07T

07T approaches Cassandra Railroad Overlook on a Summer day. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

—“Rumba-rumba-rumba-rumba.”
“Sounds like 07T,” I shouted as I ran from my kitchen to the room adjacent. It was about 5:35 p.m.
07T is Amtrak’s westbound Pennsylvanian, and my computer was tuned to Railstream’s Cresson webcam.
That webcam looks out on the old Pennsylvania Railroad mainline past Cresson. The railroad is now Norfolk Southern, and Amtrak runs on it.
Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian is the only passenger-train left on this storied cross-state railroad. It’s state sponsored, and there used to be hundreds.
The Pennsylvanian runs Pittsburgh to New York City, two trains per day, eastbound then westbound. They pass each other east of Harrisburg.
It was dark in Cresson, but there it goes. I could see the coach-windows.
“Rumba-rumba-rumba.” I know a P-42 when I hear one. With only six coaches the Pennsylvanian isn’t the long clatter of a passing freight-train.
“07T” is the train-number. “04T” is eastbound, which passes Cresson in the morning.
I often have the web-stream on all day. To me it’s background, although it often takes me away from whatever I’m doing.
Cresson is on the west slope of Allegheny Mountain. Eastbound past Cresson is uphill, but not too challenging. Uphill trains are assaulting the heavens.
The west slope is not as steep as the east slope. But still an eastbound past Cresson may need additional locomotives, especially if it’s heavy: loaded unit coal, or loaded crude-oil.
Those additional locomotives also help hold back a train going downhill. Dynamic braking gets engaged. Additional braking is needed descending to prevent runaways, especially on the east slope.
Dynamic braking came with dieselization. The traction-motors are converted to generators. Before dynamic braking a train had to stop before descending to “set up retainers” on the cars.
At only six coaches Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian doesn’t need help or additional braking.
I used to always tune my radio to WXXI-FM, the public-radio classical-music station out of Rochester. I still do, but that webcam is gaining.
I’d play WXXI as background, but they often air yammering or beg-a-thons. Worse yet they air opera on Saturday afternoons, which I can’t stand. 350-pound stringy-haired blonds screaming “Ride of the Valkyries” at the top of their lungs. Audible in 50 states!
Stabbings, shootings, star-crossed lovers jumping hand-in-hand off castle parapets into roiling ocean 200 feet below.
And since when do normal people sing dialog? If I did that at my grocery, my checkout would switch on her security-light.
When that happens I turn off WXXI, and fire up that webcam. I’m a railfan, and Cresson is a location where my brother-and-I photograph trains.