Two hobbling cripples chase trains in Altoony

Westbound mixed passes Station Inn. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

Yrs trly is hobbling.
I have a problem with my left knee.
It’s just about bone-on-bone; bone-on-bone in some places.
It has me hobbling, and now I’m getting muscle-pain on my right side, probably due to my hobbling.
I have a hard time climbing steps.
I have to just about pull myself up.
My brother-from-Boston is even worse.
He broke his left leg a few months ago stepping off a ladder-bottom.
So he has a leg-brace, and is on crutches.

Yrs truly chops down weeds that might obstruct our picture.

The people who daycare my dog would be away for a week, so I decided to go to Altoona (PA) to chase trains.
My brother is a railfan too, and does pretty good with his camera.
I’ve used some of his train-photos in my calendar.
So he was interested in joining me.
We are at Cassandra Railroad Overlook (“kuh-SANNE-druh;” as in the name “Anne”) over the Norfolk Southern main across PA — the old Pennsy “Broad-Way.”
We are scanner-less; my railroad-radio scanner would work about five seconds then quit.
And that’s despite charging it all night. It’s over 15 years old, including its rechargeable battery.
We also were without Phil Faudi (“FOW-dee;” as in “wow”), the railfan extraordinaire from the Altoona area who has led me around.
He was in Maine, and no longer leads me around. His beloved wife Rita has Multiple-Sclerosis, so he prefers to not leave her alone.
What Phil would do is monitor his railroad-radio scanner in his house, and call my cellphone.
I could hear some other railfan’s scanner at the overlook-bridge.
“Norfolk Southern milepost 258.8, Track One, no defects.”
I hobbled quickly over to my brother, who was sitting in his chair out on a hillock overlooking the tracks.
“An eastbound is coming,” I shouted. “I heard it on another scanner, and that gets the tail-end of the train. It’s probably already in sight.”
“Do I have time to fold up my chair?”
“No! I’ll get it. Get moving!”
Suddenly we could hear it coming. Eastbound on Track One is climbing The Hill (Allegheny Mountain); assaulting-the heavens, really hammering.
So there was my brother, hobbling as fast as he could on his crutches, trying to get to the overlook-bridge before the train.
The train beat him, and this is the way it was the entire train-chase.
Us hobbling at breakneck speed after long intervals of waiting.
We’d go to some location, my brother would set up his chair, and we’d wait.
Something might indicate a train was coming, like a locomotive-horn at a faraway grade-crossing, or a signal-change.
Don’t forget we were scanner-less.
Or we’d see a headlight, or a train might just appear.
We’d spring into action, hobbling.
I was staying at Station-Inn in Cresson (“KRESS-in”), a bed-and-breakfast for railfans.
My brother was staying at a motor-lodge down toward Altoona.
Being at that motor-lodge was to my brother’s advantage. It’s all on one floor.
The first-floor of Station-Inn is at least 10 feet above grade. You have to ascend a giant staircase.
My room was on the second-floor; another climb.
I could do it, but hobbling.
The hard part for my brother is going down; he has to do it one step at-a-time.
Station-Inn is right next to the railroad, but would have been near-impossible for my brother.
My drive there takes five hours; my brother is nine.

DAY ONE: Wednesday, September 17th, the day I drove there, but my brother was already there, chasing trains himself.
He managed to snag a pretty good picture at Brickyard Crossing.


Eastbound on Track One at Brickyard. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

Brickyard Crossing is where Porta Road crosses at grade, the only grade-crossing in Altoona.
There used to be a brickyard adjacent, but now it’s gone. Both railfans and the railroad still call it Brickyard Crossing.
My brother called me as I was driving down; my car has Bluetooth.
I said I was gonna check in at Station-Inn first, but “You don’t wanna do that. Station-Inn is 20 miles away.”
Well, I don’t know about 20, but at least 15.
So I decided to join him, and found him at a location we had previously used.
We took a few pictures there, then headed towards an uncovered walkway near Altoona’s Amtrak station.
We drove down to it, and parked illegally in an Altoona parking-lot.
The walkway was about 25 feet above the tracks, up three flights of stairs.
“We are climbing Jacob’s Ladder,” my brother sang, as he slowly climbed the steps, reprising my 350-pound Aunt Ginny at my sister’s wedding in the ‘60s.
“Are you crazy?” the nattering nabobs of negativism would say. “You got a broken leg, Jack!”
But I understand.
Sitting at home you go crazy. This is fun!


