Monthly Train-Calendar Report for October 2017

Shaddup and shoot! (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

—Proof of “shaddup-and-shoot!”
The October 2017 entry in my own calendar is loaded Norfolk Southern coal-train Y90 descending Track One atop the mountain where “The Slide” merges back to the original Pennsy main.
The Slide is steeper than the original Pennsy main: 2.28% versus 1.75-1.8 %. As first built it was 2.36% — enlarging New Portage tunnel for doublestacks slightly reduced the grade.
The Slide was a ramp to New Portage tunnel, part of a railroad the state built to circumvent its original inclined-plane portage railroad over Allegheny Mountain.
PA gave up on its New Portage Railroad almost as soon as it was built. That railroad was still part of the state’s Public Works System, combined canal and railroad.
It was so slow and cumbersome compared to Pennsy it couldn’t compete. So PA abandoned it.
Pennsy was interested. New Portage Railroad would give them an already-completed tunnel under the summit = a second tunnel.
Plus, an additional railroad grade up the east slope of the mountain. (Pennsy didn’t railroad it at first, but eventually did. That grade was abandoned a few years ago, and expressway over the mountain built.)
But that tunnel was slightly higher than Pennsy’s original tunnel. VIOLA; a ramp up to that tunnel from the original Pennsy grade. It’s called “The Slide.”
It’s not too steep, since even 2.36% is not 2.5%, which is when things begin getting difficult. Plus it’s currently only operated eastbound, downhill not up.
Y90 is a second section of 590. My brother was taking pictures of Y90 coming down The Slide. Train passed, he turned around and snapped this picture — just for the heck of it = a “shaddup-and-shoot.”
So I’m cycling through our hundreds of fall-foliage possibles, and happen across this picture. Holy mackerel! There it is = the October foliage picture for my calendar.
—You should know a tiny bit of cheating is in this calendar picture. My Photoshop-Elements can increase color saturation. But ya can’t overdo it.
I never used it before, but with this picture I tried it. Not much; just enough to overcome the flatness of the original image.
—You should also know the train is going away. The four locomotives are two rear helper-sets to hold back the heavy train as it descends the east slope. During 12 miles into Altoona the train will descend 1,016 feet. The helpers are adding dynamic-braking.




Fond memories. (Photo by Fred Kern.)

—About 1949-1950, when I was five or six, my father, knowing I was a railfan, took my sister and I on a short train trip into Philadelphia.
It was on a passenger-train very much like the one pictured. Five or six Pennsy coaches pulled by an E-6s Atlantic (4-4-2), Haddonfield (NJ) to Broad Street Station in Philadelphia.
We lived in a south Jersey suburb next to Haddonfield.
The October 2017 entry in my All-Pennsy color calendar is E-6s #1600 on the final PRR run to Norristown (PA) in 1953. Norristown is just west of Philadelphia.
We were on Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (PRSL), at least the old Pennsy line from Camden, NJ to Atlantic City. It went through Haddonfield.
PRSL was still using steam-locomotives. Dieselization had begun, but in the early ‘50s PRSL still ran mainly steam.
PRSL was a 1933 amalgamation of Pennsy and Reading railroads in south Jersey because they had too much competing track. Even side-by-side through the Pineys in many places.
PRSL had a few of its own engines, but mainly it used engines of Pennsy or Reading. Same with passenger-cars.
For me this ride was a thrill. West out of Haddonfield, then up the connector Pennsy built about the turn-of-the-century to get trains to NJ without ferries.
The connector crossed the wide Delaware river on Delair Bridge built 1895-’96. It connected to Pennsy’s main to New York City at Frankford Junction in North Philadelphia.
Looking out our windows, all we could see below was river then Pennsy’s yards. No bridgework.
Smoking steam-engines filled the yards. Pennsy still had plenty of steamers.
Our ride ended at Broad Street Station, still in use at that time. It was abandoned in 1952.
The station, which was not through, was a vestige of Pennsy’s original intent to save Philadelphia as a port. New York City become the premier east-coast port, so Pennsy merged up there too.
With Broad Street abandoned, 30th Street Station became PRR’s main Philadelphia railroad-station, but it’s not downtown.
From Philadelphia we took a short rapid-transit ride to Camden, where my paternal grandparents probably picked us up.
The E-6s was large for an Atlantic. The first Atlantics were a trailing-truck added to a 4-4-0 to support a larger firebox and boiler.
They were teakettles. Pennsy had ‘em too: their E-3s and later E-5s. Many railroads had ‘em, but they were teakettles — not modern like the E-6s.
The E-6s was developed about 1910 as a way to move passenger expresses from Washington DC to New York City. The railroad wasn’t electrified then.
The E-6s was a manifestation of Pennsy engineering, mainly Alfred W. Gibbs, to get the job done with as few drivers as possible: i.e. a big 4-4-2 instead of a 4-6-2 Pacific.
You couldn’t expect much from a 4-4-2. like climbing grades. E-6’s were flatlanders, later commuter power.
Many operated in south Jersey = terrain not challenging. Get toward 10 passenger-cars and ya needed a K-4s Pacific.
I saw many E-6 Atlantics, and that train-trip with my father is goin’ to my grave — along with the Grand Tetons at dawn, Don “Big Daddy” Garlits, and the Packard-Merlin P-51 Mustang.




