As snow comes to the Heartland this Easter Sunday, I thought I'd go back to an April day in '93 when rain turned to snow overnight and yielded a heavy, wet snow in central Pennsylvania. At MG, hal... (more)

A set of helpers descend thru Slope Interlocking returning to Altoona. Before Conrail, both were former EL SD45-2s. CR 6661 was EL 3676 and CR 6663 was EL 3678. Both went to CSX in the 1999 breaku... (more)

One of my favorite places to observe traffic was MG, located about 2 miles west of Horseshoe Curve on the climb to Gallitzin. The block station was open and symbol OIPI (Oak Island-Conway) was cro... (more)

This Penn Central E8 didn’t make it to Amtrak, and has now run its last mile. It is sitting the Altoona dead line waiting to donate its prime movers to the DeWitt Geep RS3 rebuild program.

Symbol freight ALPI (Allentown-Conway) passes beneath the westward home signal bridge for MG interlocking as afternoon shadows reach down the mountain slopes.

Helper set.

A line of locomotives sit in Juniata Locomotive Shop. The front end of the NS 2702 locomotive was newly repaired.

Norfolk Southern autorack train approaches Brickyard Crossing.

As ubiquitous in this territory at the rear of heavy freights as cabin cars once were, a pair of helpers attached to an eastbound manifest exert their added dynamic braking power as the train desc... (more)

As evening descends, a pair of SD80MACs walk an eastbound manifest off the mountain approaching Altoona. Fuji Astia.

Helper set.

westbound priority intermodal

This PC Alco assigned "Baltimore" for servicing awaits its fate in the backshop area along with numerous other old locomotives Conrail deemed not fitting into its future plans.

Eliminating the middle man. The twelve “Dash Eight and a Halfs” on the Norfolk Southern roster never quite made an acceptable or a notable presence on the railroad. On Monday, February 10, 202... (more)