Westbound from the walkway. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

We took some photographs from the walkway, my brother trying mainly to include “Altoona Pipe & Steel” lettering atop their building. He did get it, but also cut off part of the locomotive. So the picture I’ve run has the building at right, but not the lettering. I still think it looks pretty good.
“Where to next?”
“You’ve probably never seen Rose, the crew-change point.”
So we drove up to Rose, but it was kind of dull. It was late afternoon, so the light was wrong, even though the sun was out.
Passing Altoona the old Pennsy main is essentially northeast to southwest, so the sunlight is on the eastern side of a train.
In late afternoon, it switches over to the west side, so throughout the day you try to be at locations where the face of the locomotive is lit. Eastbound is mornings, westbound is afternoon.
So we left Rose, but not before I shot a “shaddup-and-shoot” picture.


Crew changed, off-we-go. (The train has foreign power.) (Photo by BobbaLew.)

“Shaddup-and-shoot” because those are often my best pictures.
Just take the picture; it might look pretty good.
We then drove up to Gallitzin (“guh-LIT-zin;” as in “get,” west of Altoona, atop the mountain), to take a single-lane public dirt-track down to trackside.
My brother had never been there, and the road goes to a faraway cemetery.
It’s great shot for late afternoon.


07T (the westbound Amtrak Pennsylvanian) climbs the west slope of The Hill, almost to the tunnel. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

Finally 07T, Amtrak’s westbound Pennsylvanian, hove into view, as it does every afternoon about 5:30. The Pennsylvanian is the only passenger-train left on Pennsy’s fabled “Broad-Way.”
And Norfolk Southern tries to keep it on time.
We both snapped pictures, and then about 7 p.m. as our light faded, my brother snagged a picture at “The Slide.”


Norfolk Southern freight descends “The Slide” on Track One. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

“The Slide” is Pennsy’s ramp up to New Portage tunnel, which Pennsy bought from the state when the Public Works System failed — Pennsy put it out-of-business.
The Public Works System was the state’s attempt to counter the phenomenally successful Erie Canal. It was a combination canal and railroad; railroad over Allegheny Mountain — a portage railroad; Allegheny Mountain could not be canaled.
That original portage railroad included inclined-planes; so was cumbersome and slow.
A “New Portage railroad” was built without inclined planes, and included a tunnel at the summit of Allegheny Mountain.
Pennsy bought Public Works because New Portage tunnel could be added to their existing tunnel.
But New Portage tunnel was higher up the mountain than Pennsy’s existing tunnel, so they had to ramp up to it.
“The Slide” was originally 2.36% — 2.36 feet up for every 100 feet forward.
But it was eased a little when New Portage was rebuilt to clear doublestacks. The Slide is eastbound only, so trains are always descending.
So I got to Station-Inn at almost 9 p.m., which made things somewhat difficult.
Station-Inn is not affiliated with some big motel chain.
The owner is on the premises, and has to wait until I show up.
And I think he told me he’s 84 years old.
I had wanted to show up earlier, but there were my brother and I out there chasing trains.

DAY TWO: Thursday, September 18th, the day of my all-day train-chase.
My brother met me at Station-Inn, so we went out to the little town of Lilly on the western slope of The Hill.
Instead of shooting from an overpass, which we’ve done before, I suggested we go down to trackside, far western side of town.
Amtrak’s eastbound Pennsylvanian was coming, so we set up, me with strong telephoto on my new tripod.
But my brother got the better shot. It was still low morning light, so the railroad was in tree-shadow.


04T (the eastbound Amtrak Pennsylvanian) approaches Lilly. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

But then the train bursts into sunlight, which my telephoto was missing.
Telephoto into a long straight never works. The railroad curves into Lilly, and my telephoto was missing that.
We then drove to Gallitzin, to beat an eastbound mixed we saw at Lilly.
We beat it, and photographed it crawling under Gallitzin’s Main St. bridge.


