40 years of North American photography

[newbryford]

17 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

 

This is the only one of those FA's I've come across in my travels - the one preserved (and needing a lot of TLC) at the Danbury RR Museum.....

 

 

Sorted with a bit of T-Cut.....

[Johann Marsbar]

The following morning I took a trip south to Burlington in New Jersey, located on the Trenton-Camden diesel light rail "River Line".  Founded in 1677 it's quite a historic settlement so a few hours were spent looking round the place whilst I was there. The single-track River Line - originally the historic Camden & Amboy line from 1830 - runs on a reservation down the centre of the street, with 3 stops being located in the Burlngton area which are served by the Stadler built railcars......

 

 

 

Overnight freight services are still provided on parts of the River Line (after the passenger trains have finished for the day) though I'm not sure if any still pass through Burlington.

 

From Burlington, I headed back north to Princeton Junction and ended up on the rail replacement bus into Princeton, home of the well known University and the sort of upmarket place that boasts faux Elizabethan half-timbered buildings....

 

 

At that time, the "Dinky" branch train (when it wasn't replaced by a bus...) still served the 1918 built "Collegiate Gothic" PRR station.....

 

 

...though soon after, a new station was built and the line was (controversially) shortened by about 1/4 mile, the building above now being used as a restaurant.

 

On returning to the Junction, a couple of hours were spent photographing the frequent Amtrak/NJT rail services passing through on the 4 track main line........

 

 

 

 

 

[Johann Marsbar]

The last day of the trip was mainly spent on the NYC Subway network, though first thing that morning I walked from the Hotel to Broad Street station in Newark...

 

 

...where I caught the light rail from there to Penn Station....

 

 

Taking PATH to get over to Manhattan, I broke my journey at Harrison for a few photos of passing traffic, including this NJT PL42AC #4018.....

 

 

 

 

Other than that it was mainly Subway riding around New York for the rest of the day.  They seem to go in for platform lighting provision overkill in a big way on some of the stations.....

 

 

I think you could quite easily do away with every second one of those lamp posts!

 

Then it was back to the Hotel to pick up my bag, before heading to EWR for the overnight flight home.  Using Newark as a base had worked rather well, so a repeat trip based there was investigated and booked for April the following year, though that one almost ended up being halted by events elsewhere in the World.....

[mdvle]

6 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

Other than that it was mainly Subway riding around New York for the rest of the day.  They seem to go in for platform lighting provision overkill in a big way on some of the stations.....

 

I think you could quite easily do away with every second one of those lamp posts!

 

Sometimes it can be more a perception of safety that matters, and while I have no idea how true it is the New York subway and transit had a very bad reputation/perception in the 70s/80s.

 

Even in Toronto, which never had those sort of issues, the TTC found it necessary on the subway to create a zone on each platform (that roughly lined up with the subway car that had a crew member controlling the doors) with extra lighting and an emergency communication box to help some riders feel safe during times of day when there are fewer riders.

 

[Johann Marsbar]

Eyjafjallajökull - a name to conjure with, and one that nearly stopped my April 2010 trip to the USA dead in its tracks.   For those who have forgotten, that was the Icelandic Volcano that created a huge dust cloud that effectively closed European airspace several times in April/May that year.

Thankfully, by the time I flew out to Newark on 28th April, all airspace had been reopened, though there was still the possibility that I might get stuck in the US and not be able to get back - something that did actually happen on a later trip, again due to an event of Nature...

 

For the first full day of the trip I travelled on Amtrak to Lancaster in Pennsylvania for the day (via Philadelphia), using a day ticket on the local bus operation to travel around the area.

The station building in Lancaster is quite an impressive structure and was undergoing restoration at that time....

 

 

Not surprisingly, the local bus operation is called Red Rose Transit and I was very impressed with their system, considering it one of the most "European" style of operations that I've found in the USA, and they even have a network of Country routes as well as within Lancaster itself.  The Euro feel was helped by a number of their fleet at that time consisting of these Optima built Opus models - which were based on Wrights of Ballymena produced vehicles.........

