At the trailer

Westbound auto-racks charge off the 1898 bypass into Portage. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

—The February 2020 entry of MY calendar is solid auto-racks charging off the 1898 bypass into Portage (PA).
My brother-and-I are at the Portage trailer. An old single-axle highway trailer is parked next to the railroad behind Portage station. We set up at the trailer-end looking into the bypass.
Portage is where the original Pennsy main diverged toward Sonman coal-tipple. (Sonman used to be a mine.)
The original Pennsy main thereafter began a series of torturous curves through Cassandra. That original Pennsy main is now a secondary to Sonman.
The original line through Cassandra is long-gone. But that secondary is continuous, and reconnects to the bypass north of Portage.
That 1898 bypass was a major investment. A massive rock-cut had to be made near Cassandra; then a long fill toward Portage. But that bypass is arrow-straight and miles long.
The railroad now bypasses Cassandra completely, although that rock-cut is the location of Cassandra Railroad Overlook.
That overlook bridge may have once been the highway’s entry into Cassandra. But now the highway bypasses Cassandra too.
The train may very well be 11J, but it’s 2015, before my brother began recording every train-number.
It’s late afternoon, when 11J would come through if late. And 11J is solid auto-racks.
The auto-racks are “excess-height,” but have three interior decks. Years ago auto-racks were open but degraded youth liked to pelt the automobiles with rocks.