21-07-31 PHOTOS: HARRIS Restored

For the past decade, HARRIS tower has been my first choice of rail related museums due to its unique content, close proximity and interactivity. However in recent years its available was first hampered by a general restoration of the Union Switch and Signal Model 14 interlocking machine and then the COVID 19 pandemic that made hanging out in close quarters with its largely senior citizen staff somewhat problematic. However come the summer of 2021 vaccines were available and the machine was back up and running so, not wanting to waste time, I booked an early trip up to Harrisburg in advance of my annual fall visit. You can check out all the typical Amtrak and Norfolk Southern photos here ( mirror ).

When I arrives an Amtrak Keystone trainset with ACS-86 #668 and Metroliner Cab Car #9643 was performing a relay move through Amtrak's HARRIS interlocking all while NS ET44AC #3626 was waiting on the Royalton Branch with a train of empty coal hoppers while higher priority intermodal traffic passed by.

The first of these was a westbound train of doublestacks with nearly brand new NS AC44C6M rebuild #4471 leading and C40-10W #7565 and older AC44C6M rebuild #4246 behind.

It wasn't long before eastbound Amtrak Pennsylvanian Train #42 arrived with P42DC #121 leading.

A westbound NS intermodal with 5 units up front next appeared. Leading things off was NS SD70ACe #1135, NS ET44AC #3638 and NS SD's70ACU #7309 and #7295. Released with much fanfare in the latter 2010's to alleviate a power crunch, the 110 rebuilt SD90MAC's soon saw over half their numbers put in storage as traffic declined and the un-rebuilt prime movers began to suffer from major failures.

NS seemed to have a thing for placing its new AC44C6M rebuilds in the lead as a w following eastbound intermodal featured #4422 up front and C40-10W #7545 behind.

Following that stack train was another westbound with a four pack up front featuring C44's-9W #9514 and #9759, AC44C6M #4077 and C40-10W #7618.

At this point the empty coal train with NS ET44AC #3626 and AC44C6M #4394 finally got moving.

While all this road action was going on, local Harrisburg Yard GP38-2 switcher #5655 would occasionally appear to shift some hi-cube gons.

At this point westbound Amtrak Pennsylvanian train #43 showed up with P42DC #97 en-route to Pittsburgh.

Well that's it for this trip. Tune in next time as I take a little ride on the Route 100 to Radnor.