My calendar for March 2020

Amtrak’s eastbound Pennsylvanian stops in Tyrone. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

—The March 2020 entry of MY calendar is Amtrak’s eastbound Pennsylvanian making its Tyrone (PA) station-stop.
Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian is the only passenger-train left on this storied cross-state railroad. There used to be hundreds.
There wouldn’t be any, except it’s state-subsidized. Morning is eastbound, and late afternoon is westbound. It runs all the way to New York City, so has an electrified locomotive east of Harrisburg. Two equipment sets are needed. What I usually see are six AmCoaches per train.
Across PA it’s Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. North of Philly it uses Amtrak’s electrified Northeast Corridor to New York City.
Amtrak also owns the original Pennsy line into Harrisburg. It too is electrified. The Pennsylvanian changes locomotives in Harrisburg.
West of Harrisburg it’s diesel-electric, and 116 is a General-Electric P42. The P42s replaced the EMD’s F40PH locomotives, a full-cab variation of their GP40-2 freight-engine.
The original P40 was designed with safety-in-mind. Its fuel-tank is inside, less likely to puncture in an accident. (The later P42 upgrade is the same.)
Freight-locomotives (as did the F40PH) have their fuel tank slung under the frame between the motor-trucks. It punctured easily, and spilled fuel can catch fire.
The Pennsylvanian doesn’t stop at every burg. It stops at large towns. Tyrone is sort of an exception. It’s where the railroad turns east toward Harrisburg.
Altoona to Tyrone is north-northeast, the railroad following a valley. Across the state the railroad zigs and zags following valleys to notches where the Juniata River flowed between mountain-valleys. The railroad follows the Juniata.
It’s pretty much the same route the old Pennsylvania Canal used, a long-ago State Public-Works project to compete with the Erie Canal. Public-Works failed; mainly because Allegheny Mountain couldn’t be canaled — a portage railroad was required.
Tyrone is fairly large and had a Pennsylvania Railroad station. A station building is still there. It’s very pretty — yellow with green roof — and may not be the first. It’s also no longer a train station; it’s fenced from the railroad. The building is now the Tyrone historical center — or similar.
The Pennsylvanian stops nearby, but at a tiny plexiglas bus-shelter. Passengers wait in their cars.
It’s almost impossible to get that pretty station-building in a picture. My brother-and-I did once after a lotta planning.
But we lost the mountain scenery. It’s also lost in this calendar picture.

East of Harrisburg the Pennsylvanian is electric. This is an EMD AEM-7. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

• According to my latest Trains magazine, Amtrak is considering selling its line to Harrisburg to SEPTA (South-Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority), which runs commuter-trains out of Philadelphia on the old Pennsy mainline.
• “June-eee-AT-uh,” not “Juanita” (my mother).