Another trip to Altoony
Yr Fthfl Srvnt and his brother visited Altoona, PA again to chase and photograph trains.
I’m a railfan and have been 70 years.
Altoona is where the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad attacked Allegheny Mountain; the railroad is now owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Railway.
Since mainly you’ll wanna see what photographs we got, I’ll skip detailing every step of our chase, and only post some of our photos.
I’ll only mention three things:
—1) Even though I know my route, I engaged Google-Maps on my iPhone to GPS me to Altoona.
“What you been smokin’, girl?” I asked the GPS lady when she directed me onto a dirt-track.
The madness continued. I include interstates on my route, and the GPS lady directed me to pass Interstate 390.
It got worse when I got on 390. GPS began continually rerouting, trying to direct me to side-roads.
Google-Maps finally gave up and went blank.
Back in my pants-pocket went my iPhone. I knew the way anyway, so didn’t need GPS.
I found out later the reason for the madness.
Google-Maps was giving me a route for a 22-hour bicycle trip. Which uses dirt tracks and avoids interstates.
—2) Not too long ago some know-it-all, all-knowing, knower-of-all-things — there are many in my family — told me tankcars when white are for ethanol trains, and black for crude-oil trains, or white with a black center-stripe.
We engaged Altoona railfan Phil Faudi (“FOW-dee;” as in “wow”) to help us chase trains.
He was calling my cellphone, and told me we’d soon see 65E, an ethanol train headed west.
Right about then a westbound unit-train of black tankcars hove into view, so we photographed it.
The train’s engineer identified on the radio as he passed a signal. My brother claimed he heard 65E.
“So how come the tankcars ain’t white?” I asked. Plus Faudi was telling me 65E hadn’t left Altoona yet. That’s 20 miles east of where we were.
Confusion reigned with me refereeing my hyper-managerial brother, who brooks no questioning, versus poor Faudi, who knows much more than either of us.
And behind it all was my thinking ethanol tankcars are white, whereas the tankcars were black, which to me says crude-oil not ethanol.
My brother looked it up on at home on a train-sheet he carries, and now claims it’s 67Z. I ain’t sure what it is.
Not that I care — I just wanna see trains. I don’t need train-numbers.
And Allegheny Crossing is the BEST train-watching venue I’ve ever been to. Extremely busy, and climbing The Hill they’re assaulting the heavens! Run-eight.
—3) My brother kept having battery trouble.
His scanner and camera both use batteries purchased from a store.
He’d go to snap a picture, and all-of-a-sudden his camera would fail.
Or he’d glance at his silent scanner, and it had died.
“These el-cheapo batteries are junk!” he’d scream.
“What I see instead is ‘Family Dollar,’” I said.
His poor wife will bear the brunt.
She purchased 89 bazilyun batteries at a reduced price.
They were good for about three hours per battery.
My camera never failed.
My earlier D100 threw curves at me, and would stalk sullenly into the ozone.
I now have a Nikon D7000, and it hasn’t failed me yet.
It’ll motor-drive perhaps 7-8 frames of a passing train; my D100 stopped after three.
I considered e-mailing his poor wife to take cover, but didn’t. To me that’s meddling.
My brother left work in Boston Wednesday afternoon, and drove to a motel in PA where he stayed the night.
The next morning he drove to Tyrone (“tie-ROWN;” as in “own”) arriving about 11 a.m. where he snagged the following photograph:
591 charges past Tyrone’s tiny Amtrak station. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
Tyrone is where the railroad turned east toward Harrisburg. It’s following the Juniata River (“june-eee-AT-uh”) which also turned east through a notch in the mountains.
Our chase began, first my brother, alone:
64K, crude-oil, charges McFarlands Curve. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
By Fostoria I arrived:
23Z blasts Fostoria. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
Next we went down to Altoona:
The Geeps that led local CP10 push it back into the yard. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
“I suggest Brickyard,” I said.
Double-stack 23M approaches Brickyard Crossing. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
Up the mountain to where the tunnels are, and Track One descends The Slide (2.28%).
66D, all potash, descends The Slide. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Back down to The Mighty Curve, following 66D.
66D rounds the Curve (the sitting photographer is me). (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
Back to Altoona, and a big shower came. Fortunately we were inside a covered pedestrian bridge over the tracks at the Amtrak station.
21M in pouring rain. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Back up to Cresson (“KRESS-in”) at day’s end:
A single unit moves 11J, all empty auto-racks, through Cresson. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Friday in earnest. (7:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m.)
First Brickyard:
Doublestack 24W east on Track Two. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Many trains in Tyrone. Local C42 has come up from Altoona with cars for Nittany & Bald Eagle Railroad, the old Pennsy Bald Eagle branch. A Nittany & Bald Eagle local, #005, has come down its main with cars to swap to C42.
