My calendar for May 2018

SHADDUP-AND-SHOOT! (Photo by BobbaLew.)

—My brother and I were on the 8th St. bridge in Juniata. That’s north of Altoona (railroad east). We just shot this stacker approaching the Rose crew-change point right past the bridge. We were looking railroad-east as the train approached — this pic looks west.
Crew-changes often occur at Rose Yard in Juniata. This stacker stopped to change crews. The train is on the express tracks; drag tracks are visible in the distance.
We started to leave after the crew changed. We were off the bridge hiking toward my brother’s car.
“SHADDUP-AND-SHOOT!” I thought to myself. I ran back to the overpass. The stacker was accelerating away from the crew-change apron. BAM!
Sometimes — often — it pays to just “shaddup-and-shoot.” This pic is at least three years old; I waited that long for somewhere to put it in my calendar. Once in a while I snag a really good one; ya never know with “shaddup-and-shoot.”

(Photo by Jack Hughes.)

Same for my brother. October of 2016 is another “shaddup-and-shoot.” A heavy coal-drag comes down The Slide on Track One atop the mountain, he shoots, and then again as the train leaves.
“WHOA! There it is Big-Brother! Fabulous Fall color; just what I need for October.”
“A potshot,” he exclaims. “A ‘shaddup-and-shoot.’”
“And not only that,” he says; “it’s a ‘cheat-shot.’” I hafta explain the locomotives are two helper-sets on the rear of the train. They pushed the train up The Hill, and now they’re holding it back descending. I.e. the train is going away.
The picture was late afternoon. Looking west at an eastbound coming down The Slide at that time would be backlit. But that same eastbound going away, looking east, would be fabulously lit.
“Just take the picture, Bro’. Digital jpegs are slam-dunk cheap, and you may do good. That picture may surprise you.” We horse all over to get kerreck lighting, etc, and often miss the good ones.
I got others in this calendar that surprised me. Just “shaddup-and-shoot;” what ya get may bomb, yet may be extraordinary.
Ya didn’t see that when ya shot. Things happen so quickly ya don’t see the extraordinaries.
It’s worth noting a Burlington-Northern Santa Fe unit is in the lashup. A Norfolk Southern unit leads to properly interface with Norfolk Southern’s signal system. The BNSF unit probably ran through on an eastbound from Californy. It can’t lead, but can assist. It’s shared-power.
I have videos of Norfolk Southern shared-power out in California.

• “The Slide” is Track One down from New Portage Tunnel to the original Pennsy alignment. New Portage Tunnel was part of the state’s 19th-century combination canal/portage-railroad system. “New Portage” was railroad built over Allegheny Mountain to replace an earlier portage railroad that used inclined-planes. New Portage Tunnel was slightly higher the the original Pennsy summit-tunnel, but Pennsy bought the entire combination canal/portage-railroad system when it tanked. It gave Pennsy an additional summit tunnel. Pennsy had to ramp up to it from its original alignment. That ramp was originally 2.36%, but was reduced to 2.28% when the tunnel and ramp were rebuilt to accommodate doublestacks. Pennsy’s original east-slope grade over Allegheny Mountain is 1.75-1.8%. Track One is only eastbound. Trains only go down “The Slide.”