King Coal in PA. (Photo by Willie Brown.)

—The October 2017 entry in my Norfolk Southern Employees’ Photography-Contest calendar is a Norfolk Southern coal-train near East View, PA.
East View is in southwestern PA, not too far from huge Bailey Mine. It may be Bailey Mine coal.
The photographer, Willie Brown, has been in this calendar before. Usually a picture of a Norfolk Southern coal-feeder to the main. He’s from Powhatan Point, OH, on the Ohio river, and there are coal-mines near.
He’s an engineer, and usually his pictures have been Norfolk Southern coal trains on a line from a mine. Usually his pictures were in Winter = snow.
It’s nice to see something other than his feeder trains. The engines all appear to be GE road power. 7667 is an ES44DC, 4,400 horsepower.
Coal comes in different types: powder for generating electricity, “metallurgical” that has contaminants that enhance steel-making, plus other types for industrial use.
Hardest is Anthracite. mainly from northeastern PA, It’s very rocky, and shatters like glass. It burned clean in steam-locomotives, and was used for residential heating. It burned clean, but you still had to shovel it and shovel out ash. Partly because of that, residential heating moved to fuel-oil, and now it’s natural gas or propane.
“Bituminous” coal is softer, and often contains contaminates like dirt or sand that cause soot.
Coal from Powder River Basin in Wyoming has lower heat-content, but not bad. It’s relatively free of impurities, particularly sulfur, so doesn’t generate as much soot or sulfur dioxide — which becomes sulfuric-acid in your nose.
Norfolk Southern moves all sorts of coal. Part of NS was the old Norfolk & Western in WV and KY, which shipped rivers of coal from Pocahontas coal-region.
Other railroads shipped coal, but they weren’t Norfolk & Western. One was Chesapeake & Ohio, now part of CSX.
Now Norfolk Southern includes the old Pennsy, which succeeded partly because of its coal business in PA.
Railroads are scrambling because the coal-business, a lynchpin, is dwindling. Natural gas is cheaper, and burns cleaner. Gumint is making coal-burning difficult.
Near Altoona is old Sonman coal mine; it was along Pennsy’s original main east of Portage. That original main was bypassed in 1898, and Sonman is no longer a mine.
But it’s trackside, so became a loadout for a number of mines that truck in coal.
That loadout loads long unit coal-extras for the railroad to ship. Sonman loads metallurgical coal, mostly for export.




Ready for duty. (From M.D. McCarter photo collection©.)

—The October 2017 entry of my Audio-Visual Designs black-and-white All-Pennsy Calendar is Pennsy H-10 Consolidation (2-8-0) #9964, probably readying for another peddler assignment near Chicago.
#9964 was built as an H-8sc, later updated to H-10. H-8s, H-9s, and H-10s were all pretty much the same boiler and firebox, but different cylinders, and differing tenders.
But #9964 has the tender of an L-1 Mikado (2-8-2).
Peddler-freights are no more, replaced by trucking. Trucking is much more flexible, as long as gumint builds the highways.
As railroading began towns did all they could to get railroad-service. Railroad magnates took advantage of this. Railroads got built difficult to operate.
New York, Ontario & Western, abandoned in 1957, is a prime example. Five mountains to cross, to hit every podunk investor that funded it.
Railroad-service required a railroad siding located along or near a railroad.
Railroads couldn’t go anywhere and everywhere. Hill-climbing had to be easy, which pretty much limited railroads to river courses.
Highway-trucks can do steep grades; railroads can’t.
Railroad-cars can carry quite a bit more, but can’t be as easily parked.
Peddler-freight was about done when I was born.
I remember a peddler serving Haddonfield, NJ, the town near where I lived growing up. This was about 1948. The peddler shoved cars into sidings, plus a coal hopper into a residential coal supplier.
Its locomotive was also a 2-8-0 Consol. The railroad was Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (PRSL), and went through Haddonfield to Atlantic City.
Residential coal-heat was also about done. Our house, built in 1943, had oil heat. It didn’t have a coal-chute.
My elementary school did, but converted to oil. (One time the school janitor showed us those boilers.‘Lebenty-times-seven! Fire and brimstone! “This is where we toss little boys that disobey the teacher.”
A house behind ours had a coal-chute. Every couple weeks a coal truck delivered.
My brother and I see a few local-freights in Altoona. There are still a few lineside industries using rail-service.
But mainly the local-freights are delivering cars to shortlines that were once Pennsy branches = more lineside customers.
Gumint often buys an old branch, then brings in or establishes an operator to continue rail-service. To maintain its tax-base = “jobs-jobs-jobs!”
(Visible at right is an old wooden Pennsy caboose — Pennsy called ‘em “cabin-cars.” And behind the turntable looks like a postwar Packard.)

“Fer cryin’ out loud!”