 

 

Rear panelling incorporated the Wrights "W" logo and the interiors were very much to UK Diptac styling!

 

I took a run out on one of the country routes to Lititz where the local Tourist Office is based in this replica railway station in the town centre....

 

 

..and they also have a former Reading RR caboose on display there.......

 

I was very lucky to be there at the time the local freight from Lancaster was working the industries in town.......

 

 

The large brick building at that time was still the Wilbur chocolate factory who still used rail, but its now been converted into flats.  The tracks don't come this far into town now either, terminating just to the west of here.

 

From Lititz, it was back into Lancaster and then out on the bus to Intercourse in the heart of the rather "touristy" Amish area, where an example of local transportation is seen....

 

 

The Amish presence also helps explain the decent network of country bus services in the area, as they are well used by the Amish (non car-owning) population.

 

Back into Lancaster, I made my first visit to the excellent Lancaster Brewing Company premises for a late lunch and sampling of their ales, before spending the rest of my time in the City looking round the place, where I came upon this most unexpected sight.....

 

 

At the time, a local group had aquired a number of former SEPTA PCC cars and were trying to get a local circular route promoted and built in Lancaster. This car was displayed on an open area with various notices publicising the scheme. Unfortunately, nothing came of it, so I believe all the cars ended up being scrapped.

 

At the time, NS were still using the old Dillerville yard fairly close to the downtown area - though this has now been taken over by the adjacent Franklin & Marshall College and all the tracks have been removed.

This former Southern Railway high-nose GP38-2 was amongst the locos stabled there on that particular day.....

 

 

and this former Conrail caboose was sill being used for local runs.....

 

 

The yard was originally fully electrified as well, as can be seen from the masts in this photo ....

 

 

That was the pair of GP38-2's I had seen earlier that day at Lititz and were making their way back to the stabling point at the east end of the yard.   NS enlarged a yard a bit further out of the City centre area to make room for the Dillerville yard closure, the place shutting about 10 years ago.

[Johann Marsbar]

The next two days of the trip were spent in the Philadelphia area, travelling down from Newark to Trenton on NJT each day.  As I'd had to change trains at 30th Street on my trip to Lancaster on the first day, I took the opportunity to pre-purchase my day rover tickets for the two days which meant I didn't have to go into central Philly each day to buy the tickets each time.

 

On the first day I caught the local SEPTA service from Trenton down to Bristol, where I had about an hour before my connecting bus service to City Line (the route 66 trolleybus terminus) departed.   The former station building at Bristol is now in use as a local sandwich shop/snack bar....

 

 

During the time I was there, a good selection of traffic passed on the former PRR main line......

 

 

 

 

 

The SEPTA electric loco was the sole ALP-44 in their fleet, the other 7 electrics being AEM-7's.  These have all now been scrapped in the last couple of weeks after some time in storage following their replacement by ACS-64's, similar to the Amtrak ones.

 

Later in the morning I had got to Lansdale where this CSX pair were stabled......

 

 

At the time, the CSX power based there was used on the "Lansdale Cluster" of freight lines that radiated from the town, though some of those branches have since passed over to Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad operation.

 

Lansdale is still served by SEPTA electric service that runs out as far as Doylestown, though one of the aforementioned "Lansdale Cluster" lines - the one to Norristown - does also have a short section of passenger operation at the Norristown end - a stub extension from the Norristown Transportation Centre to Elm Street, where this elderly Silverliner II car #9016 of 1963 is seen.......

 

 

The Silverliner II cars (of Reading or PRR heritage) were at the end of their working lives by that stage, all being withdrawn by 2013, and I took the opportunity on visits during that time to ride on them whenever possible.

[Johann Marsbar]

The second day in Philadelphia included finally getting a ride on the fairly irregular Route 13 operation through to Darby which usually terminates short at Yeadon Loop with only selected cars running through to Darby Transportation Centre - the main route there being Route 11 along Woodland Ave & Main St.  The 13 takes a slightly (but only slightly...) more scenic routeing compared with the 11 which travels through a very depressed area for a lot of the time.  A Route 11 car is seen inbound to Philly in Darby, close to the terminus.....

