Train-chase from Hell
—“Assuming my brother and I do another train-calendar,” I said to the receptionist at our Motor-Lodge in Altoona (PA)….
“If I mail it to this Motor-Lodge next January are you gonna get it?”
“Yes,” she smiled.”
“I wanna be sure you get it,” I said. “You’re the one who always smiles at me. —Yer doin’ it right now!”
I gave that receptionist our 2020 calendar seven months late. “This is what my brother and I do here.”
She just said hello to me in-passing outside. We recognize each other, and I talk to her.
“Flirting” I call it; but I’m told it’s not.
With MY childhood it’s flirting = EVIL! I’m talking with a female. (Gasp! “Disgusting, I tell ya!”)
I make her smile. Clearly she likes it, and her smile is irresistible.
(That was my first proposed lede. Here’s my second.)
—“Enjoy yourself!” said my smiling 19-year-old female contact at the kennel that boards my dog.
“Would that I could,” I thought to myself. My dog is crippled with a torn ACL. He hops on three legs, and those kennel-ladies rearrange rugs so he’s not on slippery floor.
That 19-year-old calls him “ham,” since he’s such a lovable ham — a people-dog = “pet me!”
(That 19-year-old smiles, and I melt.)
All those kennel-ladies love my dog, and are trying to set up a second opinion — since my first opinion was negative.
(That was my second proposed lead. Years ago at the Mighty Mezz I learned: “start with a quote; readers love dialogue, and a quote draws ‘em in. Otherwise what you wrote lines the bottom-of-the-birdcage.”)
But this trip became the train-chase from Hell.
(Enter final proposed lead.)
—Yr Fthfl Srvnt drove all the way to Altoona without his camera. I had all my other photo-equipment, but not my camera.
“We needed your telephoto at Bennington-Curve,” my brother exclaimed.
“No great loss,” I texted another friend. “I have so many images from earlier trips I wasn’t planning on photographing much. My calendar is only 13 pictures, and many are already planned. I only need a few ‘extraordinaries’.”
These Altoona sojourns have become palling around with my brother.
The only two locations not done yet, one of which is Bennington-Curve, I can try again next month when I plan to go to Altoona with a different friend. My brother may not be able to.
All I hafta know is how to get to Bennington-Curve.
So, I let my brother do the photography, with occasional input from me: “SHOOT-SHOOT-SHOOT-SHOOT!”
He can’t do motor-drive, and his camera sets shutter-speed itself. Often too slow to stop a train.
What I forgot goes well beyond my camera. “Perhaps my crippled dog is a distraction?”
No change of tee-shirts, no hat (in case it rains), no chocolates.
Worst of all was my camera.
My brother comes a day before me — a nine hour trip from near Boston.
A few days later we ram up-and-down 40-50 miles of railroad, taking fabulous photos of trains. We’re both railfans. Altoona was where the Pennsylvania Railroad took on Allegheny Mountain in the 1840s. At that time Allegheny Mountain was a barrier to East-West trade.
The railroad is now Norfolk Southern, but getting a railroad over that mountain is still a challenge. There are heavy grades both up and down — helper-locomotives often get added.
And that railroad is very busy. It’s still a main trade conduit between the midwest and the east-coast megalopolis.
What I usually say is “wait 20-25 minutes and you’ll see a train.” Sometimes it’s longer or shorter, or tracks get closed for maintenance.
That old mainline across Allegheny Mountain is fabulous for railfans.
Trains galore! And wide-open-throttle climbing. In steam parlance it was “throttle-to-the-roof!” With diesels it’s “run-eight!”
(Wednesday afternoon)
—Per usual my brother drove to Altoona Wednesday, July 22nd.
He arrived early enough to shoot some photos, his first being at Gray Interlocking. Gray is where a signal-controlled siding merges back onto the two-track main.
The siding runs north (railroad east) out of Altoona all the way to Gray, where are the railroad returns to the two tracks to Harrisburg.
—From Gray my brother charged south to the lower Riggles Gap Road overpass over the tracks, hoping to beat 35A.
—Before giving up for the day, my brother went down into Altoona, and up onto the Eighth Street bridge. (Shooting here in late-afternoon puts the sun behind the train.)
(My brother alone on Thursday)
—On Thursday my brother photographs trains while I drive down. I usually arrive in the afternoon, then we hook up and photograph trains until our daylight goes away.
The first place he went, alone of course, was the 24th St. bridge Pennsy’s old Slope-Interlocking. Slope Tower is gone, and now the interlocking is just Altoona’s yard-entrance, as it was under Pennsy.
Exiting Altoona is 63V, a westbound trash-train. The train is all purple containers filled with trash and garbage for landfilling out west.
The trash-train usually stinks = rotten garbage.