It was 10 a.m. this morning. I had 45 minutes before getting ready for a dental cleaning.
The appointment was at noon in a suburb of Rochester.
Getting to it takes about a half-hour — I try to allow 40-45 minutes.
To do it I had to daycare my dog. Doing so takes maybe 15 minutes.
Just driving to doggy-daycare is about eight minutes. Then there’s waiting inside for a clerk, plus possible jawing. Perhaps another eight minutes.
I should be heading to the dentist by 11:10.
45 minutes should be enough time to order two things online: -1) an ink-cartridge for my wife’s old copier, and -2) a new flag.
I fired up this laptop. Froogle-Search for Hewlett-Packard “21” ink-cartridges.
I clicked on one but they wanted $9.95 to ship a single $17.50 cartridge. (Actually its was two for $34.99.)
PASS! That’s ridiculous.
My second hit was much less per cartridge, and only $3.39 shipping.
In the cart it went. Next was checkout.
I could use PayPal, so I set that up.
“Complete order.”
NYET! Alarums-alarums! “You forgot your phone-number.”
Crank in phone-number.
Again, NYET! Alarums-alarums! “You forgot ‘method-of-shipping.’”
I thought I set that up: $3.39 via Post-Office. You told me.
I tabbed that again, or so it seemed.
NYET! “You forgot ‘method-of-payment.’”
“I did not!” I screamed. “I already set up PayPal.”
Fast approaching 10:45; so far at least a half-hour trying to order a simple ink-cartridge.
Another attempt at designating PayPal, but into the ozone this time.
“Do a ‘chat,’” it suggested, so I fired up chat. I also fired up my word-processor, since I do my chat-entries at first in that.
I should know better. At 79 words I already exceeded the attention-span of the average reader by 74 words.
Okay, call the seller’s 800-number. “Please hold.”
It was 10:45, my alarm was sounding.
So much for ordering a simple ink-cartridge online, plus a new flag is beyond-the-pale.
“Time-saving technology,” they tell us. But ordering an ink-cartridge shouldn’t take an hour. —That is, I never was able to order it.

• My beloved wife of over 44 years died of cancer April 17th, 2012. I miss her immensely. Best friend I ever had, and after my childhood I sure needed one. She actually liked me.

“Kings of the Rails?”

“Old HammerHead” was built in 1953 for the Pennsylvania Railroad to help trains climb Keating Summit from Emporium on Pennsy’s Buffalo line. The short hood is raised to accommodate dynamic-braking and a steam generator for train heat. HammerHead was rebuilt in 1979 in DeWitt Shops in Syracuse with an EMD prime-mover from a scrapped Erie-Lackawanna E-8.


HammerHead is the “cat-with-nine-lives,” almost scrapped a number of times. During its lifetime it was transferred to Lehigh Valley Railroad, owned by Pennsy at that time, and worked for Valley in Buffalo. It’s the only saved Valley diesel, and is operable.

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“Powerful diesel locomotives are the backbone of the railroad industry.”
I don’t like taking Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum to task. It’s an early local chapter National Railway Historical Society gone independent.
I belong to it myself (though nonactive), so get their monthly newsletter, the “Semaphore,” to which I look forward.
It’s a volunteer organization, and the quote is from their newsletter.
The quote promotes their “Diesel Days,” now passed.
“Don’t miss this opportunity to climb aboard these kings of the rails“ (my underlining); “these locomotives ruled the rails” (again, my underlining).
What the Museum has, and what they saved, are important, but I don’t consider them “Kings of the Rails.”
Years ago Genesee & Wyoming Railroad did a similar fete, yet it was more what a railfan like me could appreciate. Genesee & Wyoming let adults climb aboard a GP40-2 or GP-38, or whatever they were.
They finally disabled a locomotive horn!
Perhaps the only “King-of-the-Rails” the Museum has is “Old HammerHead,” an actual Alco RS-3m once used by Lehigh Valley Railroad, repowered with a castoff EMD prime mover. (In other words, the Alco prime-mover was swapped out.)
There are others: an Alco RS-1 from Livonia, Avon & Lakeville, plus locomotives from Nickel Plate, the Army, plus an RS-1 from Eastman Kodak. The fact some are Kodak (there is another, a goat) is debatable, but they’re real locomotives.
There are others I don’t consider serious: humble yard-goats from Rochester Gas & Electric, for example. I’m glad they weren’t scrapped, but I don’t consider them “Kings of the Rails.”
“Kings of the Rails,” to me anyway, are current diesel road-power, 4,000 horsepower or more. I can’t imagine “Old HammerHead” in a lashup across Allegheny Mountain on the old Pennsy.
Maybe when new, along with four or five similar units in multiple.
Go back far enough and I have pictures of actual Alco RS-3s in big-time railroading.
I also have a picture of an RS-3 powering a peddler on Rochester Bypass (the old West Shore).
“Old HammerHead” is valuable, but hardly a “King-of-the-Rails.” To say that, what the museum needs is an old E-unit. Medina Railroad Museum has one. Or maybe an early Geep or covered-wagon (EMD or Alco cab-unit).
What they have, plus the fact they can operate on the museum’s railroad, is great. (The museum has an actual railroad.)
But “Diesel Days” is fun for families with kids. “Gee whiz! Look at ‘Old HammerHead.’ Climb aboard children!”
“Kings of the Rails” is overwrought; someone heavy with a pen.
If you wanna see Kings of the Rails, Altoona awaits.
The Museum gives train-rides on their railroad, usually cabooses from their collection pulled by one of their engines.
I’ve ridden it, both in a caboose, and on a tiny speeder.
They also now have an open rider-car for more passengers.
Last Fall I rode a train-trip by Medina Railroad Museum. The loco was not theirs, but more a King of the Rails than what R&GV has.
What follows are interesting locomotives from R&GV’s collection:

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LA&L RS-1 #20; is LA&L’s first real locomotive other than its steam-engine. #20 is ex of Lake Erie, Franklin & Clarion, a 15 mile shortline that connected Clarion with a Conrail connection in Summerville, PA. Livonia, Avon & Lakeville began service on eight miles of a former Erie Lackawanna branch in 1965 with a steam engine and a 44-ton diesel switcher to handle its trains. As freight traffic grew, LA&L looked for something to replace its tiny 44-toner, and spare the steam engine for passenger duty. No. 20 was acquired from the LEF&C in 1972. LA&L has gone on to carrying much more freight, and more Alco diesels to move it. Part of the original LA&L to Livonia was abandoned, and the railroad no longer runs tourist excursions. They sold the steamer. An RS-1 is significant: in 1941 it pioneered the road-switcher concept.


Eastman Kodak’s RS-1, was originally built for Chicago & Western Indiana in 1950 as #260. C&WI was the terminal railroad for Dearborn Station in Chicago. In 1971, the unit was purchased by Genesee & Wyoming who quickly resold it to Eastman Kodak. EK 9 served Kodak Park Railroad more than 25 years; and was donated to R&GV Railroad Museum in 1997. (Photo by R. Craig.)


Nickel Plate #79 was built in 1953 for Nickel Plate Railroad, and worked in Cleveland during the ‘50s and ‘60s. It’s an Alco S-4 switcher, 1,000 horsepower. In 1982, it was sold to RSA Leasing in Sodus, N.Y. They leased it to Allegheny Southern in PA, where it became their number 17. The unit was returned to Sodus in 1985. In 1987, it was purchased by a private individual and moved to the museum. In 1993 and 1994, it was restored to its original Nickel Plate paint scheme and number. After many years of reliable operation on the museum’s railroad, the unit was taken out of service and stored by the owner in 2009. In 2016, the locomotive was donated to the museum. It’s currently stored, but the museum plans to reactivate it.


#1843 is a Fairbanks-Morse H12-44 switcher built in 1953, 120 tons, 1,200 horsepower.
This locomotive was used most recently at the Seneca Army depot in Romulus, NY, (near Geneva) where it handled 30 to 100 cars per week on 42 miles of track at the base.
In 1993, it was declared surplus by the Army, and a group of museum members purchased the unit through the Federal Property Assistance program.
1843 is in operating condition and is used year round as it has antifreeze and a block heater. It’s the only operating Fairbanks-Morse locomotive in the Northeast.


The only museum locomotive, R&GV #54, is a GE 80-ton switcher built in 1952 for the U.S. Army. It was later rebuilt by Chrome Locomotive in 1989 — new traction motors, new prime-movers, roller bearing trucks, new electrics, and a “whisper-cab.” The museum was able to purchase it when it became surplus, but shipment in a freight-train damaged it. Traction-motors were destroyed, plus a wheelset. Volunteers from the museum were able to wire around the damage, so the locomotive became a year-round workhorse. Replacement motor-axle combos have been acquired to repair and fully restore the locomotive. In 2016, the locomotive was transformed into Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad No. 54, in tribute to similar switch engines operated by Erie Railroad. It was originally numbered 1654.

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Their stuff is worth seeing, and worthy of the “Diesel Days” moniker.

• Early EMD road-switchers, e.g. GP-7 or GP-9, became known as “Geeps.” (“GP” stood for general-purpose; and had two two-axle drive trucks [four traction-motors total]. Three-axle trucks [six traction-motors total] are “SD” [special-duty]. Many early diesel-locomotives were only four traction-motors— now most road-locomotives are  six. —Since the motor-trucks could rotate, they were called “trolley-motors.”) —E-units had three-axle trucks, but only two motors per truck; the center axle was an idler.

PRIORITIES, MAN!