 

 

After a run back into the City on the 11, I then took a suburban electric service out to Overbrook, on the former PRR main line to Harrisburg. The catenary structures on this part of the route  date from the original PRR suburban electrification of the line from Philly (Broad Street) out to Paoli in 1915......

 

 

...the wooden station there - dating from 1860 - having been being nicely restored in the early 2000's......

 

 

A short walk to the Route 10 tram terminus enabled a short ride on that route to connect in with the 15 which uses refurbished PCC cars.....

 

 

.....which I took as far as Broad Street, where I changed onto the Subway for the run out to Fern Rock TC, the only place this North-South line emerges into daylight so you can get photos of the stock used....

 

 

From there it was by suburban electric back to the City Centre, pausing at Wayne Junction en route to get some photos, such as this Silverliner II of 1963, which I think was one of the ones supplied to the Pennsylvania when new.  A few of these units still retained their "PENNSYLVANIA" or "READING COMPANY" lettering, even at this late stage, on the band above the windows.

 

 

Once back Downtown, I took tram Route 34 out to visit Dock Street Brewing which is located in a former Fire Station which can be seen to the right of this photo....

 

 

From there I headed back into the City, where this (ex Reading) Silverliner II is seen in the high level platforms at 30th Street......

 

[Johann Marsbar]

Another day of the holiday was taken up with a visit to New Haven, CT and also the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, using the electric unit worked service out of Grand Central Terminal in NYC to New Haven and then a local bus route to the museum.  There seemed to be very few visitors there that day, so I was able to have a good look round the museum and they were also conducting driver training with one of the Rapid Transit cars in their collection which added to the two trams in use on public runs.

 

One car in use was a Perley Thomas example from New Orleans, whilst the other, more interesting one, was this 1906 Brooklyn Rapid Transit "convertible" car built by Laconia....

 

 

Down at the car barns, this Connecticut Company, Wason built car of 1911 was standing in the sunshine.......

 

 

In one of the car barns open to visitors, this Connecticut Company crossbench car #401built by Jones in 1906 was on display.....

 

 

...along with this Ansonia, Derby & Birmingham electric loco of 1888 - a very early survivor.....

 

 

Since my last visit there, they had started to construct a trolleybus operating circuit, where this former MBTA Flyer was parked.....

 

 

How far the construction got to, I don't know, as this whole area, including all of the buildings shown in the photos has now been replaced by a completely new set of buildings at a higher elevation elsewhere on the property.  The museum, as it was situated, was liable to significant flooding, being close to sea level, and the new complex is a lot higher to protect against this. tgh I've not been back to see the new arrangements there, though it is on "the list" to do again at some stage!

 

The Rapid Transit car being used for staff training was this Brooklyn Rapid Transit convertible car, built by Cincinnati Car in 1905.....

 

 

Most of the afternoon was spent in New Haven itself, where Amtrak #531, an MP15 of 1993, was on the Amtrak stabling point.

 

 

Some of the evening peak trains produced loco hauled diesel workings, including this pair of Metro North Brookville built BL20GH locos.

 

[Johann Marsbar]

The remaining days of the trip were mainly spent in the NYC area where I managed to finish off covering all the lines on the Subway system in the course of my travels.

 

 

 

I even managed to find one of the remaining R40 subway car pairs with their distinctive sloping front ends, which dated from the 1960's and had been relegated to training cars by then....

 

 

I actually found the NYC Subway quite a fascinating network to travel around on, more so than the likes of the London Underground and actually discovered I liked the place as a city as well, particularly the Craft beer scene.  I even managed to attend a Cask Ale Festival in Brooklyn whilst I was there, not something I ever expected to be able to do based on the beer brands available on my earlier trips to the USA!

