroad service-truck goofed up my view of westbounds through Portage.
An eastbound coal-extra came.


Eastbound coal. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

I snagged that.
Apparently I had gone where Faudi suggested, but he said there was another location in Portage.
It’s where the long straight from Cassandra ends.
He said it was next to a road-trailer, but I’d have to knock down weeds.
View goofed up by that service-truck, I began looking for the trailer location.
I found it, without Phil, but the weeds had already been chopped down.
But the location only works westbound, and I only got two eastbounds.
After that I decided to go to Summerhill, to try to repeat a view I saw in Trains Magazine.
But before I did I tried the Jamestown Road Bridge, a highway overpass over the 1898 bypass.
Madness began as I left Portage. One of the eastbounds was still passing, but a westbound mixed Phil had predicted flew by doing at least 50 mph!
Mixed-freights are usually almost draggers. They often get stopped so more important trains can pass.
At Jamestown Road I took my telephoto out as far as it would go: 300 mm.
The westbound UPS-train was coming, another hot-shot of mostly UPS trailers on flatcars.
On that long straight I got the entire train, although the UPS-train is fairly short.


The westbound UPS-train. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

I then headed to Summerhill, which has an old Pennsy signal-bridge Norfolk Southern still uses, and it silhouettes the sky.
It’s a great picture, but my previous shots also had a church in them = distraction. They were from across the tracks.
The Trains picture was from a side I hadn’t tried yet. It silhouettes the signal-bridge, yet avoids the church.
When I finally attained Summerhill, a long wait began; over an hour.
I was about to leave; no scanner-chatter — and all Phil could predict was westbound. My Summerhill shot is eastbound.
Suddenly the flood began. A predicted westbound passed, and suddenly here were the SD80-MACs heading west on Track One.
Track One is usually only eastbound. The MACs were headed for the South Fork Secondary, location of four tipples.
An eastbound snuck up on me, but my best Summerhill shot is the MACs pushing their train west on One — A cheat-shot.


MACs the wrong way at Summerhill — the engines are actually pushing. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

Having snagged my Summerhill photo — it’s lousy; I need to try again — I decided to give up for the day; it was after five.
Phil felt bad I had missed a few trains, but I was happy.
“You hafta remember I’m on the side of The Hill you can’t monitor, and I’m making sudden decisions without your counsel, which compromise my success, like that service-truck for example.
And if I don’t have my camera on, that’s not your fault.”
So I headed for Altoona, down the east slope of The Hill.
Along the way I decided to try a location where my brother shot last January, the Main St. bridge in Gallitzin (“guh-LIT-zin;” as in “get”), where Main St. crosses Track One.
The idea was to see if I could shoot from the other side of the tracks. But I can’t. It’s lawn, and obscured by trees. The only place to shoot is from where my brother shot.


Empty slab-train under Main St. in Gallitzin. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

THE END; from there back to Altoony.

Day Three; Back to Reality — back to bereavement.

• “Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines” (PRSL) is an amalgamation of Pennsylvania and Reading railroad-lines in south Jersey to counter the fact the two railroads had too much parallel track. It was promulgated in 1933. It serviced mainly the south Jersey seashore from Philadelphia.
• The New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013, commonly known as the NY SAFE Act, is a gun control law in the state of New York. The law was passed by the New York State Legislature on January 15, 2013, and was signed into law by Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo on the same day. The legislation was written in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Cuomo signed the bill into law half an hour after it passed the legislature. The act severely limits gun-ownership, and requires background-checks just to purchase ammunition. High-capacity magazines are also barred, and the definition of “assault-weapons” was also expanded, to include weapons that weren’t previously “assault-weapons.” Assault-weapons also have to be registered. —Gun-owners are upset with the SAFE-Act, that it contradicts the Bill-of-Rights Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. Small printed lawn-signs have been liberally distributed, and you see them everywhere.
• My wife of over 44 years died of cancer April 17th, 2012. I miss her dearly.
• For almost 10 years (over 11 if you count my time as a post-stroke unpaid intern [I had a stroke October 26, 1993, from which I recovered fairly well]) I worked for the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired almost nine years ago. Best job I ever had. (“Canandaigua” [“cannan-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city nearby where I live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 14 miles away.)
• “BNSF” is Burlington-Northern Santa Fe, a fairly recent merger of Burlington-Northern Railroad and Santa Fe Railroad.
• “UPS” is of course United Parcel Service.
• The “South Fork Secondary” is an old Pennsy branch out of the town of South Fork; it’s owned and operated by Norfolk Southern.