Constant readers of this blog know about a week-and-a-half ago a virus infected my computer.
That virus has since been exorcised, and Apple’s “El Capitan” operating-system installed.
My operating-system had been Snow-Leopard, what came on this machine. My computer is about eight years old, antediluvian in the ‘pyooter world.
I was advised it was unsafe to fiddle the Internet with an operating-system so old.
Made sense to me, since I never click anything. Some website surreptitiously installed the virus.
The operating-system upgrade brought various hairballs, one being my e-mail, local to my machine, only worked one-way. It sent but wouldn’t receive.
I harassed my ‘pyooter-guru first. He suggested it was better to ask my Internet-service-provider (ISP) = Spectrum, previously Time-Warner Cable.
DREAD; phonecalls are the bane of a stroke-survivor, especially one with slight aphasia like me. It can make communication difficult: stoney silences as I struggle to get words out.
I called Spectrum. A girl ascertained they were getting my e-mail, but my machine was blocking it.
She gave me the 800-number of Apple tech-support. DREAD again; another phonecall. In this case to a large corporation that might put me on hold. “We value your call. Your wait will be three hours. Please hold during the silence: BOOM-CHICKA-BOOM-CHICKA-BOOM-CHICKA-BOOM-CHICKA!
Not what happened. I was referred to a girl almost immediately, and surprise-surprise; she spoke like a normal human, not some far-away Indian whose only command of English is “we’re deeply, deeply sorry.”
We set up a way of her viewing my screen. “See my red arrow?” she said. “Click that button!”
AMAZING! I guess Apple can afford to be human.
This certainly wasn’t the local hospital, where my question got batted around in circles, including to where I began.
It was my e-mail settings. El Capitan had clicked off “Allow anyone and everyone, including evil-doers.” (Actually it was “Allow insecure identification.”)
At this point my fellow college classmate, who drives a Windows PC, would weigh in: “Yer takin’ yer life in yer hands, Hughes. Why not cow-tow to my vast ‘pyooter wisdom?”
PRIORITIES MAN! I need my e-mail to work. It junks a lot already = spam-filters galore. I’m not yet being monitored. No antenna-festooned Transit-vans outside with binoculared goons inside radioing the NSA.
“No idea what we did,” I told the techie.
Now the ultimate test. I called my brother in northern DE.
“I need an e-mail,” I told him.
“DING!” It worked.

• I had a stroke October 26th, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered. Just tiny detriments; I can pass for never having had a stroke. It slightly compromised my speech. (Difficulty finding and putting words together.)

Master Tech car show

My friend and his cherry ’62 Impala SS. (iPhone photo by BobbaLew.)

My fellow widower friend, slightly older than me, purchased a new (for him) car to display at car shows.
It’s a 1962 Chevrolet Impala SS two-door hardtop. Four-barrel 327 SmallBlock with PowerGlide tranny.
He also owns a 2010 Camaro to show.
1962 is the year I graduated high-school.
It ain’t a ’57 Chevy — what is it about ’57 Chevys? Especially when 1957 is the first year Ford outsold Chevrolet in eons.
But a ’62 Chevy was desirable, unlike the ’59, which I consider the worst-looking Chevrolet ever made.
His Impala is mostly stock, although he had Master Tech completely rebuild the front suspension, and switch to disc brakes.
Disc brakes are something I would do, since drum brakes were terrible, and about done in 1962.
A friend had a ’56 Chevy in which he installed a newish 350 SmallBlock. It of course had drum brakes. He beat a 383 RoadRunner, but couldn’t stop afterwards.
Master Tech is a garage that works on street-rods, mainly late ‘60s and early ‘70s muscle-cars.
Every year they put on a show of street-rods, plus anything else that shows up.
I guess it’s to promote their services. I attended last year.
So in I went with my dog on-leash.
Keep the monster from stealing hamburgers and ice-cream cones from little children.
Many of the cars I usually see at car shows were there. The lemon-yellow “Advance-Design” Chevy pickup (’47-’54) SmallBlock four-on-the-floor, the maroon-and-creme ’52 Pontiac sedan-delivery, even that ratty ’56 Caddy back from last year.
Plus many souped Mustangs, old and new, and rumpita-rumpita Camaros. “No peeling out leaving,” a sign said.
Late ‘50s rock was playing.
Rather than bore you with useless verbiage, I’ll post the pictures I took:

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Flatties


This all-aluminum hotrod has a souped FlatHead Ford V8. (iPhone photo by BobbaLew.)


Another souped FlatHead — this in a Model-A pickup. The radiator-surround is classic ’32 Ford. (iPhone photo by BobbaLew.)

(Ford’s FlatHead V8, 1932 through 1953, was the foundation of hot-rodding. Lots of performance parts became available, FlatHeads were cheap, available, and responded well to hot-rodding. Even stock they were sprightly. They could be fiddled by backyard mechanics.)


More-or-less what I wanted all through high-school and college: a ’55 Chevy. Although I preferred the two-door hardtop; this is a two-door sedan = a “Post.” (iPhone photo by BobbaLew.)


I think this is a ’40 Olds. It had a tiny medallion saying “5.7 powered.” Perhaps a 350 SmallBlock? I never found the owner. (iPhone photo by BobbaLew.)


On top of the motor — a Dodge 440 Six-Pak — was the rusty housing of an old Electrolux canister vacuum-cleaner. It contained carb filtration I guess. (iPhone photo by BobbaLew.)


Shark’s teeth! A bone-stock 1949 Buick Sedanette. Even the straight-eight motor. (iPhone photo by BobbaLew.)