 

The only diversion from touring NYC was a trip out on the LIRR to Greenport, located on the North East tip of Long Island, reached by taking an EMU from NY Penn out to Ronkonkoma, from where this 2-car double deck set behind diesel #412, a DE30AC, took me on to the end of the line at Greenport.

 

 

Rather than return on the same route back into New York, I was able to sample the road transport network provided by Suffolk Transit.....

 

 

which took me via Riverhead (change of buses) on to Port Jefferson where I was able to cover another of the LIRR diesel worked lines - in this case propelled by #418......

 

 

.. from there to Huntington for a unit back to Jamaica and the Subway into NYC.

 

One of the last photos taken on the trip was this one at Newark Penn, the last time I saw an NJT ALP-44 working a train...

 

[Mike_Walker]

5 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

The only diversion from touring NYC was a trip out on the LIRR to Greenport, located on the North East tip of Long Island, reached by taking an EMU from NY Penn out to Ronkonkoma, from where this 2-car double deck set behind diesel #412, a DE30AC, took me on to the end of the line at Greenport.

 

Is that what Greenport looks like now?

 

Here it is in 1987.

 

 

 

Greenport, on the North Arm of the Great Peconic Bay at the east end of the island, was the eastern terminal of the original LIRR main line which dates from 1835 and was envisaged as part of the main line from New York to Boston as the Connecticut coast was thought to be to difficult to build a railroad along at that time.  At Greenport, the trains originally ran onto a wooden pier to allow passengers to transfer directly onto steamers which took them across Long Island Sound to Bridgeport where they boarded another train to to take them to Boston.  Once the line along the Connecticut shore opened it became a rural backwater.

 

[Johann Marsbar]

12 minutes ago, Mike_Walker said:

Is that what Greenport looks like now?

 

Here it is in 1987.

 

 

 

Greenport, on the North Arm of the Great Peconic Bay at the east end of the island, was the eastern terminal of the original LIRR main line which dates from 1835 and was envisaged as part of the main line from New York to Boston as the Connecticut coast was thought to be to difficult to build a railroad along at that time.  At Greenport, the trains originally ran onto a wooden pier to allow passengers to transfer directly onto steamers which took them across Long Island Sound to Bridgeport where they boarded another train to to take them to Boston.  Once the line along the Connecticut shore opened it became a rural backwater.

 

 

The original station building was still there in 2010 and now seems to house a Maritime Museum, a new high-level platform being constructed just to the west of it to cater for the LIRR trains (as seen below).  The last few issues of Railpace Magazine have had a comprehensive Railfanning Guide to to Greenport line, the April 2022 edition covering the Riverhead to Greenport section.

You can still get a ferry over to New London in Connecticut, though the Long Island harbour is now Orient Point - about 4.5 miles east of Greenport - which is served by a local bus route. I had thought about doing that as part of a round trip in 2010, but decided on the Port Jefferson branch move instead.

 

[Johann Marsbar]

After the April trip in 2010 I began planning another trip for later in the year, with Pennsylvania being the likely destination.  As I drew up a list of likely places I wanted to visit, it was obvious that a car would need to be hired to cover them all, so I "bit the bullet" and duly booked my first solo car hire in the US, as neither of the two people who I had done previous trips with were free to come on this one.

 

With everything planned out well in advance, flights, car and accommodation all booked beforehand, mid September saw me on board a US Airways Airbus 330-200 at Heathrow on a direct flight to Philadelphia. I quite liked US Airways and used them on 4 different trips that involved flights to PHL over the next 5 years, prior to them being taken over by American Airlines.

One amusing/strange thing about that particular flight - which seemed to be limited to US Airways planes - was that the travel map displayed on the seat back entertainment system took great delight in highlighting various maritime disaster locations on it, my notes for the trip mentioning specifically the Mary Rose, Titanic, Wilhelm Gustloff, Lusitania, Carpathia and Andrea Doria! 

I wonder if they would display airline crash locations so readily on there.....

