With not much to do for the long MLK Day weekend in 2021, I decided to fall back on my Amtrak Harrisburg Line theme from 2020 and check out the "new" LEAMAN interlocking in Leaman Place, PA, right down the road from where the Strasburg Railroad meets the old PRR Main Line. The last time I had visited LEAMAN was in 2007, before it had been re-signaled in the general 110mph and CTC upgrade program that was completed around 2010. The trip would provide a welcome break on a dreary January Saturday with not much else to do and would offer content from Amtrak Keystone service trains as well as whatever was running on the Strasburg RR. The entire set of photos from this trip can be found here ( mirror ).
Although not accessible from local roads, the picnic area at the Strasburg Railroad's "Paradise" station can be reached by traversing adjacent corn fields. As a Strasburg excursion run arrived on the scene I noticed that another railfan had the same idea, but set up their tripod down by the Yard Limit sign.
Strasburg #89, a former Canadian National 2-6-0 Mogul, was performing the honors with a fairly long train to give passengers the ability to spread out.
Either through happenstance or good planning, the excursion was just in time to meet an eastbound Amtrak Keystone train with Metroliner Cab Car #9640 and ACS-86 #646.
The sun made an appearance while the crew set up for the run around.
CN #89 then passed by the trainset on the siding before backing up to couple on to the opposite end.
The train then departed back to Strasburg with the typical lineup of wooden 19th century passenger cars.
Driving over to LEAMAN interlocking, the old LEAMAN temporary block station building was still standing, although it was getting a little worse for wear with the windows all broken out.
Don't let the full lower head on the 1E mast fool you, the thrnouts at LEAMAN were never re-aligned and are still only good for 15mph movements.
Since I was a little early for the Pennstlvanians, I decided to head over to the closed level crossing at Irishtown Road. One of the last grade crossings on the Amtrak Harrisburg Line, it and two others were eliminated in 2013 due to a claim that it was necessary to raise speeds. Something like 45 million was spent and the speeds stayed the same.
Although most automatic wayside signals were removed in the ~2010 CTC project, Amtrak kept wayside distant signals approaching all interlockings on both tracks to smooth operations in case of cab signal failure. The Milepost 59.2 eastbound automatics replaced a traditional pair of amber position light signals on the same beam.
The old grade crossing control cabinet had yet to be removed almost 10 years after the crossing was closed.
The two Pennsylvanians were running just about on time and I only missed the meet by less than a minute. P42DC #109 was on the eastbound Train 42 and P42DC #112 was on the westbound Train 43.
I almost caught the meet on video, but unfortunately cut the shot instead of letting it run. I was also trying to take both stills and video at the same time, which did not work out super well.
I also notched up another bald eagle sighting while out railfanning, which I believe would be one of 3 or 4 in a 12 month period.
On the way back I stopped off at COLA tower just in time to catch NS Enola to Lancaster local train H18 passing by with a sibling pair of SD40E's (modified SD50s) #6348 and #6347.
I'll leave with this view of the Veterans Bridge over the Susquehanna River at Columbia.
Tune back next week as we swing by Churchman's Crossing for some Amtrak action.
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