Old drag-racer, a ’63 Dodge stationwagon. Next to it is that ratty Cadillac. (iPhone photo by BobbaLew.)


SuperBird, the Winged Warrior Plymouth produced for Richard Petty to race in NASCAR. Dodge debuted its “Daytona,” a Hemi-powered car with similar bodywork, the wing and aero nose. Plymouth and Petty wanted in too. VIOLA; Plymouth’s SuperBird, also Hemi-powered. A Dodge Daytona managed slightly over 200 mph qualifying at Talladega. Cars like this, and the 426 Hemi, were eventually outlawed by NASCAR. Sure, buy groceries with a 200 mph car. (iPhone photo by BobbaLew.)

It seems hot-rodding is dying. Hundreds of cars, but most people attending were oldsters.
Highways are so crowded ya can’t stretch out a car any more. Cars are becoming little more than pillar-to-post. Self driving even.
The youngsters were fiddling their Smartphones. Our president is a late-night Tweeter from his Great White Throne.

Adware

“BEEP!” screamed this laptop.
“Oh well,” I thought; “Nothing new — this thing is always beeping unknown sounds at me.”
I disregarded it, as I always do.
It went further. Something overtook my screen = a virus had been detected.
“I thought Macs never got viruses,” my doggy-daycare lady said. Viruses (“Viri;” whatever) are supposed to be “Windoze,” written by fired Microsoft programmers.
“Well I got one,” I said.
“So I’m currently without my favorite toy. TV; are you kidding? No Oprah for this kid!
Turned it over to MacShack and my ‘pyooter-guru there, to straighten out.”
We’re also gonna install Apple’s most recent operating-system, “El Capitan,” I think. Replacing what came on this computer. My laptop is seven years old = antediluvian in the ‘pyooter word. (I was running Snow-Leopard, geeks.)
Supposedly this new operating-system is better at keeping out website viruses, which is from where my virus must have come — since I never click anything.
No wonder it’s so slow. Even scrolling throws the spinning soccer-ball at me — Apple’s equivalent of Bill Gates’ hourglass.
MacShack has since called saying my rig is ready to pick up.
That was much earlier than expected. I was expecting to climb the walls for a week, chop that mountain of cardboard in my garage for recycling, maybe even open mail and reconcile my credit-card.
I’d rather sling words/fiddle photographs; but I need a computer to do so.

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Now that I have my rig back, with its new operating system, various hairballs appeared.
-1) GG-1 #4896 is no longer my desktop picture. It’s that gigantic Yosemite rock-face. Back to 4896 some day.
-2) Some things are different. “Save-as” is apparently no longer a word-processor option. I thereby lost my entire “Railfan Overload” word-processor file. (At least it’s still up at BlogSpot.)
-3) No e-mail. It won’t download. (At least my iPhone does.)
-4) No idea how to access my picture files. “El Capitan” has some new photo-app, and I’m hoping it can preview all the piks on a chip, folder, whatever, like my old Adobe “Bridge.” “Bridge” and my ancient Quicken-2003 no longer work under El Capitan. That stupid Quicken folder is still on my desktop = there must be some way of opening it (engage guile-and-cunning).

• The virus was “adware.” An ad I could kill was appearing on websites. It was running a “script“ which slowed everything.
• Bill Gates was the founder of Microsoft.

Railfan overload

Them weeds don’t stand a chance. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

“How many times ya gonna write down that train-number?” I asked my brother as we chased trains around Altoona (PA).
“Ya already wrote it twice,” I said.
My brother looked at his log and sheepishly put away his pen.
At which point his coworkers reading this blog start razzing him.
“Boy, he really skewered you,” they will say. “Read you like a book.”
Unlike me — I ain’t that interested — my brother keeps track of every train we photographed. We’ll photograph a train, and at some point, like before or after, the engineer identified the train as he called out a signal on railroad-radio.
E.g. “590 on One, 238, CLEAR!” 590 is the train-number (even-numbers are eastbound), “One” is Track One (eastbound over the mountain), 238 is the milepost, also the signal location, and the signal aspect is “clear.”
We’re monitoring that on our railroad-radio scanners.
His coworkers are making a mistake. I prefer a supremely confident managerial type helping me chase trains.
I’m 73 = not young. I can’t charge up-and-down the railroad like him — he’s 60.
I also can’t make decisions on-the-fly.
Sometimes I hafta hold out for a place I wanna photograph. Retired bus-driver = ornery as Hell. “Siddown and shaddup! As long as I’m drivin’ the bus, I’m captain of the ship!”
Anyway, we have a good time. “Here we go again.” (And of course it works both ways.)

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Wednesday, August 30th
(My brother alone.)


#1070, an EMD SD70ACe, Norfolk Southern’s Wabash Heritage-Unit, ducks under the old Pennsy signal-bridge at Summerhill. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)


Helpers on 16N push uphill past Carneys Crossing. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)


Helpers on 39Q push past venerable Alto Tower, now closed. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)


Westbound 11J (all auto-racks) approaches 17th St. overpass in Altoona. At right is 16N. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

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Thursday, August 31st
(My brother alone, before I arrived.)