 

Once I had finally got through Philadelphia airport - which took an eternity for the baggage to appear - I picked up my hire car and headed off to my first Motel 6 of the trip at Gordonville, PA, close enough to the Strasburg RR to clearly hear the loco whistles in the room!

 

En-route to the Motel, the opportunity was taken to call in at Kennett Square to see what the East Penn RR had stabled there, which was quite a mixed bag of motive power.

#7874 was an ex SP B30-7, with #2206 behind it being an ex Conrail U23B

 

 

Another ex SP B30-7 (#7836) was obviously being used for spare parts, as it has never entered service with East Penn.....

 

 

Additionally, there were a few ex NYS&W GP18's which had only been recently obtained by EPRY.

 

 

The next day dawned fairly damp so most of the day was spent in "Tourist" mode, Lancaster County being quite an attractive area.   First point of call was a very wet York where these buildings were photographed in the City centre as part of the "Colonial Complex" of buildings there......

 

 

There is a section of street-running rail line visible in the roadway, which is part of the former Northern Central line that links up with the "Steam into History" tourist operation out of New Freedom, PA.  I don't think any regular traffic uses that section of street running at the moment though.  As this is supposed to be a Model Rail forum, the two buildings in the photo above acted as inspiration for some N gauge scratchbuilt ones for my own layout...... (as did the log built one behind the pub that isn't visible in the York photo)

 

 

York is also home to the York Railway operation, part of the G & W empire, and their depot was found next to a waste disposal facility in a not very scenic part of town, the only photo possible being this rebuilt GP16.......

 

 

I did manage to get some better photos of their operations the following year though!

 

There was certainly a ready supply of potential modelling subjects in the buildings I found on that trip, though I haven't got round to building this one as yet....

 

 

Built in 1719 and located in West Lampeter, this is the Hans Herr house which looks as though it has been transported there from somewhere in Germany!

 

By this time the rain had eased off, so I called in at the Strasburg RR to see what was running.  Unfortunately they had a week-long special event in progress of the type I normally steer clear of, and, being a weekend, the main part of the event was in full swing.  That day I limited my photos to a few taken along the route at a crossing, where "Thomas the Clag Monster" put on quite a smoke display.....

 

 

...before heading north to visit a museum at Ephrata and then on to Manheim for the town museum which is located in the old railway station. This museum has a fairly major attraction in the form of a fully restored and operable Conestoga Traction Birney car dating from 1926 which runs on a couple of hundred yards of track at the station.  Needless to say, the keyholder for the tram shed and the regular operator hadn't bothered to come in that particular Sunday, but the staff were very helpful and at least managed to retreive the key so I could have a look at the tram.....

 

 

 

There is also a fairly substantial HO scale model of the railroads in the area at the museum, which was still under construction by a local model RR group at that time and which was being operated that day.

[F-UnitMad]

4 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

"Thomas the Clag Monster"

Love it!!! 🤣🤣🤣

[Johann Marsbar]

8 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

Love it!!! 🤣🤣🤣

 

Given that it is a converted Porter 0-6-0ST from 1917 or thereabouts and it was hauling 8 Heavyweight cars + a caboose, the display that it put on was certainly loud and fairly smokey. 

The weather conditions that day helped though as the next day was sunny & warm and the quantity of smoke produced was a lot less.

[Johann Marsbar]

Thankfully, by the next morning the rain had completely cleared away and I was to have excellent weather - bar one day - for the rest of the trip.  

First job of the day was to drive down to Cockeysville in Maryland for the statutory credit card bashing at M.B.Kleins model railway shop, a couple of hours drive from where I was staying. Before heading off, I discovered the delights of Dienners Restaurant in Ronks, not far from my Motel, where I sampled their "All you can eat" Breakfast Buffet, which cost all of $5.82 including Tax!    Run by members of the local Mennonite Community, that place duly became a regular fixture on all of my trips to the area.....

 

On returning from Cockeysville, I paid a visit to Lampeter, the home of one of several covered bridges that remain in the Lancaster area. The car in the photo (a Ford Focus) was the one I had hired for the trip....

