Very Early Locomotive

In 1939 the Pennsylvania Railroad Altoona shops built a tribute reproduction of John Stevens, for the New York World's Fair. It is displayed now in the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania who received it as a gift from Penn Central in 1979.
Col. John Stevens was a man of vision. In 1812, he wrote the first document on steam railroads published in the U.S. Later he wrote on the possibility of a railroad from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and on to "the great western lakes". His vision led to the chartering of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company by the Pennsylvania legislature in 1823. Because of the scarcity of capital and a general feeling that steam locomotives would not operate on other than level track, Stevens could not raise the money to start his railroad. A disappointed Stevens returned to Hoboken where he designed, built and operated America's first steam locomotive on his estate at Castle Point in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1825. Today this site is the campus of Stevens Institute of Technology.

Amtrak in "The Gap"

Tight curve leading in and out of "The Gap" though the hills on the East side of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. This is Amtrak's Keystone Line, double tracked and electrified 11,000 VAC. This line was first built in the 1830's as the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad and later became the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The little station at Gap has not been used since PRR days.

The Crash That Almost Was

SEPTA (Southeast Pennsylvania Public Transit Authority) electric multiple unit cars 246 and 247 are on display at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. They are Pennsylvania Railroad Class MP58E Pioneer III, SEPTA Silverliner I types made by the Budd Co. in 1958. The museum purchased these cars from SEPTA in 1998 as they were being prepared to go to the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colorado for crash testing. All the electric equipment like pantographs, transformers and controls were stripped. The trucks are not the originals and have no traction motors. But, they were saved for us to look at.

Superelevation

The tilt or cant of the train above is referred to in railroading as 'superelevation'. It is the difference in height between the inside and outside rails in a curve. It allows the train to maintain a higher speed in the curve than if the tracks remained level. Superelevation in the U.S. is usually restricted to 3 inches (76 mm) though 4 inches (102 mm) is permitted with a waiver.

The train pictured is entering the curve from the West at Gap, Pennsylvania on Amtrak's Keystone line. On the map below the train is coming from the left and will follow this curve until it is running due South through the "Gap", a pass through the hills that has seen rails since the 1830's.


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Controlling or Trailing ?

Here's Amtrak cab coach 9632 heading up a westbound train at Gap, Pennsylvania and controlling the AEM-7 electric locomotive at the rear of the train. Head lights and ditch lights shining indicate this car is leading.
Compare it to cab coach 9641 with its red marker lights showing it's at the end of the train. This is a few miles East of Gap at Christiana, Pennsylvania.

Pushing or Pulling?

Above, Amtrak AEM-7 942 is heading up train 646 in front of the decaying station at Gap, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The train is eastbound to Philadelphia and New York on the Keystone Line. Headlights and ditch lights mark it as pulling the train.
Below, #918 is pushing train 609 out of New York and Philly for Lancaster and Harrisburg. Red marker lights clearly show this AEM-7 is at the end of the consist with a cab car controlling in the front.

Pennsy Christiana Freighthouse

In Christiana, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania the old Pennsylvania Railroad freighthouse has been nicely converted into use as the headquarters of the Lancaster Chapter of the National Railroad Historical Society. The Lancaster Chapter was the founding chapter of the NRHS in 1935 when, in a meeeting at Pennsylvania Station, Lancaster, the Lancaster Railway & Locomotive Historical Society dissolved itself and became the Lancaster Chapter NRHS. Eleven days later in Philadelphia they joined the Interstate Trolley Club of Trenton, New Jersey in forming the new national society.
The freighthouse on Railroad Avenue in Christiana lies alongside Amtrak's electrified Keystone Route where it curves Northward into Lancaster County and emerges at Gap into the Conestoga Valley on its way from Philadelphia to Harrisburg. Some 28 trains pass by each weekday.
The map below shows the freighthouse on the East side of the tracks on Railroad Ave. Just South across the tracks on W. Slokom Ave. is the old Christiana depot.


