24-07-03 PHOTOS: Pittsburgh Arrivals

I have friends in Pittsburgh that allow me to engage in regular railfan activities both while traveling to and while staying around the city. For 2024 my plan was try and get back out on the 47L to Library, after having previously explored both South Hills Village and South Hills Junction (no relation). Unfortunately the 47L route requires about 3 hours to make a full round trip and I just wasn't able to book that block of time. My contingency plan was to get photos ( mirror ) of both of Pittsburgh's westbound Amtrak arrivals in the form of Pennsylvanian Train 43 and Capitol Limited Train 29 in addition to whatever was passing by on the former Conrail Pittsburgh Line.

Although arguably equipped with 5 usable station tracks across two island and one side platform, Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Station only make regular use of 2 tracks and 1 island platform. If current plans are to be believed, the old Pitt siding track or some new track will be installed to facilitate increased passenger service between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.

Power for that day's Train 43 was Amtrak Phase 2 heritage P42DC #130, which I had spotted at Amtrak's Race Street engine facility just a few days before.

Since the station headhouse was converted into apartments in the 1980's, the passenger experience has been rather underwhelming. It's unclear what could be done short of converting the apartment building ground floors back into a station.

Fast forward to midnight and westbound Capitol Limited Train 29 arrives with Amtrak P42DC #4. The Cap was still running as a 5 car stub train, which allowed for the use of a single diesel.

On the adjacent station track, the Pennsylvanian trainset awaits the next morning's 730am departure. This arguably "short haul" train utilizes Amfleet II long distance single level cars. Amfleet II's like #25036 here can be distinguished from an Amfleet I by the larger windows and a entry door at only one end.

Every morning the Allegheny Valley Railroad (AVR) performs an interchange move to Norfolk Southern's Island Avenue Yard on the north bank of the Ohio River. In recent years this move has been making use of former Conrail SD60M's #6001 and #6002, which are marked for the AVR's parent company, Carload Express.

I even had poor luck catching NS movements through town with the only one being a garbage move just after sunset. Power was an almost brand new AC44C6M #4751 and SD70ACe #1137.

Well that's all I have for this set. Next week it will be time for my typical summer Crescent trip to Georgia.