 

 

The rest of the afternoon was spent in the Strasburg area, where the Thomas event was still in progress, but on a lower key basis than the previous two days.  They were running "normal" trains as well as our annoying blue friend, with their former Great Western 2-10-0 #90 in use on those services.....

 

 

A side view of their "Thomas" shows how rather overscale the thing is, when you compare it with the size of the crew member!

 

 

Presumably "Thomas on Steroids" fits in better with the increased dimensions of the US rolling stock it hauls and I'm assuming that their unpowered "Percy" - built since 2010 - is equally enlarged.

After a few photos there it was off to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania - across the road from the Strasburg RR - for a visit. The Museum was fairly quiet that day, so there was plenty of opportunity for photos around the place....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have long-term plans to build a Roundhouse adjacent to their turntable to house some of the items that are still displayed outside, but nothing has happened so far. It's still shown on their website as planned for 2018......

 

Last port of call that day was Irishtown Road crossing - at that time one of the three remaining level crossings on the Amtrak Philadelphia-Harrisburg Main Line - where a Harrisburg bound train behind an AEM7 was seen...

 

[roundhouse]

I recall that when we visited Strasburg some years ago we visited a  new outlet store complex. In the far corner of the newly tarmac parking lot there was alone Amish bloke sitting in his horse drawn buggy - looked so out of place in such a new development.

 

I think that the Strasburg is one of the closest places to UK style preserved railways that I have come across so far in N America. Wouldnt it be great if Amtrak had a stop at the junction though.

[Johann Marsbar]

1 hour ago, roundhouse said:

I recall that when we visited Strasburg some years ago we visited a  new outlet store complex. In the far corner of the newly tarmac parking lot there was alone Amish bloke sitting in his horse drawn buggy - looked so out of place in such a new development.

 

I think that the Strasburg is one of the closest places to UK style preserved railways that I have come across so far in N America. Wouldnt it be great if Amtrak had a stop at the junction though.

 

I believe they have been talking about a station at Leaman Place for quite a long while - but nothing positive has happened as yet.   I don't know whetether you can actually board the Strasburg trains at that point, but one of the Red Rose Transit bus routes from Lancaster does pass that location en route to Gap via Route 30, so it is served by a form of Public Transit.

Unfortunately RRT do not have a route that runs to Strasburg, which is a surprise.

[mdvle]

8 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

I discovered the delights of Dienners Restaurant in Ronks, not far from my Motel, where I sampled their "All you can eat" Breakfast Buffet, which cost all of $5.82 including Tax!    Run by members of the local Mennonite Community, that place duly became a regular fixture on all of my trips to the area.....

 

Curious, just checked and they are still around though the price has gone up to $10 - though kids 3-12 are a bargain at $0.83/per year (and the dinner buffets are $1.18/per year or $1.28/per year).  Good way to get the parents in...

 

https://www.dienners.com/buffet.php

 

A scroll through their Facebook feed reveals they close for 1.5 months from December 24th for anyone thinking of including them in a trip plan.

 

3 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

I believe they have been talking about a station at Leaman Place for quite a long while - but nothing positive has happened as yet.

 

The story of Amtrak and to a lesser extent VIA - lots of things they would like to do but no government funding to do it.

 

 

[Johann Marsbar]

4 minutes ago, mdvle said:

 

Curious, just checked and they are still around though the price has gone up to $10 - though kids 3-12 are a bargain at $0.83/per year (and the dinner buffets are $1.18/per year or $1.28/per year).  Good way to get the parents in...

 

https://www.dienners.com/buffet.php

 

A scroll through their Facebook feed reveals they close for 1.5 months from December 24th for anyone thinking of including them in a trip plan.

 

 

 

I haven't been back there since Sepember 2014, as a potential PA trip in September 2019 was changed to San Francisco and Covid halted all trips thereafter, though I've got a nice list of things to do again in Pennsylvania (Reading & Northern etc..) possibly next year....