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Country in the City

It looks like we're out in the country, but behind those GP-38's Dash 9's and other locomotives a six lane highway lurks in an urban area. This is CP Wyomissing on Norfolk Southern's Reading Line connecting the yards of northern New Jersey to Harrisburg and the west. Local switching is fit into a continuous stream of long distance commodity and general freight traffic.

We Were a World Leader

Pennsylvania Railroad GE E44a number 4465 was the last electric freight locomotive delivered to the Pennsy in 1963. The 5,000 horsepower locomotive came from a line of electric power going back to the days (1939) when the U.S. led the world in railway electrification with more than 20 percent of the world's mileage. Seventy years later, electrification is a non-factor in virtually all U.S. railroads outside the Northeast corridor. Following WWII the freight railroads began to take down the wires with Conrail being the last one in 1981.

Now in 2009 there is more discussion of railroad electrification. There's little dispute that electric railroads are more efficient than generating the power with diesel generators in each locomotive. The sticking point is still the big upfront capital outlay for electrifying. Estimated cost for wires is $1.5-2.5 Million per track-mile. Consider this though: widening I-25 in New Mexico cost $20 million per mile, widening I-81 in Virginia cost $32 million per mile.

A Very Long Train on Norfolk Southern

A really long train (NS19G) at Richland, Pennsylvania on August 13, 2009. Westbound on the former Reading Lebanon Valley line behind a D9-40CW and an SD70M-2. I count a different number each time I try it. Count them yourself. The train has got to be way over 10,000 feet long.

Richland, PA & Norfolk Southern RR

Looking in the opposite direction (West) from my last post we see NS 9640 heading up an Eastbound freight. I could spend hours at this great train spotting location, and I have. Just out of view to the left of the photo is the RR Diner. How appropriate is that?

Richland, Pennsylvania & Norfolk Southern RR

Super place for watching and photographing today's railroads. It's Richland, Pennsylvania at the intersection of Main and Race streets and the Norfolk Southern main line. Good public parking with good fields of view in both directions. This is the former Reading Lines Lebanon Valley route between Reading and Harrisburg, which forms part of the NS main route between the New York and Philadelphia areas and the West. Today you see NS 9513, a 4,000 horsepower General Electric dash-9 heading up very long train 19G. Later on I will post my YouTube video showing this train in its entirety so you can count the cars.
Google map view here. Note the perfectly located parking at the street/track intersection.

Catching up on Railroad News

AMTRAK:
Will there be money and support for passenger rail in Washington? Right now it looks like the President, "Amtrak" Joe Biden, and other key sponsors and supporters of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 were just kidding. Congress has not come close to the $1.8 Billion appropriated in the 2008 reauthorization of Amtrak. They just keep cutting.

The Amtrak board has six empty seats. Chairman Tom Carper can't be a good captain without a crew.

Repairing old rolling stock at the Beech Grove, IN and Bear, DE shops is not matched with funds to operate new trains or increased frequencies.

Amtrak continues its tendency to charge prices that drive customers away rather than adding capacity to serve more people at lower fares.

Some voices in Congress keep talking about a "profitable" passenger rail system. None of these Congress folk can point to a single profitable highway or profitable airport; both of which are built almost entirely by the taxpayers.

Big Loads Video

See the big steam generators move slowly but surely over Lancaster County, Pennsylvania's roads in a move completed on September 30, 2009

Big Loads Three

Here's how you drive a 206 wheeler: With a computer console. With another driver at the rear of the self propelled modular transporter, the Italian crews from Fagioli Group direct two 510 ton steam generators over rural Pennsylvania roads. The big loads (see previous posts) started as big steel slabs delivered from a Japanese mill to Areva NP in Chalon, France. After fabrication the steam generators travelled the Rhone river by barge to the port of Fos-sur-mer where they were loaded on a heavy lift vessel for the trans-Atlantic voyage to Newport News, Virginia. In Virginia it was back on a barge for the trip to the Northern end of Chesapeake Bay at Port Deposit, Maryland where they were lifted on to the road transporters for the 18 day, 75 mile trip to Exelon Nuclear's Unit one plant at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania. Most of the trip was over the roads of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The trip was completed on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at about noon.