My calendar for November, 2020

21V struggles for the mountaintop. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

—“Not bad, R-J,” my brother declared.
“Tried to tell ya!” I exclaimed.
Thus concluding a torrent of noisy bellyaching refusing to at least check out this location.
My brother Jack was driving per usual. We had driven a long service-road east of Pennsy’s old summit tunnels atop Allegheny Mountain.
We went inside Bennington curve, and passed this location going.
“I’d like to at least check it out,” I said as we returned.
“Yada-yada-yada-yada-yada! Complain-complain-complain-complain-complain!”
By diverting to this location, my brother would no longer be in command. He’d be acquiescing to my desire.
We can’t have that! Not with a retired all-knowing power-plant manager.
Much to my surprise, we drove back to check it out = a rocky overlook between the tracks and the road. I’d seen railfans there before.
The location is towards the top of the mountain. Altoona-to-the-summit is all uphill, and trains slow as they near the top. The grade is constant, but long.
Curvature also slows train-speed, and Bennington is tight and near the top.
The train pictured had just passed Benny at this location. It’s HAMMERING! Run-Eight = full-fuel delivery.

• “R-J” is of course me: Robert John Hughes.
• A diesel-electric railroad locomotive has eight fuel-delivery positions the engineer can use. “Run-Eight” is maximum.