Apart from the Breakfast visits, I did call in for the Lunch Buffet when I was stuck in the area in October 2012 (more of that later...) and that was equally as good !

On that 2010 trip I found a few eating locations that provided extremely good value dining, which may be a trait of that area. There was Diner outside Manheim that was excellent, and the evening of the PA Railroad Museum visit, I found an "old style" chrome plated Diner called "Jennies", also on Route 30 at Ronks, that was conspicuous by the large number of trucks parked outside. I went in and had what turned out to be a 12" long Philly Cheesesteak and huge plate of Fries for $6.95!.  The truck driver seated next to me at the counter was attempting to eat an enormous bowl of spaghetti bolognese that cost something like $4.95 and which he eventually gave up trying to finish off because there was too much of it.....

[roundhouse]

We were West Coast in 2019. Hoping to get back this year but the current problems at UK Airports is putting us off let alone the appalling exchange rate. So doing the St Louis NMRA Convention is now almost certainly not going to happen for us and the North West Coast option is not looking likely either. Maybe Christmas in California.

[Johann Marsbar]

After 3 nights in Gordonville, it was time to move on west to my next base used on the trip, so after an 06.15 start and a drive past Harrisburg, I followed the NS (former PRR) main line until I reached Thompsontown, a place that had been selected using Google Earth as good photo spot.  It certainly was a good spot, but there was a complete lack of rail traffic passing!

 

One thing of interest close to the rail line was this replica station building, apparently owned by the boss of one of the railroad book publishing firms over there....

 

 

I sat by the line for just over two hours and the only train to appear was this eastbound Intermodal.....

 

 

...so I eventually gave up and resumed my westward journey.  I wasn't far from the rail line for most of the trip and no traffic was apparent until I reached Lewistown where I saw (and photographed) the eastbound Amtrak "Pennsylvanian", but then it went dead again, so I carried on and stopped for a very late breakfast (more like a Brunch as it was 12.00) at Mill Creek, where no sooner had I sat down to eat, there followed a batch of 3 trains passing the Diner in the space of 25 mins!

After leaving there, I found a level crossing and waited, and waited, until this westbound appeared after an hour......

 

 

It was obvious that there was some work taking place on the line and traffic was being restricted - seemingly Intermodals/Amtrak only - so I decided to abandon any linesiding en-route and pressed on to Hollidaysburg to see what was parked up at the Everett RR HQ.  Nicely parked in the sun were this 1954 built GP10 #707....

 

 

This 1943 built, ex US Army, GE 80 Tonner.....

 

 

..and this 1952 built GP16.....

 

 

My actual destination was the Station Inn at Cresson, where I was going to be spending the next 5 nights, mainly linesiding the "West Slope" of the NS main line as far as Johnstown, though I did also venture as far east as Tyrone as well.  After checking in there, it was obvious that whatever blockage had been in force had been lifted as there was very heavy traffic passing for the next 7 hours or so, basically a train every 10 mins on average.  I did venture over to the other side of the line from the Station Inn for an hour or so, where the following photos were taken...

 

 

 

 

After an excellent (and reasonably priced) meal at the Cresson Springs Restaurant and stocking up with a 24-bottle box of Yuengling Black & Tan beer at the local liquor store, I retired to the porch at the Station Inn to watch passing trains before retiring after a long day.

[Johann Marsbar]

As I had lashed out on a Pennsylvania DeLorme road atlas when filling the car up in York earlier in the trip, the first full day in Cresson was spent exploring some of the photo locations in the immediate area.

A couple of trains an hour seemed to be the overnight frequency, though that picked up well during the daylight hours, though you would get periods of inactivity at various times. Nobody else staying at the Station Inn had ventured outside when I went out before breakfast at about 06.45.  In the next hour, seven trains passed through Cresson, with the biggest surprise of all being this combination, which was totally unexpected......

 

 

There were a few unhappy guests at the S.I. who didn't know it was coming either!     That wasn't the last time that those units appeared when I was linesiding having seen them a couple of years later near Roanoke, VA, hauling the full executive train.

