Altoona trip - 1

Hi, On Friday, September 20 friend Dale Diacont and I spent the weekend in the Altoona, PA area. Our principal interest was a steam powered excursion on the Everett Railroad which would cover the entire line the next afternoon.

Our photography began in Johnstown, PA. We spotted this pristine caboose spotted on a siding as we drove into town and immediately set about finding it. We believe it is used as a shoving platform by crews coming up the branch from the connection to the former B&O (now CSX) main at Rockwood, PA when they work in town.

We then set up to shoot the bridge over the Conemaugh River and got this westbound. The light on the bridge was getting a little rakish so we decided to move on.

Dale wanted to visit South Fork so we stopped there and photographed a number of trains. First up was this stack train (above and below)

with helpers still attached.

I wanted the westbound shot without the ties plates. This hopper train filled the bill.

An eastbound stack train resulted in these images (above and below). We photographed a number of other trains here before moving on up the West Slope.

Summerhill, about 2 miles east of South Fork, was our next stop (above and below).

The shot just isn't the same without the signal bridge and its position light signals which came down a few months ago. The remains of the bridge are at the right edge of the photo.

We continued up hill checking out locations until we finally settled on the new PA 53 bridge between Cresson and Gallitzin. Again, the signal bridge that was located here is gone. First up was a westbound Stack train.

Another westbound stack train then appeared on an adjacent track passing the first train. While all this was going on an eastbound tank train climbed the hill.

The eastbound tank train had pushers (above and below).

At this point we called it a day. Thanks for looking.