Comedy of errors

Mixed manifest 35A charges west on Track Four after going under the Route 53 overpass. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

(Or as titled by my brother: “We’re getting old, so can’t do squat!”)

—“We’re screwed,” my brother said.
We were trackside near Altoona (PA) photographing trains.
“My keys are in the ignition, and all the doors just self-locked. I’m gonna hafta call Triple-A.”
So began about two hours outside in 50-degree weather awaiting Triple-A.
“This is why I always carry both keys on long trips,” I remarked. “One operates the car, and the other remains in my pocket. If I lose a key I can still drive my car — and it’s happened.”
Also since it’s a Ford it has that little driver-door keypad, so I can key in the code if I lock my key in the car. I keep that code in my wallet, so I don’t hafta cellphone my dealer — which I had to do once.
Finally, after perhaps an hour wrastling with Triple-A, then waiting an additional hour: “Didn’t you bail me out before?” my brother asked. “That was a dead battery.”
It was a guy from a Cresson car-emporium.
This was after at least 20 minutes trying the finesse Triple-A Emergency-Service — perhaps a nationwide contact.
She kept doing “Cresson” as “Crescent.” At least it was my brother doing the calling. He doesn’t have post-stroke aphasia, which for me is is only slight, but makes phonecalls messy.
“We’re fifth in line,” my brother observed. I guess service-emergencies were piling up.
“Your call is important to us. Please continue holding.”
BOOM-CHICKA, BOOM-CHICKA, BOOM-CHICKA, BOOM!
“Didja get the train?” the service-guy asked.
“How many lockouts per week?” my brother asked.
“At least one per week; and nearly all railfans. Where would I be without railfans?”
“And self-locking doors,” my brother added.

Westbound stacker 25Z, already on The Hill, approaches Brickyard Crossing. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

—My brother drove from Boston to Altoona Wednesday, me Thursday, per usual. It takes him nine hours, me five. He can chase trains while I’m driving down.
His first stop was Brickyard Crossing in Altoona, location of a brickyard now defunct. Railfans and railroaders still call it “Brickyard Crossing,” although it’s little-travelled Porta Road. Brickyard is the only grade-crossing in Altoona.
My brother visited other locations, mainly looking for Fall color. “It’s better up the mountain,” he kept saying. But it needed another week. It was “peak” here and there, but Horseshoe Curve was too early.

Westbound trash-extra 63V on Track Two passes eastbound crude-oil extra 68K. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

—He went next to 17th Street overpass. East-west 17th Street is the main access to Altoona from Interstate-99.
When I first visited Altoona in 1968, I-99 didn’t exist. In 1968 getting around Altoona was challenging. I also remember a Sylvania tube factory. No idea what happened to that. (Per Google it went defunct.)
17th Street is one of many east-west streets in Altoona. It goes direct into downtown Altoona, and crosses the railroad on a gigantic four-lane overpass.
There may have been railroad yards south of 17th Street, but there aren’t now. Alto Tower is right next to 17th Street, but is now closed. Alto was the last tower on the railroad, and only closed recently.
Helper locomotives were added in the area. Altoona is at the base of Allegheny Mountain. Now helpers get added east of Altoona. Helpers that ran through from the west, that added braking down The Hill, often get cut away on-the-fly in Altoona.
63V has passed Altoona’s Amtrak station on Track Two. (Amtrak always uses Two; both ways, since it detrains onto the station platform.)
Altoona is no longer what it was. Railroading isn’t either, as evermore freight gravitates to trucking. What yard-tracks remain get filled with unit coal-trains.
Double-stacked van containers go right through, as does unit crude-oil, and also auto-racks. Trailer-on-flatcar also goes right through, although Altoona’s Rose Yard is a crew-change point.
Just a few years ago Altoona was a division-point. Now the entire railroad, Pittsburgh to Harrisburg, is dispatched by one person in Pittsburgh.

A helper-set descends the mountain through Bennington Curve, headed for Altoona. No train. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