 

With a clear, cloudless sky,  some time was spent in Cresson itself that morning....

 

 

 

...before I headed off to the old road overbridge at Cassandra, which is another well-known vantage point......

 

 

 

The shadows in the rock cutting were a bit of a disadvantage with the strong sunlight though.

 

From there I headed east to Gallitzin, where I found that they were doing maintenance work in the Tunnels there and hardly any trains were using the line, so I finished up by the Route 53 bridge at Cresson.....

 

 

 

...before returning back to finish the day in Cresson itself.  The 4 helpers on the rear of the coal train shown above was a bit unusual, as 2 are the norm on uphill workings. It might have been to save a light engine move for a pair of them.

[Johann Marsbar]

The next day dawned cloudy but with decent lighting levels opposite the Station Inn at Cresson....

 

 

...though it certainly didn't stay like that much longer, with fairly heavy rain coming later in the day.

I ventured a little further west than the previous day, starting off at Summerhill where a PRR CPL signal gantry was a recognised photo-prop at that time, as seen with this westbound Intermodal.....

 

 

A pair of the SD40E helper locos assist an eastbound Manifest through Summerhill....

 

 

The rain had started by 10.30, so I headed for Portage and the town museum, situated in the former station building there, for a look round, before returning eastwards to Lilly, where, despite the rain not really letting up, I took refuge by parking under a road bridge, getting out of the car when trains were about.....

 

 

 

It was obvious the rain had set in for the day, so I made the best of it as I could, heading late afternoon to Carneys Crossing...........

 

 

...and then back to Lilly..........

 

 

...before giving up and heading back to Cresson for an evening meal. I had intended to try a different location to eat that evening - The Route 53 Diner in Cresson - but when I got there, I found they were setting up for a session of live Country Music, so headed off to the usual Cresson Springs Restaurant instead......

[mdvle]

15 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

 

It was obvious the rain had set in for the day, so I made the best of it as I could, heading late afternoon to Carneys Crossing...........

 

 

 

 

 

I understand the desire (being guilty of it myself) but the above 2 shots plus the previous shot in the cutting are my favourite photos that you have posted.

 

They may not highlight the trains perfectly but they have much more atmosphere and are (to me) more pleasing to look at as the variations in light and the environment interact with the train and everything surrounding the trains.

 

[Johann Marsbar]

The next day saw the rain gone and the prospect of some sunshine later in the day as well, so I followed the advice of The Who by taking some "Pictures of Lilly" to start the day off....

 

 

 

Lilly is quite a good location for photos, as there is an overbridge as well as numerous rail level photo spots.  Was quite busy in the 2.5 hours I was there with 11 train movements taking place in that time. I was just too early in the month to get the Fall colours appearing, though there are hints of changes on some of the trees.

 

From there I had another attempt at the"Cassandra Overlook" bridge where this pair of helpers leading the head-end power on an eastbound Manifest is seen climbing the grade through the rock cutting....

 

 

For the afternoon, I headed off to an area north of Altoona, avoiding going through the City by driving north along the road from Cresson as far as Glasgow, which follows the RJ Corman worked colliery branchline in the vain hope of seeing some rail activity - which, of course, I didn't!

From Glasgow I cut east to meet up with the NS line just north of Altoona at Fostoria, the location of another decent PRR CPL signal gantry. This one seemed to be approach-lit so gave good warning of approaching rail traffic, rather more than the level crossing bells did.

 

 

 

 

I then continued a bit further north to Tyrone, where the Nittany & Bald Eagle line branches off the NS main line and which features street running sections through parts of the town. No traffic on the N&BE was in evidence whilst I was there, but I did find a Conrail liveried lead loco on an eastbound freight past the Amtrak station. Blue locos were getting few and far between by that stage.

 

 

Last location of the day was at Tipton, mid-way between Fostoria and Tyrone, where there is a conveniently placed level crossing in the Downtown area...

 

 

 

Another Conrail blue loco can be seen as the third unit in the westbound coal train.