Since 2012 the writing had been on the wall for the PRR signaling on the Main Line between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. While I had performed a general survey in 2009 and many other signal documentation missions since, as the time approached I attempted to complete another survey from the rear of a passing Amtrak Pennsylvanian train. In 2017 an eastbound run was thwarted by a private car and therefore I had to settle for a duplicate westbound run the following summer. Of course one new piece of kit that I lacked in 2009 was a GoPro that could take video from the rear of the train in addition to my stills. Having only limited memory card space and batteries I figured the most important segments to video were the Harrisburg terminal area between Harrisburg Station and CP-CANNON and the East and West slopes of the Alleghenies between Tyrone and Johnstown.
On the day the plan went pretty well as there were no private cars, however a camera malfunction killed the Tyrone to Altoona segment. However I was able to extend my efforts westward and also captured segments between Johnstown and Greensburg where rain and darkness shut down production. In the video video we travel between Harrisburg and Duncannon passing the Harrisburg fuel pad, a train on the famous Rockville Bridge, the Enola Yard junction complex at Marysville and two trains in the siding between CP-BANKS and CP-CANNON.
Here we see the famous East Slope beginning at the now closed ALTO tower and proceeding up and around the Horseshoe Curve and then through the tunnels at Galitzin. From there there are a few more curves and as soon as the train hits the straight at CP-MO the throttles are opened and speed quickly accelerates to 80mph. Between Lilly and Newport we overtake the NS intermodal train 20G on track #3 that had been delaying us between Lewistown and Altoona. Past CP-SO at South Fork speeds decrease through the tight Conemaugh Valley into Johnstown.
Continuing on past Johnstown it is about 30 miles to the town of Latrobe. for the first 10 miles track 3 travels on the far side of the Conemaugh River before briefly re-appearing at CP-CONPIT where it formally becomes the NS Conemaugh Line. Another 10 miles beyond that is the crossover at CP-PACK followed another 10 miles distant by the former brewing city of Latrobe.
Finally it is just a short 10 mile hop to the city of Greensburg with a very nice surviving PRR station that used to support 4 tracks, now reduced to two and even then it seems that Amtrak really only wants to use the former westbound platform.
This is the end of my video journey. I probably could have gotten a bit more, but I captured the most important parts over the mountains.
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