Top of The Hill. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

We then drove down to Altoona, trying to beat the same train. We figured it would take the drag-tracks. The railroad splits into two alignments through Altoona, the express-tracks, and the slower drag-tracks.
We beat the train, but a local-freight was working tracks next to the drag-tracks, and blocked our view.
Eighth St. bridge is not far, so we went to it.
Eighth St. is one of four bridges over the tracks through Altoona. Eighth St. is east, Seventh St. west, and 17th St. both ways. The fourth bridge is out at 24th St, is also both ways, but more a city street.
My brother wanted the shoot from Eighth St. bridge, another long walk and climb.
I used the staircase up to the bridge walkway; my brother wanted to avoid the stairs.
He hobbled out to the bridge-end.
So here he comes, hobbling on crutches up the tiny road-verge — no walkway until the staircase.
We then hobbled slowly out to the bridge-center.
“This shot reprises one I ran in my calendar,” I said.
“Faudi took me out here, but the sun wasn’t out.”


The train is on the express-tracks; the drag-tracks are at left. (Photo by BobbaLew.)


Another “shaddup-and-shoot” (more foreign power). (Photo by BobbaLew.)

I also took another “shaddup-and-shoot” of a westbound coming under Seventh St. bridge.
From there we drove up to 24th St. bridge, but out onto railroad property instead of the bridge.
It’s at Slope interlocking, where the railroad begins its entrance into Altoona yard. It’s also where the climb up The Hill begins.
We stayed far from the tracks, about 60 feet.
It’s a shot of a westbound my brother took a few months ago. It works fairly well, because -a) the light is right, and -b) it gets the train.


Eastbound at Slope (note Canadian National locomotive). (Photo by BobbaLew.)

But I shot an eastbound — we saw a couple. My westbounds don’t work as well.
I’m always leery of trespassing on railroad property, and doing so isn’t that productive at this location.
I’m also leery of getting near the tracks, and I’ve seen pictures taken from the tracks — which I can’t do.
We were looking for railroad-police, “po-po” as my brother calls them. If we had been confronted, I’m sure my brother feels he could smile his way out of it — and he probably could.
I, on the other hand, am not a smiler, and would only get the “po-po” all protective.
My brother is friends with quite a few policemen anyway, and seems to know the drill.
I’m more concerned with being able to continue railfanning, me and others.
I would have let him do the talking.
From there we went to Cassandra Railfan Overlook, which I mentioned earlier.
The light was okay, but not as good as morning.


Eastbound uphill on Track One at Cassandra Railfan Overlook — ASSAULTING THE HEAVENS! (Photo by BobbaLew.)

“Where to next?”
“You’ve probably never been to the trailer.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s an abandoned highway-trailer parked next to the tracks in Portage. Faudi took me to it long ago, but I missed how good it was. That long straight from Cassandra ends at that trailer.”
‘How far do I hafta walk?’
“Nothing! You’ll be right at it.”
So we drove to the trailer, which only works westbound. Eastbounds are obscured by trees.
It seems uninspiring until you see what you’re shooting. The light is perfect; the train on that curve off that long straight.


Westbound past the trailer in Portage. (More foreign power.) (Photo by BobbaLew.)

“Now I see what you’re talking about.”
From the trailer we drove yet again down that cemetery dirt-track, since the light would be perfect there.
Our longest wait was probably there.
Finally a westbound appeared, passing an eastbound off The Slide.


A “Double.” (Photo by BobbaLew.)

A “Double;” two trains at once, but not the first we saw — although I forget any others.
The line is fairly busy, so we we saw many trains, despite no scanner and no Faudi.
From there we drove back to Cresson, a location across from Station-Inn.
By then it was 5 p.m.; the sunlight had shifted to the west side of a train.
But when I went to shoot — and we saw two westbounds — my camera’s auto-focus twice went bonkers and blew my shots. (I shouldn’t even be using auto-focus, since I’m shooting at infinity.)
We also saw an eastbound with many locomotives, but only the first two were running.


Only the first two units are running. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

From there we drove down into Altoona to eat supper at a so-called “spaghetti-joint,” but not very Italian to me.
My brother doesn’t like the “spaghetti-joint” I usually eat at, so declared he would find us a proper “spaghetti-joint.” (Ho-hummmm.........)
Next time, my “spaghetti-joint.”

DAY THREE: Friday, September 19th, back to reality.

• ”Jack Hughes” is my brother-from-Boston. He’s 57; I’m 13 years older — I’m the first-born. I’ve been a railfan since age-2; he became one over-the-years. He also has got better at using a camera. His camera is less capable than mine, but we’re doing pretty much the same quality. —Chasing trains is always great fun, and on Norfolk Southern’s “Allegheny-Crossing” we do quite well.