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This weekend I had a hilarious and whacky Amtrak adventure. Friday morning greeted me with horrible rain and wind. Alas, the photography would not be good. I hopped in the car and made the hour long trek down to Altoona. At 1:05, my train pulled up to the station and I climbed aboard. The rain sheeting off teh windows made photography nearly impossible and I missed a chance to grab more pictures of NS #3357 which is just another SD40-2 but it has sentimental value to me (I have more pictures of it than anything else with flanged wheels). Then everything took a turn for the whacky. Evidentally, the eastbound Three Rivers had been delayed so long than it had arrived at the time the westbound Pennsylvanian should have. As I'm sure you've determined by now, your intrepid writer was heading in the direction he, ironically, had just driven from which is also the wrong way. I had intended to board the Pennsylvanian but as I was out on the platform the whole time, I never heard this was the Three Rivers. I told the conductor and asked if they could just dump me at Huntingdon, PA (The Three Rivers next stop) and that I'd get someone to pick me up there. Alas, my own lack of attention would be the downfall of my weekend. Roughly ten minutes later, the conductor said "come with me." We went out to the vestibule and there I was informed that the Three Rivers had called ahead to the Pennsylvanian and held them at Tyrone. I apologized profusely to the nice conductor who told me it happens all the time and said not to worry about it. Since the Pennsylvanian was at the platform, I got first hand experience on how high those coaches sit when there's no platform at teh bottom of the steps. And walking on that giant ballast they have on the Pittsburgh line is harder than it looks. I climbed aboard the Pennsylvanian, a little happy that I'd managed to ride the Three Rivers before its gone. I grabbed some really blurry pictures of Horseshoe Curve while we blew past a coal drag. Too bad #3357 was obscured by a coal drag at Altoona. On the way home, this time on the right train from the start, we went through the tunnel that isn't with the rest of the tunnels at Gallitzin. I don't remember what htis one is called. The weather was even clearer today but I didn't take many pictures (only three blurry ones of the Curve again). Being on track 1 is damned hairy, clinging to the side of the mountain and looking down there in teh hole. If you went over, it'd look more like a plane cra***han anything else. #3357 wasn't prowling around in Altoona today. I did see plenty of these odd racks they use to transport three container chassis on spine cars. Here's the only pictures I took that I really liked in their giant uncompressed full sized glory: [img]http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/n/b/nbc112/000_0155.JPG[/img] The Three Rivers arriving at Altoona. [img]http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/n/b/nbc112/000_0165.jpg[/img] The Pennsylvanian sitting at Pittsburgh Oh yeah, by some miracle, the Pennsylvanian was already 20 minutes late before they held it for me for 15 minutes, but somehow we made up the 35 minutes and arrived a minute early in pittsburgh.
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