22-05-26 PHOTOS: Brockway

In the early 1990's there was a minor monorail resurgence in the United States with 4 similar systems being sold to the cities of Brockway, Ogdenville, North Haverbrook and Springfield. While the systems in Ogdenville and Springfield were later shut down, I had had no information regarding fate of the Brockway Monorail and therefore I decided to visit over Memorial Day weekend in 2022 to see what I could find. Brockway is located a few miles off I-80 north of Du Bois, PA and, in addition to the monorail, it features the Buffalo and Pittsburgh main line running through town. The full set of photos, which include additional content from Hancock, MD and Clarion, PA, can be found here ( mirror ).

The trip out to Brockway from the east coast involves I-70 to the PA Turnpike to I-99. I try to time travel using this route so that I will pass by Hancock, WV just in time to catch Amtrak Train 30, the eastbound Capitol Limited. This day I was a few minutes early and managed to snag a surprising amount of CSX action. First up was a westbound manifest freight led by NINE(!) locomotives. The first three were ES44AC's #986, #860 and #3020

These were followed by SD70MACe #4558, one of 7 CSX SD70MAC's that have been so far rebuilt with new AC electronics and a power bump from 4000hp to 4500hp.

Behind them were three "YN" painted C40-9W's, #9012, #9016 and #9019, in tow as part of their reactivation process due to increased traffic levels. The 9000-series C40-9W's are interesting as the 50-strong order was GE's first of the Dash-9 era and had some early installment weirdness including Dash-8 trucks.

Two additional locomotives were behind the C40-9W's, C40-10W #5328 and GP40-3 #6561.

The manifest freight proceeded to pass by a local job waiting to head east with GP40-2 #6483 leading.

Instead of getting a signal, a different local freight with 3 locomotives and 4 cars proceeded west under HANCOCK interlocking's eastbound signal bridge. the units included GP40-2 #6445, GP38-2 #2742 and GP38-3 #2059.

The main attraction soon arrived with Amtrak P42DC #71 pulling a 6 car Train 30 all by itself.

22-05-11 PHOTOS: Yosemite Searchlights

Over the last few years I have been on a bit of a National Parks kick since vacations involving cross country air travel wasn't part of my Childhood repertoire. having visited Bryce, Zion, Rocky Mountain and Great Sand Dunes in 2021, for 2022 I set up a trip to Yosemite with some West Coast friends. Despite the headline attraction, I was still able to slot in some railfan activities with a specific focus on getting photos of former Western Pacific searchlight signals near Lodi, CA and I was even able to get some BART action traveling to and front the airport in Oakland. The set of photos can be found here ( mirror ).

Starting off at Oakland I snagged this photo of an AirBART cable car on its elevated guideway. AirBART connects the Oakland Coliseum station with the Oakland Airport terminal for an additional fare. Replacing an earlier shuttle bus, the cable car system was made by ski lift manufacturer Doppelmayr.

Heading away from Oakland along the route of the BART Pittsburgh/Bay Pointe Line I encountered a mix of A type and D type stock.

Past Bay Pointe I also encountered eBART DMU #1 returning from Antioch.

Traversing the Sacramento River Delta involves a bunch of two lane roads and drawbridges. A surprising gap in California's renown system of freeways. Below are the drawbridges at Threemile Slough and the Mokelumne River.

Exiting the delta I managed to finagle a stop at the east end of the Thornton siding on the former Western Pacific Sacramento Sub. Somehow this line segment has avoided getting hit by a signal replacement program.

The searchlights are of US&S manufacture and block signals still use the split configuration for right hand placement. Hints of the WP's distinctive mint green paint can still be made out.

So yeah, I did all the Yosemite National Park activities including hiking to the top of Half Dome, but this is a rail oriented blog and you're not here for vacation slides. ;-)