Westbound 51M, a grain-train, exits MO interlocking. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)


SD-60E #6969, a Norfolk Southern rebuild with Crescent-Cab, approaches Cassandra Railroad Overlook. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)


Eastbound M4G passes through Altoona, after going into emergency due to its FRED pulling off. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)


11J (again) on Track Two passes Altoona’s Amtrak station; the stacker on Track One is 26T. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

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Thursday, August 31st
(Both of us [I arrived].)


Norfolk Southern #1069, an EMD SD70ACe, their Virginian Heritage-Unit, leads 20T past Altoona’s Amtrak station. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)


60N, a loaded westbound slab-train, passes Altoona’s Amtrak station. The train is all gondolas loaded with heavy steel slabs being transferred to a rolling-mill. (Photo by BobbaLew.)


Two SD40-E helpers are on the back of 38Q after descending The Hill. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

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Friday, September 1st
(Both of us.)

-First stop: Plummers Crossing railroad east of Tyrone (PA).


Westbound stacker 25Z blasts Plummers. (Photo by BobbaLew.)


Trash-train 62Z heads east at Plummers. The purple containers are for trash. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

-Second stop: Railroad-west of Tyrone.


38Q, a mixed, bounds through the curve toward Tyrone. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)


The engines of 39Q depart westbound on One from Tyrone. (Track One is normally eastbound, but becomes westbound in the morning so Amtrak’s eastbound Pennsylvanian can use Track Two to load. Two is right next to station-platforms.) (Photo by BobbaLew.)

-Third stop: Gray Interlocking.


22W approaches Gray-Interlocking toward Tyrone. Gray is where the long signal-controlled siding toward Altoona begins = Track Three. Slowly the vestiges of mighty Pennsy disappear. That old signal-bridge is DOOMED. (Photo by BobbaLew.)


21J approaches Gray after leaving Tyrone. It’s passing 22W on Track Two. The third unit is the Norfolk & Western Heritage-Unit. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

-Fourth stop: The Route-53 overpass railroad-east of Cresson.


21J approaches the Route 53 overpass. The third unit, #8103, a General-Electric ES44AC, is the Norfolk & Western Heritage-Unit. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)


21J continues west of the Route 53 overpass on Track Four. Tracks Three and Four are on the original Pennsy alignment. Tracks Two and One are on the New Portage Railroad alignment, which Pennsy got for peanuts when the state gave up. One and Two aim at New Portage Tunnel, and come together at AR. The fifth track is Main-Eight, storage. Often eastbounds get Track Two. (“Never before have I seen a mainline with five tracks!” my brother exclaims.) (Photo by BobbaLew.)

-Fifth stop: Toward MO-Interlocking.
(“MO” are old telegraph call-letters for a tower once there, as are “AR” and “MG.” MO-tower guarded an interlocking near the summit.
An old Pennsy branch to Clearfield switched off at MO. That branch is now operated by Corman. A large ethanol plant is in Clearfield, so NS delivers unit covered-hopper trains of corn for Corman to deliver.


Doublestack 23Z exits MO interlocking. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)


64E (unit crude-oil) heads past Cresson toward MO. #6317 is one of two SD40-E leading helper-units. (Loaded crude gets helpers for The Hill.) (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

-Sixth stop: Signal 254.3 railroad-west of Lilly in the town of Plane Bank declared by a know-it-all, all-knowing, knower-of-all-things (not my brother) to be “Plane Blank.” You get to it through Lilly, but it’s not actually in Lilly.
(Our light was going away.)


294 heads toward Lilly after ducking under the old Pennsy signals at 254.3. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)


Only the rear SD40-E helper-set on the back of eastbound 76N. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

-Our final stop was to turn toward the overpass in Lilly, but our light was about gone. I’ve shot there before, and it never works.
Same results. Nothing worth flying.

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Going home Saturday, September 2nd, I decided to try two other locations.

—Built 1888-1890, later expanded 1924-25, mighty Pennsy built giant shop facilities in Juniata just north of Altoona.
Juniata Shops still exist, and are a main reason Norfolk Southern wanted the original Pennsy line across PA when Conrail broke up and sold in 1999.
All one has to do is look. Hundreds of Union Pacific castoffs await rebuilding in Juniata Shops. Norfolk Southern could rebuild and overhaul its own power, plus castoffs from other railroads for its own use.
All the Heritage-Units were painted at Juniata. Experimentals are built there. Upgrades are made to older power. It’s a gigantic facility in central PA, area that would otherwise be rural outback.
A monument to Pennsy, who made so much of Altoona. Overhaul and manufacture of steam-locomotives in Altoona proper, testing, then Juniata Shops.
I’ve seen those shops in photographs: the north face with its many tracks leading to a turntable.
I checked my Google satellite-views: Sixth Street south of Eighth Street bridge over the Rose Yard crew-change point.
We decided to check it out; YOW-ZUH! Right next to the turntable, and no chainlink. Fencing of vertical rods about five-six inches apart. I could poke my camera between the rods.
It was night, so we decided to shoot it the next morning. But in the frenzy of charging about, we forgot the Shops.