—My brother then went to Cassandra-Railroad-Overlook, where the railroad goes onto the 1898 bypass.
An old overpass remains, converted by a local resident into Cassandra-Railroad-Overlook.
He noticed railfans were hanging out on that bridge. He cut the grass, and added tables and chairs.
My brother said many people were there, plus our usual entrance to Cassandra was all torn up. He got there by driving around.
Cassandra-Railroad-Overlook is a great place to watch trains. They round a curve onto the bypass, and you watch from the overpass, or a nearby grassy hillside.
My brother also said a sleepover was planned at the Overlook.
(How anyone could sleep at Cassandra-Railroad-Overlook is well beyond this railfan.)
Reasons for us to avoid Cassandra.
According to Phil Faudi, my railfan friend from Altoona, 21E is the “UPS-train.”
21E used to be all UPS-trailers to the West Coast. It ran on time, or the railroads got penalized.
Phil is the fan who long-ago started me chasing and photographing trains. He did “tours” at that time. We’d ram up-and-down the same 40-50 miles of railroad my brother and I do.
“Drop everything!” Phil would shout. “21E is climbing the mountain! We could beat it to MO.”
We’d bootleg-turn his aging Buick, and pedal-to-the-metal up Sugar-Run Road.
My all-knowing brother disputes that 21E is the UPS-train.
I really don’t care, but I think Phil is right. He says most of the websites my brother relies on have errors. Phil hangs out with Norfolk Southern crewmen.
Phil told me 21E gets three locomotives, in case one fails.
My brother’s Cassandra 21E has only two.
Things probably aren’t what they were years ago, so 21E may no longer be the vaunted UPS-train.
—Then my brother went to “five-tracks,” were PA State Route 53 crosses five tracks of Norfolk Southern’s mainline approaching the summit of Allegheny Mountain.
The two left-most tracks are on the original alignment of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The right-most tracks — the train is on Track-One — are on the alignment of New-Portage-Railroad toward New Portage Tunnel, which is separate from, and slightly above, the original Pennsy tunnel.
Pennsy took over New-Portage-Railroad when it abandoned eons ago. It gave them a second summit tunnel. (They added a third, but it was abandoned when the original tunnel was enlarged.)
“Never before have I seen a railroad mainline with five tracks,” my brother always says. “This is incredible! Even if one of those five tracks is just a siding. Usually it’s no more than two or three.”
The slightly higher New-Portage alignment renders a slightly steeper climb up the west slope.
To get back to the original Pennsy alignment on the east slope, Track-One has to descend a ramp known as The Slide. It’s at 2.28% (originally 2.36%) which isn’t too bad; and now even westbounds are climbing The Slide.
The highway bridge isn’t too bad = traffic is fairly often, but there’s plenty of room to safely set up a photograph. You have to be careful switching sides.
My brother really likes this picture: that 12G is all colorful boxcars slathered with graffiti.
—Then my brother went to Lilly (PA) south (railroad-west) of Cresson.
A large street-bridge leaps over the railroad, plus a small creek.
My brother went up on that bridge, from which we’ve shot many times. I don’t consider the view photogenic, although it’s worth seeing.
The sun always lights only one side of the train, and in the morning it won’t light the front of the locomotive = back-lit. Also, too much straight railroad = to get any curvature, ya gotta telephoto.
I coulda called the train a “stacker,” since it has double-stacks. But it also has TOFC (trailer-on-flatcar).
—The railroad fronts some of the streets in Altoona. One street runs parallel to the tracks, and houses are on it.
The houses are on one side of the street, and the tracks are on the other side. A waist-high fence separates from the tracks.
I could never live there: I’d be up all night watching trains.
We tried this location last year, but it doesn’t work very well. Light-wise you’re on the wrong side of the tracks. Plus the background is turgid.
(Paling around all-day Friday with my brother.)
—On Friday my brother and I chase and photograph trains all day.
But —A) I didn’t have my camera, and —B) There were only two places we wanted to go, both to which we never had been.
First was what I call “the ramp,” railroad-west of Cresson. It’s an on-ramp from State Route 53 onto the Route 22 expressway.
That expressway crosses the railroad on a large bridge, and we haven’t tried it for fear of parking/standing on that expressway.
But the previous day my brother noticed another fan photographing from that bridge, and that fan wasn’t actually on the expressway.
He was on an on-ramp that’s part of the bridge.
The Cresson runner ends at that bridge. Norfolk Southern parks grain-trains on that runner for a transfer to Corman.
Corman operates the old Pennsy branches out of Cresson, and there’s an ethanol plant up in Clearfield (PA).
The grain-train is for that ethanol plant.
Corman brought empty covered-hoppers back to Cresson for transfer back to Norfolk Southern.