—Friday was better weather-wise, but began clouding up — what weather-guys call “partly-cloudy.” We hoped a cloud might not block the sun when a train appeared.
Even old Pennsy signals are being removed, as Positive-Train-Control and in-the-cab signaling take over.
Chasing trains is no longer fun. Used to be train-engineers had to report on railroad-radio the aspect of every wayside signal they passed. My brother and I monitored that on our radio scanners.
It seems those call-outs cut back to only interlockings, “MO,” “UN,” “AR,” etc. We still have our scanners, so hear that, plus the defect-detectors.
That’s how we knew a train was around. We’re in Altoona and hear “14G, east on One, MO, CLEAR!” That’s 12-15 miles away. Maybe 30-40 minutes from us.
With signal call-outs we might be 5-10 minutes away. We could quickly change direction driving.
Even the defect-detectors are reduced. 253.1 is the one we heard, and that’s Carneys. That’s on the west side of the mountain. If we’re on the east side we could wait an hour. Detectors we previously heard were gone.
So now it was just my brother and me. Our first location was Bennington curve atop the mountain where Pennsy’s prestigious Red Arrow overnight passenger-train from Detroit wrecked in 1947 killing 22. (Wreck of the Red Arrow.)
Supposedly brakes failed descending The Slide atop the mountain, or the crew was asleep. The train was going too fast for Bennington Curve, and derailed down an embankment.
Norfolk Southern’s access-road was unlocked, but drifting clouds kept ruining our photographs.
That helper-set was our only shot in unblocked sunlight. Probably valley-fog on the west side of the mountain was breaking up and drifting over the mountain-top. The clouds looked wispy, but blocked the sun over a small area — usually about locomotive size.

Westbound stacker 25V on Track Three approaches Carney’s Crossing. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

—Things are messy here. —I don’t know where we went next.
We may have hit 24th Street overpass before Carney’s, a grade-crossing railroad-west of Cresson.
Carney’s was our most successful photo-stop, but it’s also where our car locked us out.
Perhaps four trains passed while we awaited Triple-A.
We may have also tried Brickyard, but nothing appeared. This is the way it is any more: train-chasing no longer is fun, with the coming of in-the-cab signaling and Positive-Train-Control. Chasing trains has become sit-and-wait. Fortunately the railroad is busy enough you’ll usually get something. It’s still a main trade artery with the midwest.

Eastbound stacker 22W on Track Two approaches 24th Street overpass. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

—We visited 24th Street overpass, perhaps again, but the first time by me. My brother may have visited 24th Street overpass the day before. And we may have visited before Carney’s.
It’s one of four overpasses in Altoona, but residential. 24th Street is in a residential neighborhood; the other three are urban. It takes advantage of a rocky cut through which the railroad passes, that leaps the street over the railroad.
24th Street overpass isn’t very photogenic, but it’s where the railroad starts up Allegheny Mountain. The overpass is over Pennsy’s old Slope interlocking, Altoona’s yard entrance.
22W on track Two is pretty good approaching the overpass from the west. But it’s backlit, and has that increase in grade beyond the signal bridge I don’t like.
Looking east a photographer has to use holes cut through one-inch chain-link mesh. Your views are limited to those holes.

Tiny local CB10 (only two cars — it probably took out many more) returns to Altoona from Cove Secondary past 23Z westbound on Track Two. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

—Altoona has two pedestrian overpasses over the railroad. One is covered, and has elevators at each end. It’s visible in the photo. Vagrants call it “the elevator bridge.”
Both go to the Railroaders Memorial Museum, which is on the other side of the railroad from Altoona’s downtown.
The second overpass, the one we were on, is uncovered, and only has staircases at each end. It’s next to Altoona’s huge post-office building.
Both overpasses have to be high enough to clear doublestacks, which are around 24 feet. That’s three long staircases to get up to the uncovered overpass. It’s a climb, but the old geezer can do it — as long as I have a handrail.
It’s also an excellent photo; since it takes in Altoona’s urban setting.
Railroaders Memorial Museum because Altoona was once Pennsy’s main shop-town, and locus of operations. Years ago locomotives were built and tested there.
Now the railroad is Norfolk Southern, which bought most of the old Pennsy when Conrail broke up and sold in 1999.
We heard both CB10 and 23Z on our scanners. Would we get a double = two trains at once?
CB10 poked slowly into Altoona’s yard, but it had only two cars. Cove Secondary is the original Pennsy main (1844 or so) to PA’s portage railroad. It never was removed, and now accesses Everett Railroad, a shortline that operates the old Pennsy branches out of Hollidaysburg.
CB10 creeped toward us, yet here came 23Z westbound. My brother got 23Z as it approached the overpass, and I waited across the overpass hoping to get both CB10 and 23Z.
That uncovered overpass is where my brother committed his final faux pas. (Another was running out his memory-chip. We Siried a photo-supply in Altoona. That was the old-geezer = me.)
Photos taken, we descended the steps, and walked back to our car.
“Where’s my phone?” Back up the steps went my brother, an arduous climb for a 62-year-old. It least it wasn’t me (although I coulda done it).
There was his phone, right where he left it, atop a railing-pylon up on the overpass.

