18-10-27 PHOTOS: Position Light Last Call

After over two years of preparation, Norfolk Southern started to actually cut in its replacement signaling system on the Pittsburgh Line starting in October of 2018. The new system would replace a 1980's era Rule 261 CTC setup with cab signals and, in many cases, position lights, with a largely cab signal based system with signals only at interlockings. Although I had been working as hard as I could to document the legacy signals, where were still a number of locations within a reasonable distance of Harrisburg that I had yet to visit. Therefore I combined a signal road trip with the last day of HARRIS tower's 2018 season hitting three automatic signal locations between CP-CANNON and CP-THOMPSON as well as some of the newly re-signaled locations east of CP-CANNON. You can view the full gallery of photos here or here.

We begin at CP-BANKS where a new signal bridge has replaced the old PRR one, which was left in place instead of being immediately cut down for scrap. Waiting on track #1 for a signal was NS C44-9W #9872 with a train of oil tank cars.

In the re-signaled zone, the wayside automatic signals have been replaced by signed Signal Indication Points, where a cab signal code can be expected to change. The SIP at MP 116.0 in Cove, PA was located to the new style three track signal bridge erected by NS around 2005 to replace a PRR vintage signal bridge. Unencumbered by the need to actually place physical wayside signals NS took the opportunity to double the number of signal blocks by reducing block length from 2 miles to 1 mile. 

While at Cove a westbound merchandise trail pulled by on the controlled siding track led by NS C44-10W #7673 and NS C44-9W #9258.

Racing ahead on US 15 I managed to beat the train to CP-CANNON where a Limited Clear indication was displayed on a new color light signal for a westbound movement from the siding to #2 track. Oh, did I mention it was raining?



While in route to the Milepost 126 automatic signal, an errant wiper blade ruined an otherwise break photo of an eastbound autorack train led by NS C44-9W's #9526 and #9301.

The signal maintainers were out doing the last bit of testing before the next cutover between CP-CANNON and CP-PORT resulting in the approach lit block signals to exhibit some rather odd behavior.




Even 1990's Conrail vintage signals are getting the axe. This pair located within milepost 128 was installed around 1994 after an older model PRR signal bridge developed some sort of structural problem. When the old PRR Middle Division was re-signaled in the 1980's (and reduced from 3 tracks to 2), Eed of Life signal brides were replaced by position light masts. A decade later crew preferences for signal uniformity and visibility were already taking a back seat to the bean counters and both position lights and searchlights were out in favor of target style color lights. It would be Conrail itself that started the trend of removing wayside signals entirely with NS picking up the torch and running with the concept in the second decade of the 20th century.

Passing through Newport I noticed a PTC test RV with attached antenna supporting the maintainers for the planned signal cutover that was scheduled for the following day (Sunday).

Here we see AC44C6M rebuild #4027 leading an elderly C40-8W past the milepost 137 position light mast automatic signals near Millersville, PA.

Shortly thereafter Amtrak Train #42 came on the scene led by P42DC #85.

With the signal work complete I drove the 30 or so miles back to HARRIS tower in downtown Harrisburg, PA. I arrived in time to find NS GP38-2 #5125 hauling one 8 and on 12 axle flatcar, each with covered loads. I suspect this might be some sort of nuclear flask shipment given the lack of any labels on the cars. 

18-10-12 PHOTOS: Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon

Last October I booked a trip to visit the Grand Canyon in conjunction with some people I know in Phoenix. As much as one might like to try, the Grand Canyon is really not a great thing to try and day trip all the way from Phoenix considering it is close to a 4 hour drive each way. Therefore we arranged an overnight stay in Flagstaff, AZ in order to put a full day in at the park and see the entire south rim from Desert Watchtower to Grand Canyon Village. Flagstaff, like a lot of high desert towns in Arizona, is a pretty hip community and it was possible to go on an outright microbrewery crawl all within sight of the Amtrak station.

Flagstaff is located on the old Santa Fe Main Line, the premier double track line between LA and Chicago. The Station sees the daily arrival of Amtrak's Southwest Chief in both directions along with 50 or so odd BNSF through freights. While my group was in Flagstaff I was able to get some reasonable photography in and around the station area. Also included in this set are some random pics elsewhere in Arizona and photos taken while riding Phoenix's Valley Metro light rail line in Tempe. You can find the full set of photos here (mirror).

The Flagstaff Amtrak Station was built by the ATSF in 1926 and was of a style to support the local tourism industry.

Today the station primarily houses the Flagstaff visitor's center, with the Amtrak waiting area and ticket window being relegated to smaller space on the east side of the facility. The eastbound Chief is scheduled to arrive at about 4am with the westbound arriving daily around 8:30pm. 

The tourism industry resulted in a number of hotels advertising their services to arriving passengers via tall signage that remains in place today. 

Train traffic is fairly constant with grade crossings on either side of the station providing advance warning of approaching traffic. Here we see a pair of BNSF ES44C4's, #6987 and #4285, heading westbound with a double stack intermodal train first passing the old ATSF Flagstaff freight house and then the San Francisco Street crossing.

Some native rabbitbrush added a splash of color to the scene. 

ATSF painted C44-9W #691 was riding behind BNSF Tier IV ES44AC #3962 at the head of an eastbound intermodal with T4 ES44AC, #3846 and C44-10W #7620 running behind.