Norfolk Southern has trackage-rights on Nittany & Bald Eagle, and occasionally runs trains.
26T passes the congregation. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
25Z westbound on One through Tyrone. Usually One is eastbound. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
For years I’ve wanted to include gorgeous old Tyrone station in a train picture.
To do that I need eastbound on Track Two, which is usually westbound.
Amtrak’s eastbound morning Pennsylvanian, 04T, uses Track Two past Altoona and Tyrone station so it can load near the station(s).
That gives me a train on Track Two headed toward me past the station = station in background.
04T accelerates after its Tyrone station stop. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Railroad-west toward Altoona to the overpass over “Rose,” the crew-change point in Juniata.
Local C42 from Tyrone comes into Altoona yard. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Down to Ninth Street overpass in Altoona:
26T through Altoona. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
South (railroad west) to Cassandra Railroad Overlook (that’s a link to a YouTube video, dudes).
Doublestack 22W east on One. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
“I don’t care what ya say; Cassandra is better than Horseshoe,” my brother said. (No shade at Horseshoe.)
“Tried to tell ya,” I said.
Grain-hoppers go back west on 55K. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Up to the summit, then down to the area overlooking the approach to the east mouth of Allegheny Tunnel. The path was awful; I fell once while jawing with Faudi on my phone.
60N, the “slab-train,” west on Two. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
(The “slab-train” is all open gondola cars loaded with steel slabs being moved to a mill for processing.)
Back up to the summit, to Gallitzin (“guh-LIT-zin;” as in “get”), where Track One goes under the Main Street Bridge:
20T under the Main Street overpass in Gallitzin. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
Out to Carney’s Crossing off PA State Route 53, a road-crossing over the tracks railroad-west of Cresson.
590, a loaded coal-extra, approaches Carney’s Crossing. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Railroad-west down to Summerhill. The eastbound signals are up high so they can be seen above an overpass.
21M passes eastbound tables on 20Q at the Summerhill signals. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
Farther railroad west toward South Fork, PA, to the Oak Street overpass toward Ehrenfeld:
Confusion reigns, an empty westbound ethanol train. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
07T, the westbound Pennsylvanian. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
My brother hung around Saturday morning and took one more picture:
64R, another loaded crude-oil extra, approaches the Riggles Gap Road overpass north of Altoona. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
• My brother is 13 years younger than me, age 59.
I’m a railfan and have been 70 years.
Altoona is where the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad attacked Allegheny Mountain; the railroad is now owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Railway.
Since mainly you’ll wanna see what photographs we got, I’ll skip detailing every step of our chase, and only post some of our photos.
I’ll only mention three things:
—1) Even though I know my route, I engaged Google-Maps on my iPhone to GPS me to Altoona.
“What you been smokin’, girl?” I asked the GPS lady when she directed me onto a dirt-track.
The madness continued. I include interstates on my route, and the GPS lady directed me to pass Interstate 390.
It got worse when I got on 390. GPS began continually rerouting, trying to direct me to side-roads.
Google-Maps finally gave up and went blank.
Back in my pants-pocket went my iPhone. I knew the way anyway, so didn’t need GPS.
I found out later the reason for the madness.
Google-Maps was giving me a route for a 22-hour bicycle trip. Which uses dirt tracks and avoids interstates.
—2) Not too long ago some know-it-all, all-knowing, knower-of-all-things — there are many in my family — told me tankcars when white are for ethanol trains, and black for crude-oil trains, or white with a black center-stripe.
We engaged Altoona railfan Phil Faudi (“FOW-dee;” as in “wow”) to help us chase trains.
He was calling my cellphone, and told me we’d soon see 65E, an ethanol train headed west.
Right about then a westbound unit-train of black tankcars hove into view, so we photographed it.
The train’s engineer identified on the radio as he passed a signal. My brother claimed he heard 65E.
“So how come the tankcars ain’t white?” I asked. Plus Faudi was telling me 65E hadn’t left Altoona yet. That’s 20 miles east of where we were.
Confusion reigned with me refereeing my hyper-managerial brother, who brooks no questioning, versus poor Faudi, who knows much more than either of us.
And behind it all was my thinking ethanol tankcars are white, whereas the tankcars were black, which to me says crude-oil not ethanol.
My brother looked it up on at home on a train-sheet he carries, and now claims it’s 67Z. I ain’t sure what it is.
Not that I care — I just wanna see trains. I don’t need train-numbers.
And Allegheny Crossing is the BEST train-watching venue I’ve ever been to. Extremely busy, and climbing The Hill they’re assaulting the heavens! Run-eight.
—3) My brother kept having battery trouble.
His scanner and camera both use batteries purchased from a store.
