My train-calendar for December, 2019

Norfolk Southern stacker 20T goes under the pedestrian overpass attached to Altoona’s Amtrak station. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

—“I bet I can beat that thing to Altoona’s Amtrak station.” I said to myself. “And take the picture I’ve wanted to get for years.”
I had gone to Altoona alone in bitter cold, and drove directly up Allegheny Mountain. I didn’t go to my motor-lodge first.
Atop the mountain is Gallitzin (“Guh-LIT-zin”). I was headed for the overlook that looks northeast, the best place to hear scanner-chatter.
But I never got there. Something was already headed down Track One.
I drove across Main Street bridge over Track One, and 20T, a stacker, was starting down The Hill. It was headed for New Portage Tunnel.
Pedal-to-the-metal down Sugar Run Road, then into Altoona proper, 10-12 miles. I barreled up Ninth Avenue next to the Hollidaysburg Secondary. Then across 28th St. headed for the Medical Center.
Into its vast parking-lot, then around back. That puts me parallel to the old Pennsy main.
There it is! Altoona’s Amtrak station on the other side, with that gigantic vaulting pedestrian overpass — the picture I’ve wanted for years.
Now all I had to do was wait for 20T.
“Norfolk Southern milepost 238.8, Track One, no defects.” That’s 20T; I beat it, I’m gonna get my picture.
238.8 is far west of Altoona’s Amtrak station, but 20T’s headlight was in sight. 20T had already passed 238.8.
Camera on: check. Gloves off: check. 1/400th: check. Bitter cold, but here it comes.
Click-click-click-click-click! Multiple shots. One has to be right.
That shot has been in my head for years. That vaulting overpass makes it. Give your viewer something to go by.
I’ll try again but westbound; 20T is eastbound.
The shot has to be afternoon light. Morning light backlights everything.
There also is the possibility that overpass might throw a shadow if the sun is out.
So yes, a lotta planning went into this photograph. Eastbounds are usually on One; westbounds on Two — which is too far from this location.
I’ll try the other side, but this side works. And fortunately it was cloudy, a factor I failed to consider. If the sun had been out, 20T woulda been lit wrong.
7607 and 8040 are both General Electric ES44s, 7607 an ES44DC (direct current), and 8040 an ES44AC (alternating current). Both are 4,400 horsepower.
20T is a long double-stack, but I think had only these two units. Stackers aren’t top priority, but close.
Top priority seems to be trailer-trains (TOFC), as was the case years ago. Or perhaps Amtrak, although I think Amtrak might fall second to TOFC.
Keeping Amtrak on time isn’t too hard. The plodders are mixed-manifest — the product of loose-car railroading. In-the-hole (siding) to let that stacker pass. How many times have I found a mixed-manifest stopped in front of Railstream’s Cresson webcam?

• RE: “Scanner-chatter.....” —Back then every time a train passed a lineside signal, the engineer had to call out the signal aspect on railroad-radio. I take along my radio-scanner to hear that, so I know where trains are (I know the signal locations). This is no longer the case with Positive-Train-Control and in-the-cab signaling. All I (we) get are lineside defect-detectors, plus signal callouts at interlockings. (“We” being my brother-and-I.)
• Back when Pennsy was built (1846 or so), the Hollidaysburg Secondary was the original line to the Public Works portage-railroad. Instead of ripping it out when the railroad was completed over Allegheny Mountain, that original line became a branch. Pennsy had car-shops in Hollidaysburg.
• 28th St. is the main drag into Altoona from Interstate-99.