18-10-05 PHOTOS: CONPIT and TROBE

October was a busy month with back-to-back trips to Western Pennsylvania. The first covered the PRR Main Line between Altoona and Conpit Junction and the second had me swinging by the well known railfan locations at Latrobe and Derry, PA. In my previous post I covered the West Slope portion of the trip between Gallitzin and South Fork, moving the Conpit Junction photos to this post with the Latrobe and Derry photos taken a week later as they present a more logical grouping. CP-CONPIT is the westernmost end of the three track segment of the PRR Main Line that starts at Tyrone, PA, about 10 miles east of Altoona. At CP-CONPIT the Pittsburgh and Conemaugh Lines and diverge and take different routes to Pittsburgh, with the Conemaugh Line being the longer yet lower grade option as it follows the Conemaugh River to the Allegheny River at Kiski. Meanwhile the Pittsburgh Line continues directly to Pittsburgh overland via the cities of Latrobe and Greensburg. CP-CONPIT takes the form of a full 3-track crossover, but sees more than a typical crossover's share of shuffling as different types of trains take different routes.

CP-TROBE is located at the site of the old KR tower that controlled a crossover and the side platform Latrobe passenger station. A history of the tower can be found here, but the interlocking was initially completely removed by Conrail in favor of DR interlocking at Derry, before being restored as part of the late 70's CTC project. Latrobe itself is the home of Arnold Palmer, Mister Rodgers and Rolling Rock Beer. Derry, PA is a well known Railfan location due to a small railroad museum and a position light signal bridge that used to be the westbound home signal for DR interlocking.

You can find the set of Conpit photos of the bottom of this gallery (mirror) and the Latrobe/Derry photos here (mirror).

We kick off with the same two GE engines I had caught earlier in the afternoon at Summerhill, a brand new NS ET44AC #3671 and a decrepit CSX C40-8W #7826. They are powering a westbound manifest train over the long crossover from Pittsburgh Line #3 track to Pittsburgh Line #2 track as that train is being routed directly to Pittsburgh.

The Conemaugh Line between CP-CONPIT ahd CP-KISKI was the site of the PRR's experiment of a cab signal system without wayside signals and as a result it features Rule 280a "Clear to Next Interlocking" lamps on all westward signals to accomidate cab signal failures. Here we see the original PRR vintage 8W signal displaying a Clear indication for a westbound train. 

The westbound train in question was a doublestack intermodal led by NS C44-9W #9242 and C40-8W #8366.

This was soon followed by an eastbound with a 5-engine lashup on the front that consisted of NS C44-9W #9227, Flordia East Coast SD70M-2 #106, NS C44-10W #7526, NS GP38-2 #5662 amd NS SD40-2 #3462.

18-10-01 PHOTOS: West Slope

The second day of my Fall 2018 PRR Main Line trip started at Altoona and would cover the West Slope between there and South Fork with stops at The Brickyard, Horseshoe Curve, Gallitzin, Cresson, Cassandra, Portage and Summerhill. All of these places are well known railfan hot spots and rail enthusiasm is even a local tourism industry with multiple beds and breakfasts and even a stretch of PA Route 53 signed as a railfan byway. At each of these locations I documented the endangered PRR style position light signals, but due to traffic levels on the main line I also caught a healthy mix of NS freight including four(!) "specialty" units and two rare instances of foreign power.

You can view all the 1300 or so photos here or here.

The day started at the railfan bridge over what used to be CP-SLOPE. The fog was pretty thick, which would limit infrastructure photos, but since this area had been re-signaled in 2012 there wasn't too much I personally was interested in. While most railfanning involves a lot of futile waiting or chasing down trains with the help of a scanner, the old PRR Main Line has sufficient traffic that even a brief stopover makes catching something likely. In this case an eastbound intermodal train rolled out of the fog led by NS C44-9W #9841 and UP SD70M #4500.

ALTO tower was still standing in downtown Altoona. Although owned by the nearby Railroader's Museum, the wooden structure is unoccupied at at a high risk for arson. 

From Altoona my friend and I drove about a mile up the line to a location known as Brickyard as it was at the site of an historic brickyard. Although the former PRR Position Light signal bridge was replaced by an NS style cantilever in 2012, it is still a popular location due to a grade crossing and a defect detector. We were just in time to catch an eastbound merchandise train descending the East Slope on track #1 and in an amazing feat of good luck, the NS SD70ACe "Barcode" unit #1111 was first under the signal, followed by a significantly less interesting Tier IV ES44AC #3612.

On the rear of the long train were two SD40E (former SD50) helper packs, with two units each, NS #6324, #6329, #6302 and #6327.

The fog lifted on the uphill drive west to the famed Horseshoe Curve where I grabbed this obligatory photo of PRR GP9 #7048 that is on display at the park there. 

Although Pittsburgh Line traffic does come in waves, I was not to be disappointed as a westbound doublestack train soon appeared headed by NS Wabash SD70Ace heritage unit #1070 with mechanically heritage C40-8W #8350 running behind.

Assisting from behind was a sibling pair of SD40E helpers #6331 and #6330.

About 5 minutes later an eastbound oil train descended the grade on track #1 with Central of Georgia heritage unit ES44AC #8101 followed by sister NS ES44AC #8106.