The grain cars are on the runner, ready to merge onto the mainline. Engines are attached, but need a crew.
Meanwhile, westbound 747 on Track-Three hurries past the grain-train.
Eastbound intermodal on Track-Two starts into “Benny.” (At left is Track-One; and in the distance are the summit tunnels atop Allegheny Mountain. Also in the distance is “The Slide” down Track-One.) (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
—Next would be Bennington curve, a location from which we never shot.
We’ve shot inside the curve, but not outside. The location was a rock outcropping near and above the tracks.
Getting to it was challenging, although we took the hard way = through woods, no paths.
I fell twice crossing downed trees. I was sidestepping, but the trees were only a few feet apart. My balance is awful, so I used my brother’s umbrella as a cane.
Bennington curve is where Pennsy’s “Red-Arrow” passenger-train from Detroit flew off the track at 3:21 a.m. February 18, 1947 after descending “The Slide” at too high a speed without brakes.
All told, 24 were killed and 138 injured.
The “Red-Arrow” was running late, and had two double-headed K4 Pacifics pulling it.
“Benny” is a sharp curve; 30 mph speed-limit. Nearby is the abandoned Bennington mine-camp, with Bennington Cemetery = out in the middle of nowhere.
To get to it you have to travel a trackside one-lane dirt-road — it’s right next to Track-Three.
We stayed there about three hours, and photographed many trains.
It’s a fabulous location, and I’m glad we found it.
That rock overlooks the entirety of Bennington curve, which means the train is in view as well as the locomotives as the train rounds the curve.
591 (empty coal-cars) on Track-Three comes off Benny toward the summit tunnels. It’s passed by 20R headed down The Hill on Track-Two. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
38A descends The Slide. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
—Track-One over the mountain had been closed for maintenance pretty much all day. Track-One includes The Slide.
Before we left Benny Track-One was cleared for service. Supervisors patrol the tracks often to locate flaws, like at switches, that need repair. They use pickup trucks with retractable railroad wheels.
Soon 38A was descending The Slide on Track-One.
Things are no longer what they were with in-the-cab signaling. Train-engineers no longer call line-side signals, which we’d hear on our scanners.
Many of those line side-signals have been removed.
But my brother is “smarter than the average bear — nyuk-nyuk-nyuk!”
Train-engineers still call out signals at interlockings, plus in-the-cab signal-aspect changes.
There still is chatter on railroad radio.
Plus he also has crib-sheets galore, and knows what to expect.
He also monitors a new railfan website called PT-242, which logs every train past Horseshoe Curve.
The Mighty Curve is part of the railroad over Allegheny mountain, and 242 is the milepost location from Philadelphia.
“23Z, westbound on Three, just passed the Mighty Curve. We could beat it to Portage.”
23Z, Penn-Central Heritage-unit on the point, curves off the 1898 bypass into Portage. (Photo by Jack Hughes.)
—We packed up and left Benny — no falls, since we were on paths.
That rock outside Bennington curve is the BEST location we ever been to.
We motored to the abandoned trailer behind the old railroad station in Portage.
Portage is where the 1898 bypass eastbound begins. The original Pennsy mainline remains — it’s used as a secondary to-and-from a coal loadout.
We been to that Portage trailer many times — my 2019 Christmas-card is from that trailer.
But this time the trailer was socked in by weeds.
Boring to this kid, but my brother has the camera — and the Penn-Central Heritage-unit was on the point.
(Addendum)
—Amidst all this, and out in the middle of nowhere at Bennington curve, I got a deluge of faraway phone calls concerning my dog.
Luckily I had my iPhone and working cell-phone service. All calls were from home, 265 miles away — although my phone nearly died.
My crippled dog developed an infection in his ailing leg, and had to be taken by my kennel-friend to an emergency veterinary service.
With COVID-19 that friend had to wait outside four hours.
I was making a torrent of executive decisions from out in the middle of nowhere.
“You do pretty good for a stroke-survivor,” my brother commented.
My kennel-friend finally retrieved my dog, along with anti-infection pills. I shouldn’t have gone to Altoona, but “go to Altoona,” she said. We didn’t expect such a mess.
• RE: “throttle-to-the-roof” and “run-eight.” Steam locomotives usually had their throttle lever, maybe three feet long, hinged to the cab roof. Pulling it back all the way — full throttle — meant angling that long lever up toward the cab-roof. Diesel locomotives usually have eight throttle positions on their control-stands. Run-eight (the final position) is maximum fuel delivery = the equivalent of full throttle. (Diesel engines aren’t throttled.)
• I had a stroke October 26th, 1993 from an undiagnosed heart-defect since repaired. I pretty much recovered. Just tiny detriments; I can pass for never having had a stroke.
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