Juniata Shops. (Photo by BobbaLew.)


—The other location was tiny Fostoria, railroad-east of Altoona. It’s little more than a place to live, except the railroad goes smack through it.
The main road crosses the tracks at-grade, and next to the grade-crossing is a large signal-bridge for the three remaining tracks — the railroad right-of-way has room for four.
Tracks One and Two are at left, and rightmost is the signal-controlled siding, still signed as Track One per Pennsy, but for NS it’s Track Three. NS One and Two are signed as Two and Three with Pennsy’s numbering.
Since all tracks are signaled both ways, it has six signals, and Pennsy’s old targets are used.
Over-and-over I’ve shot that signal-bridge, but it never worked. I decided to try wide-angle right below the signal-bridge to put those signals up in the sky.
I tried that a few weeks ago, but Fostoria is morning light.
Fostoria was our first stop Friday morning (9/1), but a crew was there rebuilding the grade-crossing. I couldn’t shoot.
They finished that afternoon — we heard it on our railroad-radio scanners. Tracks had to be closed so the guys could work.
So I thought I’d try Fostoria Saturday morning (9/2) on my way home.


The train-number is 591. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

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People ask why I keep coming here. TRAINS MAN! Wait 15-25 minutes and one shows. Mind-bending frequency.
Anyplace else, and I’ve visited other railfan pilgrimage spots, there can also be incredible frequency — Cajon Pass out of LA is comparable = here comes another!
The old Pennsylvania Railroad was a major conduit of trade between the midwest (and west) and the east-coast megalopolis = the northeast.
The other major conduit was New York Central across NY state. The famed Water-Level Route, since it paralleled the Erie Canal — sometimes right next to it. (CSX now has it.)
Pennsy didn’t have a canal to parallel; what it had instead was Allegheny Mountain across the state, which couldn’t be canaled. In the early 1800s Allegheny Mountain was a barrier to trade with the nation’s interior.
Pennsy had to surmount Allegheny Mountain to get to the midwest. The old Pennsy was therefore a mountain railroad.
Norfolk Southern, a successor to Pennsy, is still a mountain railroad. The line across Allegheny Mountain is the same route John Edgar Thomson laid out in the 1840s.
Helper locomotives are still needed to conquer the mountain, and anything climbing is throttle-to-the-roof = WIDE-OPEN!
Descending is maximum braking to stifle runaways; and helper locomotives stay on so they can add dynamic braking.
As a railfan, it’s thrilling. My brother has visited other railfan sites, yet none are as exciting. I’ve visited some myself = ho-hum also.
They have heavy train-frequency, but no throttle-to-the-roof. Before our most recent chase, my brother visited a railfan site in OH. But it wasn’t as thrilling as Norfolk Southern’s old Pennsy line across Allegheny Mountain.

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Reflections on M4G.

Sometime during our chase my brother asked if I ever heard of “04G?”
“No,” I said. “Sure it wasn’t ‘M4G?’ ‘M’ would be a second section of 14G.”
“It was ‘04G’,” my brother said emphatically.
A few minutes later we heard “M4G” call a signal.
“That’s it!” my brother said. “It’s M4G!”
“Uhm, a few minutes ago you loudly declared it was ‘04G’,” I noted.
I can hear the razzing all the way from Boston — to which I’ll add the following:
“Negatory, dudes. He’s my brother. We have a jolly-good time.”
“Tried to tell ya! Too many cars for 14G, so M4G runs ahead as a second section.”
Beyond that M4G had problems.
Its FRED (Flashing-Rear-End-Device) that monitors train-line air pressure at the rear of the train, fell free, bouncing along behind the train.
It caught in the loop-track switch at AR, and pulled out, dumping the train into “emergency” (full-stop braking).
Now the railroad was blocked atop The Hill until that FRED could be put back in place, air-line for train-brakes reassembled.
That took a while.

• Norfolk Southern has 20 recent locomotives painted the schemes of predecessor railroads = the Heritage-Units. “Wabash,” “Virginian,” and “Norfolk & Western” are all predecessors — I’ve seen many others. They’re all regular road locomotives.
• “Alto” Tower, now closed, was the last operating tower on the mainline from Pittsburgh. The railroad is now dispatched from Pittsburgh. “Alto” was closed June 16, 2012.
• A “Crescent-cab,” made by Curry Rail of Curryville, PA, for Norfolk Southern, is a new cab for older locomotives. The “Crescent-cab” is not made by standard locomotive manufacturers.
• #6969 is also known as “the love-engine.” (This reiterates “the barcode engine,” #1111.)
• An “interlocking” is where railroads cross at grade, and/or crossovers or switches are at play. Everything is “interlocked” so signals display “stop” to avoid conflict — and so routing won’t conflict.
• Atop The Hill (Allegheny Mountain) the railroad had a “loop-track” to circle helper locomotives back down the mountain. It’s not used much any more, since helpers often stay on; helping hold back the descending train with dynamic-braking.