He’d go to snap a picture, and all-of-a-sudden his camera would fail.
Or he’d glance at his silent scanner, and it had died.
“These el-cheapo batteries are junk!” he’d scream.
“What I see instead is ‘Family Dollar,’” I said.
His poor wife will bear the brunt.
She purchased 89 bazilyun batteries at a reduced price.
They were good for about three hours per battery.
My camera never failed.
My earlier D100 threw curves at me, and would stalk sullenly into the ozone.
I now have a Nikon D7000, and it hasn’t failed me yet.
It’ll motor-drive perhaps 7-8 frames of a passing train; my D100 stopped after three.
I considered e-mailing his poor wife to take cover, but didn’t. To me that’s meddling.
My brother left work in Boston Wednesday afternoon, and drove to a motel in PA where he stayed the night.
The next morning he drove to Tyrone (“tie-ROWN;” as in “own”) arriving about 11 a.m. where he snagged the following photograph:
591 charges past Tyrone’s tiny Amtrak station. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
Tyrone is where the railroad turned east toward Harrisburg. It’s following the Juniata River (“june-eee-AT-uh”) which also turned east through a notch in the mountains.
Our chase began, first my brother, alone:
64K, crude-oil, charges McFarlands Curve. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
By Fostoria I arrived:
23Z blasts Fostoria. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
Next we went down to Altoona:
The Geeps that led local CP10 push it back into the yard. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
“I suggest Brickyard,” I said.
Double-stack 23M approaches Brickyard Crossing. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
Up the mountain to where the tunnels are, and Track One descends The Slide (2.28%).
66D, all potash, descends The Slide. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Back down to The Mighty Curve, following 66D.
66D rounds the Curve (the sitting photographer is me). (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
Back to Altoona, and a big shower came. Fortunately we were inside a covered pedestrian bridge over the tracks at the Amtrak station.
21M in pouring rain. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Back up to Cresson (“KRESS-in”) at day’s end:
A single unit moves 11J, all empty auto-racks, through Cresson. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Friday in earnest. (7:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m.)
First Brickyard:
Doublestack 24W east on Track Two. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Many trains in Tyrone. Local C42 has come up from Altoona with cars for Nittany & Bald Eagle Railroad, the old Pennsy Bald Eagle branch. A Nittany & Bald Eagle local, #005, has come down its main with cars to swap to C42.
Norfolk Southern has trackage-rights on Nittany & Bald Eagle, and occasionally runs trains.
26T passes the congregation. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
25Z westbound on One through Tyrone. Usually One is eastbound. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
For years I’ve wanted to include gorgeous old Tyrone station in a train picture.
To do that I need eastbound on Track Two, which is usually westbound.
Amtrak’s eastbound morning Pennsylvanian, 04T, uses Track Two past Altoona and Tyrone station so it can load near the station(s).
That gives me a train on Track Two headed toward me past the station = station in background.
04T accelerates after its Tyrone station stop. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Railroad-west toward Altoona to the overpass over “Rose,” the crew-change point in Juniata.
Local C42 from Tyrone comes into Altoona yard. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Down to Ninth Street overpass in Altoona:
26T through Altoona. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
South (railroad west) to Cassandra Railroad Overlook (that’s a link to a YouTube video, dudes).
Doublestack 22W east on One. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
“I don’t care what ya say; Cassandra is better than Horseshoe,” my brother said. (No shade at Horseshoe.)
“Tried to tell ya,” I said.
Grain-hoppers go back west on 55K. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Up to the summit, then down to the area overlooking the approach to the east mouth of Allegheny Tunnel. The path was awful; I fell once while jawing with Faudi on my phone.
60N, the “slab-train,” west on Two. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
(The “slab-train” is all open gondola cars loaded with steel slabs being moved to a mill for processing.)
Back up to the summit, to Gallitzin (“guh-LIT-zin;” as in “get”), where Track One goes under the Main Street Bridge:
20T under the Main Street overpass in Gallitzin. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
Out to Carney’s Crossing off PA State Route 53, a road-crossing over the tracks railroad-west of Cresson.
590, a loaded coal-extra, approaches Carney’s Crossing. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
Railroad-west down to Summerhill. The eastbound signals are up high so they can be seen above an overpass.
21M passes eastbound tables on 20Q at the Summerhill signals. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
Farther railroad west toward South Fork, PA, to the Oak Street overpass toward Ehrenfeld:
Confusion reigns, an empty westbound ethanol train. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
07T, the westbound Pennsylvanian. (Photo by BobbaLew.)
My brother hung around Saturday morning and took one more picture:
64R, another loaded crude-oil extra, approaches the Riggles Gap Road overpass north of Altoona. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
• My brother is 13 years younger than me, age 59.
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