For this year's National Train Day, I decided to go to the Altoona, PA area along the NS Pittsburgh Line.
For Friday, the weather forecast was mostly cloudy with on & off showers & a heavy thunderstorm for a couple of hours during the evening. I started at the Railroad Overlook at Cassandra, PA (in my opinion my favorite spot), where I saw Hans (iusetano). He informed me beforehand that he will be in the Altoona area from Thursday thru Monday. Anyway, back to the train action. It was pretty good. The first train I saw was NS 11A with an SD60E in the lead (later on in the day I will see a couple more of these locomotives). There were a couple of train meets as well, which is one main reason why I will always come to this overlook. There was also NS 576, a westbound loaded coal train with coal dust flying all over the place (from what I've heard, the coal came from RJ Corman, which exchange freight, mainly grain & coal, with NS at nearby Cresson). After about 14 or so trains, the on & off rain began, so I headed back to Altoona & stayed at the Railwalk (across from Altoona Amtrak station) for the remainder of the day. I didn't feel like going to any other spots mainly due to the heavy thunderstorm later on in the evening. After a lull, the train activity picked up pretty good. A couple of things I saw include a calf unit on NS 10G, NS932 with a SD40-2 in the lead & NS 22W with seven engines. No heritage units so far, but hey, I can't complain to the many trains I saw today. Great start to this weekend (even though there was on & off rain, I didn't stop me from seeing that many trains), more to come!
*Note: I'm really really NOT GOOD w/ train symbols. I try to get as many as I can through my scanner or asking other railfans around me (if any).*
15 май 2013
