PRR EMD GP7 8504 and Alco PA1 mates are seen leading a train near Altoona Pennsylvania in 1953. Otto Conrad Perry photo, from my collection.

Just the usual 2006 helpers passing the Brickyard and my friend Sean's STI. We put a lot of fun miles on that thing while aggressively chasing down the last vestiges of Conrail blue.

Game On: After spending the last few months in the shops awaiting repainting, NS 1069, the Virginian, finally sees the light of day for the first time in 3 months, as it is brought out of a bay ... (more)

Back in Action: After spending the last few months in the shops awaiting repainting, NS 1069, the Virginian, finally sees the light of day for the first time in 3 months, as it is brought out of... (more)

An SD60I and SD60M lead a westbound out of the encroaching shadows of an autumn afternoon as the train unwinds from Scotch Run curve, a mile east of Horseshoe. Fuji Astia.

Much of the railroad scene has lost its appeal to me with the sameness or removal of signal systems, the prevalence of container boxes in lieu of rolling stock and the bloated merged systems that ... (more)

NS 269 departs Rose Yard in Altoona

NS 28X rolling into Altoona

Slope Push: NS 7246, an EMD SD70ACU, helps shove doubled up empty coal train NS 595 up the mountain and toward Horseshoe Curve as it begins its steep climb up the mountain.

Back when there were auto manufacturing plants in the Northeast, Linden and Metuchen, NJ generated appreciable traffic - such as symbol LMPI that carried auto racks and hi cube boxcars. The train ... (more)

Conrail looked great in the 1990s and traffic moved right along over the mountain. Here symbol OIPI snarls through MG interlocking on the east slope with one of the daily succession of manifests o... (more)

MG was so sequestered a location that one only heard bird calls punctuating the silence until a distant westbound's locomotives began to fill the valley below Horseshoe with the sound of power. Ev... (more)

Slope to Slope: NS 4020 leads intermodal train NS 257 west around Horseshoe Curve, as the train begins its upward climb up the mountains and toward the crest of the grade in Gallitzin, PA.

NS 9646 is seen here at Juniata Locomotive Shop awaiting either scrap or rebuild after being involved in the July 2022 Columbia, SC derailment

Curve Coal: NS 9770, a whiteface Dash 9, leads a loaded coal train down the slope toward Horseshoe Curve, as the train is soon to be greeted by loads of railfans all wanting to hear the train gri... (more)