17-06-11 PHOTOS: Middle Division West

With the NS re-signaling project on the PRR Main Line (Pittsburgh Line) dragging on into a second year, I I scheduled a second outing with the site owner of railroadsignals.us to document the western end of the old PRR Middle Division between Huntington, PA and Lewistown, PA with intermediate stops at Mt. Union and McVeytown. I was not quite as lucky as I had been on my first trip, but I was able to document a lot of classic signaling and caught more than a few NS freight trains.  You can see them all right here.

Driving direct to Huntington involves passing through Chambersburg, PA gave me the opportunity to make a brief stop at Chambersburg Cold Storage to photograph their EMD SW1 shop switcher, #8411. 

The cab interior really shows off it's 1950's vintage.




We then proceeded to Mapleton where we were just in time to catch Amtrak Train 42, the eastbound Pennsylvanian, pass under the vintage PRR position light gantry with P42DC #98.





CP-HUNT in Huntington, PA is one of a swindling number of surviving interlockings with pneumatic point machines powered by small air compressor plants such as this.

The Amtrak station at Huntington is located within interlocking limits.  It's smaller the old the PRR facility, but it gets the job done.




HUNT tower is one of the few PRR Main Line towers between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh to have survived into the 21st century.  This is due to the tower being of brick construction when most of the other towers were wood.  It was also purchased by the town for use as a museum/chamber of commerce clubhouse.  HUNT closed in the 1980's, when Conrail re-signaled the line for the first time.

The eastbound signals at CP-HUNT are a trio of position lights masts, seen here being split by NS C44-9W #9240 and SD70M-2 #2774 and #2749.



Here we see NS C44-9W #9626 passing HUNT tower.  The trailing unit

The trailing unit, running elephant style, was UP SD70ACe #8472.



A few miles down US 22 we caught a westbound train with a pair of C44-9W's (#9438 and #9494) on the head end.  In the background a large sheet of clear plastic had gotten tied up in a random steel coil car.

Here an eastbound doublestack train splits the MP 198 position light signals with NS ES44AC #8060 on point, C44-10W #7585 behind and a pair of SD60E's after that.

NS Pittsburgh Line traffic comes in waves and a few minutes later we cauight a second eastbound doublestack train splitting the MP 196 position light signals.  Power was provided by another pair of C44-9W's, #9864 and 8990, running elephant style.

NS C44-10W #7647 and SD60E #7015 round the bend at Mill Creek with a westbound train of doublestacks in tow and knock down the Clear indication on the milepost 196 PRR position light automatic.

A line of fairly new MoW bugs on a team track at MP 196.



Making transformers great again at CP-JACKS.

A few miles to the east at CP-McVEY we caught an eastbound train with C44-9W #9146 and a cut of steel coil cars up front.  The new ballast marks the site of a derailment just a few weeks prior.

I had gotten to CP-McVEY with the hope of catching Amtrak Train 43, the westbound Pennsylvanian and I was not disappointed.  Today P42DC #88 was providing power.

Next on the scene was a westbound stack train with ES44AC #8151 leading and C44-10W #7617 behind.

Following the Amtrak was another westbound mixed freight with NS C44-9W's #9333 and #9493.

 Here we can see some of the twisted rail left on site after the derailment.  Cause was likely a flange picking the switch points as it made a diverging movement.

MS C44-10W #7533 splits the MP 172 automatic signals at Longfellow.

 A westbound stack train led by NS SD60E #7009 also had C44-9W #9188 in the lashup who was thinking it was a steam engine.

Here is a view of the point heater infrastructure at CP-LONG.  Conrail re-used the old pneumatic switch machine infrastructure to deliver propane to the heaters.  

The Mayes Bridge just west of Lewistown is another fine example of the PRR building for the next 100 or more years.

At Lewistown I was re-taking a few photos of CP-LEWIS to make up for a bad camera setting I had in place on my previous trip.  This year I also managed to catch a late afternoon wave of through freights.  First up was SD70M-2 #2670 pulling a train of TOFC cars/

NS ES44AC #8141 was running elephant style behind #2670.

As it passed an Approach Medium appeared on the 4W signal and a few seconds later NS C44-9W #9222 appeared and met the tail of the single level intermodal train.

NS C44-10W #7562 was in the number 2 position.

For my last shot of the day I caught yet another eastbound doubletrack train being pulled by an SD70M-2 and SD70ACe #1172.

Well I hope you enjoyed the ride.  Next week I'll be riding for free on the Baltimore Metro and Light Rail.