My calendar for April 2018

Got it. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

—“Y90 on One, 257; CLEAR!”
Out of the car in drenching rain, the shot I’ve wanted for years.
“Y90” is an additional section of Extra 590, coal for export from Baltimore.
“One” is Track One, eastbound only. Train-numbers that are even are generally eastbound. Signals on the Jamestown Road highway bridge are at milepost 257. They signal eastbounds on Tracks One or Two.

The old Pennsy signals on Jamestown Road bridge. (Photo by Tom Hughes.)

Jamestown Road bridges the bypass built by Pennsy in 1898. It’s about two miles railroad-west of Cassandra Railroad Overlook where I am. (That’s a YouTube link, readers.)
On the west slope of Allegheny Mountain Track One is uphill, so Y90 is hammering.
I leaned against a tree in the rain, protecting my camera with my jacket. My feet are soaked. Make sure camera is on.
This is what it’s about, readers. I imagined this shot long ago. Perfect lighting, a cloudy day. The tracks thread a rock cut to the right. If the sun is out it can shadow the train.
Louder-and-louder. Run-eight: pedal-to-the-metal!
Finally, there it is. Click-click-click-click-click; I’m on motor-drive (multiple shots).
The April 2018 entry in my calendar is Y90 under Cassandra Railroad Overlook.
Cassandra Railroad Overlook is an old bridge over Pennsy’s 1898 bypass. I’ve heard various inputs; footbridge versus an old highway bridge. It’s substantial enough to be an old highway bridge: concrete deck with iron trusses. But narrow. It’s only one lane, wide enough to clear a Model-A, but not a Wide-Track Pontiac.
Whatever; it’s along the abandoned right-of-way of the original highway into Cassandra. That highway was later rerouted, bypassing Cassandra. But the overpass remained, or was replaced, so miners from Cassandra could safely cross the tracks to work coal-mines the other side of the railroad.
Railfans began congregating on the old bridge to watch Pennsy trains grinding up the grade. A Cassandra resident noticed, so started mowing the area, which is park-like.
Ergo, Cassandra Railroad Overlook, perhaps better than The Mighty Curve (Horseshoe Curve), since it’s shady. Old restaurant tables were installed along with park-benches.
I had to pull teeth to get my brother to go there, but not long after, he took my railfan nephew there. That was years ago. Now my brother-and-I chase trains together near Altoona (PA), and usually include Cassandra.
The Overlook is between two defect-detectors, one at 253.1, railroad-east, at Carney’s Crossing, the other at 258.8, Portage, railroad-west. We take along our railroad-radio scanners, and the detectors broadcast over railroad-radio. If we hear 258.8 on One, we can already see that train’s headlight as it starts the 1898 bypass.
We were at the Overlook once with a bunch of other train-watchers. “Norfolk Southern milepost 253.1, Track Two: no defects.” The watchers began leaving.
“Don’t leave yet,” my brother shouted. “07T is Amtrak’s westbound Pennsylvanian; we’ll see it in maybe 20 seconds.”
Suddenly there it came. Headed west at Cassandra is downgrade. 50-60 mph.


07T at Cassandra. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

“We gotta get one of them scanners,” the watchers said.

• “Tom Hughes” is my railfan nephew.
• From 1959 through the early ‘60s Pontiac marketed full-size cars with a wider footprint. They were known as “Wide-Track Pontiacs.” Such a car would be too wide to clear that bridge.