My train calendar

(Graphic by ****** ******.)

—“This is my son,” said pretty *****, pharmacist and head-honcho at my local pharmacy.
“He loves trains. He really likes your train-calendar.”
Her son was under her arm, clutching my train-calendar.
“Can you say ‘thank you Mr. Hughes’?” Her son is only four or five. “Thank you,” he said, barely audible, and hand over his mouth.
“Well, I’m glad I gave you one,” I said. I give ***** one every year. She and many others. She looks forward to it.
This was the second time pretty ***** cornered me in two days.
“Wanna hear a story?” I asked her last year. She was thrilled. She wanted to hear my story about how I got last January’s picture, a speed-demon train-chase.
I doubt she understood a word I said, but I was telling her a story.
***** is pretty. Not smashingly gorgeous, but pretty enough to make me wonder why she even talks to me. She’s in her early 30s, or maybe later.
As you all know Yrs Trly is a graduate of the Hilda Q. Walton School of Gender Relations, convinced that all males, including me at age-5, were SCUM.
Had my parents come to my defense, Hilda woulda crashed in flames. But they heartily agreed.
“Make sure you tell your son,” I’ll tell her next time; “I was about his age, 2 actually, when I started liking trains. He may get over it, but 74 years for me.”
My calendar is photos my brother and I took around Altoona, PA. It’s where the old Pennsylvania Railroad crossed Allegheny Mountain, although the railroad is now Norfolk Southern. That railroad sees plenty of traffic, since it’s one of two main railroad arteries between the northeast and midwest.
Altoona is where Pennsy crossed Allegheny Mountain, long a barrier to east-west trade. Crossing Allegheny Mountain means climbing that railroad over 1,000 feet. From Altoona the railroad had to use helper-locomotives.
Most challenging in the early 1800s was to get across that barrier — back then was by packhorse. Allegheny Mountain couldn’t be canaled, a 7-10 mile tunnel was not possible back then, and railroading had be through and have easy grades.
Over 2% is difficult; that’s two feet up for every 100 feet forward. And Allegheny Mountain was continuous and sudden. There were no notches.
The other problem was that grading back then wasn’t what it is now.
John Edgar Thomson was brought in. He previously constructed railroads in the area, but was brought in from GA.
He decided to attack Allegheny Mountain suddenly. To be successful his railroad had to stick to valleys where traffic was. Thomson would use helper locomotives to get over the mountain quickly.
He decided to stretch out the grade: to keep it manageable = under 2%.
He took advantage of a two-pronged valley to stretch out his grade. That’s Horseshoe Curve. But two giant fills had to be made, and a rock-face cut off.
Horseshoe Curve made breaching Allegheny Mountain without steep grades possible. Pennsy was very proud of it and stopped trains mid-Curve. Thomson‘s route is still used.
Allegheny Crossing is still fabulous train-watching. Locomotives assault the heavens climbing, and descend in full dynamic braking.
There are so many trains we might see two trains at once, often side-by-side. Sometimes we see three trains at once. It’s busy railroad.
I started chasing trains in Altoona years ago with a local railfan who gave train-chases as a business. I took my camera and shot many photos.
Back then Kodak had a calendar application, so I started an annual calendar of my train photos. I mailed ‘em as Christmas presents.
When Kodak went bankrupt it sold its calendar business to Shutterfly. So now my calendars are Shutterfly.
A younger brother became a railfan after I convinced him to see restored Nickel Plate steam-engine 765 in 1993. 765 is Lima SuperPower, a hot rod. It has a gigantic firebox and boiler so it could boom-and-zoom. I’ve ridden behind 765: constant 70 mph uphill.
Norfolk Southern arranged for 765 to pull retiree trips across PA, to and including Horseshoe Curve. 765 isn’t Norfolk Southern; it’s independent. Those trips attracted my brother and I.
In not long my brother was accompanying me on Altoona diesel-train chases. He would arrive before me, and discovered some of my photo locations on his own. Most of my locations were from that Altoona railfan.
My Altoona railfan-friend discontinued his train-chase business, but my brother and I saw what he was doing.
As a train engineer passed a lineside block-signal, he had to call out the signal aspect on railroad radio. With a scanner tuned to the railroad frequency we’d hear that. We could tell where a train was, and if we could beat it to a photo location.
Soon my brother had a scanner of his own. He also did a lotta research to know which trains were coming when. It’s what my Altoona railfan-friend had done.
So now my brother and I are the ones chasing trains, although I’ve gone there alone occasionally.
Norfolk Southern changed things. With Positive-Train-Control, and in-the-cab signaling, many of the old lineside block-signals were removed. Train-engineers no longer call out signal aspects.
That ruined our scanner monitoring, but fortunately the railroad is busy enough we do well without it.
Wait 15-25 minutes and a train appears.
So I can still do my annual train-calendar. And my brother and I became more photo savvy.
This year I only did 50 calendars, not 75 or more. I no longer send to everyone, and at least 20 were given locally to friends.
Pretty ***** isn’t the only one. Many local businesses get my calendar: my mower-man (also a railfan), my dog-groomer, my tax-lady, the post-office that mails my calendar, and my investment counselor. Also the kennel that boards my dog when I go to Altoona, plus various friends at the Canandaigua YMCA swimming-pool.
My brother and I keep getting older. I turn 76 in couple weeks, and he’s pushing 63.
But people keep telling me they love that calendar. People ask about it.
I think I can still do it. For *****’s son, etc, I will; plus I always liked chasing trains.

• “****** ******” was a photographer at the Messenger Newspaper when I was there. She’s very ‘pyooter-savvy, and we remained friends after I retired. This ancient Apple MacBook Pro was her suggestion.
• 14 years ago I retired from the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper. Best job I ever had. I worked there almost 10 years (over 11 if you count my time as a post-stroke unpaid intern [I had a heart-defect caused stroke October 26th, 1993, from which I recovered fairly well. That defect was repaired.]).
• A “through” railroad can operate continuously. Early on, when grading was rudimentary, railroads often had to use switchbacks to climb hills. The train climbs into a switchback tail, then backs up to the next switchback tail, then continues climbing forward. Sometimes multiple switchbacks are needed. A main advantage of Pennsy’s routing was to get over Allegheny Mountain without switchbacks — continuously. A previous state project used inclined planes. The train-cars had to be winched up the planes after transfer; all of which took time.
• 765 is not owned by a railroad. It’s owned and operated by Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society of Fort Wayne, IN. 765 is a most excellent restoration of a steam-locomotive; it’s so reliable railroads have run railfan excursions with it.
• “Lima” is pronounced as in “lima-bean,” not “lee-muh.” Lima OH not Lima Peru.
• With “dynamic braking” a locomotive can exert braking-force in addition to the brakes on the cars. Previously a train had to depend on car-brakes to descend a hill. Helper locomotives remain on after helping a train uphill. Downhill they can exert dynamic braking.
• I do aquatic balance training in the Canandaigua YMCA’s swimming-pool, two hours per week — plus a third hour on my own.