Eastbound empty trash-extra 60V climbs The Hill through Cresson. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

—Next we tried west of Cresson, knowing loaded coal-hoppers were on the Cresson runner, awaiting moving out onto the main. They might block our view of the main.
The hoppers had been brought in by Corman, from the old Pennsy branches operated by them.
Those branches are now a Corman shortline to local coal loadouts, plus a giant ethanal plant up in Clearfield.
Norfolk Southern delivers unit grain for the ethanol plant to that Cresson runner, and takes out the empty grain-hoppers. I guess it also pulls out coal delivered by Corman.
Pennsy used to have a jump-over to those branches, but that is gone. Other jump-overs were at other locations, so the main wouldn’t be blocked.
We could walk past the hoppers to view the mainline, and here came the trash-extra.

—Our final stop, although 60V at the Cresson runner may have been our final stop, was atop what my Altoona railfan friend calls “High-Bridge.” It’s the PA State-Route 53 bridge over the old Pennsy right-of-way, which at that point is five tracks wide.
So I call it “five-tracks.” (My brother is always whacked-out by a five-track right-of-way.)
In October days are short. The sun goes quickly lower, so shadows lengthen across the tracks. It’s where my brother got that lede picture, 35A charging west on Track Four.
Rightmost are Tracks Three and Four, on the original Pennsy right-of-way. They go through Pennsy’s original Allegheny Tunnel in Gallitzin as Two and Three. Three in Gallitzin is (or was) usually westbound, and Two is/was signaled either way. At “High-Bridge” Four is/was usually westbound, and Three is/was signaled either way.
Left-most is a storage-siding for coal-trains to be forwarded over the mountain. Tracks One and Two are in the middle. One and Two plus that siding are on the right-of-way of New Portage Railroad, and aim at “New Portage Tunnel.”
Two and One become Track One at Pennsy’s long-abandoned AR tower. That tower still stands, as does MG, a tower built during WWII about halfway up the mountain. There was an interlocking (crossovers), which still is there, but it’s switched by Pittsburgh. The merge at AR is also switched by Pittsburgh.
New Portage Tunnel is higher than Pennsy’s Allegheny Tunnel, and requires additional climbing. The west-slope grade is steepest at this point. On the east slope Track One has to go down a ramp known as “The Slide.” It’s 2.28% to reattain the original Pennsy grade, which is around 1.75%.
My brother’s picture will probably be my October Fall-foliage shot in my calendar. It’s pretty good.
We hafta run back-and-forth across the bridge which is 55 mph highway.
Shadows were falling across the tracks looking east toward the mountain-top. But the sun was still blasting the yellow trees behind Track Four looking west.
So it goes, or went. We can photograph until maybe 4 p.m. in October.

No tragedies. I did get a cold waiting for Triple-A. Plus I did fall once at our motor-lodge on stairs with a left-hand railing. I was trying to use my unoccupied right hand on that left-hand railing. Stupid for a geezer with wonky balance.
Never again!

• “The Hill” is what railroaders call Allegheny Mountain. Long ago it was the barrier to trade with the midwest.
• RE: With “braking down The Hill” helper-locomotives turn their traction-motors into generators, and dispose of the current generated in large toaster-grids atop the locomotive. It’s called Dynamic braking.
• “MO,” “UN,” “AR,” etc. are the telegraph call-letters of old towers once at the interlockings; interlockings being crossovers, switch turnouts, whatever. Everything is “interlocked” so trains won’t crash into each other.
• Trackside “defect-detectors” replaced human monitoring in the caboose, which is why cabooses are gone. Defect-detectors sense hot wheels, dragging equipment, etc., then transmit on railroad-radio if a defect is detected: “Stop your train!” 253.1 is the detector at milepost 253.1: Carney’s Crossing. There used to be detectors at milepost 238.8: Brickyard., and 258.8 in Portage.
• “The Slide” is a ramp built by Pennsy to get up to New Portage Tunnel, dug but abandoned when the state gave up on its Public Works System, a combination canal/portage railroad meant to compete with NY’s Erie Canal. New Portage Railroad, and its tunnel, were built to circumvent the original portage railroad over Allegheny Mountain, which had inclined planes. Pennsy got New Portage because it needed another tunnel atop the mountain.
• “Siri” (sear-eee) is Apple’s iPhone assistant. It works via voice-recognition. I don’t use it much (“call Jack”), but used it a while ago to find a Taco-Bell in Altoona. “I need a photo-supply in Altoona.” I asked it that after my brother said “I wonder if Rite-Aid (drug store) sells photo-chips?”