Day Two begins with a visit from my old fried, the Hippy-Dippy Weatherman. He and the Hippy-Dippy Weather Dog were passing thru this morning in Ledgewood, New Jersey and, as he always has in the past, gave me the forecast for my latest trip. Seems Indian Summer is making a run on the weather and I ain't complainin’. Looks like I again have timed it right. I pat HD Dog on the head and shake hands with HD WX Man and bid them ado. Time to do some more traveling.
I depart Ledgewood at 9:05 am and head to my next stop: Altoona, Pennsylvania and the Horseshoe Curve. As I head west on I-80, the mountains are covered in splendid fall colors. A beautiful patchwork, if you will. As I approach the New Jersey/Pennsylvania border, I see two huge mountains rise in front of me. And where these two mountains meet is this deep V in the hills, for lack of a better word. Upon reaching the border, there is a toll booth for which it costs me one dollar. Speaking to the toll collector, he tells me of the gap. There is literally just enough room for the Delaware River to pass under the highway and squeeze the highway in between. Unbelievable beauty!! And a little more from our friends at Wikipedia.Org:
“The Delaware Water Gap is a water gap on the border of the U.S. states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania where the Delaware River cuts through a large ridge of the Appalachian Mountains. The gap constitutes the southern portion of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, which is used primarily for recreational purposes, such as rafting, canoeing, swimming, fishing, hiking, and rock climbing.
The Delaware Water Gap is about 300 meters across at river level and 1,400 meters wide at the top. The river through the gap is 283 feet above sea level. The ridge of the Appalachians that the Delaware crosses is called the Blue Mountains in Pennsylvania and the Kittatinny Ridge in New Jersey. This is the first major ridge of the Appalachian Mountains. The New Jersey mountain is Mount Tammany, named after the Native American Chief Tamanend. The Pennsylvania mountain is Mount Minsi, named after the Native American tribe of the area. The summit of Tammany is 1,540 ft. (470 m) above sea level.”
All of the highway signs mention the Gap. I had heard about it over the years. It was just awesome to experience the ride thru there today.
I continue my drive across eastern Pennsylvania on I-80 under cloudy skies. In some places, it looks like the clouds are meeting the highway but it is just heavy fog. At about 12:35pm, I arrive at the town of Tyrone, which actually is a station stop for Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian which runs from New York City thru Philadelphia and ends in Pittsburgh. I grab a Whooper Junior at Burger King and wait at the small station and see what the Norfolk Southern has for me today. A few minutes later, a westbound empty unit coal train rolls by at slow speed. I get back in my car and head southwest towards my next town of Tipton. As I pull up to the gates, they come down and here comes the coal train. Three of Electro Motive Division/General Motors SD-60s come rolling by at full power Notch-8 and 128 empty coal hoppers trail behind. I let out a loud whoop as the train rolls by:
Yes, Phil is back in his element.
Once the train is by, I take old US Route 220 into Altoona. I have to honestly say that I do not remember too much of the area since I was last here 20 years ago. The last time I was here, I-99 had not been built from I-80 near State College, PA (home of Penn State University) towards Tyrone. As I rolled along I-99, I could see the valley way below and old US Route 220. And I remember how much I hated having to run on 220 since its top speed limit was 40 MPH and it just dragged as I approached Altoona. Now, 220 is in much better shape and seemed to have been rebuilt in places.
When I pull into Altoona, I feel a bit of culture shock. This city looks way different. Much cleaner. The streets are still as they were: a very strange way that the founding fathers laid out the roads around here. Still, Google Maps is your friend and before I know it, my memory slowly starts to come back. Since I am in the city proper, I went over to the Pennsylvania Memorial Railroad Museum:
Which chronicles the Pennsylvania Railroad, the city of Altoona and in particular, the Juniata Shops where many of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s’ steam locomotives were built as were freight and passenger cars. One of the more interesting displays is this 6 foot diameter replica of a driving wheel from a Pennsylvania K-4 steam locomotive.:
One display shows how this wheel was fabricated using molds that help to make up the spokes and the center hub of this huge wheel. Once it comes out of the foundry, the wheel is cleaned up and trimmed away of any excess steel. It has its center point measured out extremely accurately and another point is made where the kingpin for the driving rod is going to be attached. Once the holes are drilled out, the wheel is put on a huge lathe and a machinist works to get the wheel to a perfect round circle. Then a steel “tire”, basically a ribbon of steel with a steel flange machined into it, is heated up and then hammered ever so carefully onto the wheel and once it cools, the wheel is refined and then can be fitted with a matching wheel onto an axle and it will become the main driving axle of a steam locomotive. I cannot begin to fathom and hot AND loud it must have been in the shops way back when. But this was stuff built without the use of computers. Tape measures and slide rules were the fare of the day.
After the museum, I made a trip west to the town Gallitzin, Pennsylvania to the tunnels named after this town. Again from our friends at Wikipedia.Org:
The Gallitzin Tunnels in Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, formed the Pennsylvania Railroad's passage through the Allegheny Mountains in western Pennsylvania. The first tunnel, which is the middle of the three bores through the mountain, was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) from 1851 to 1854. Originally named "Summit" Tunnel, it is 3,612 feet long at an elevation of 2,167 feet above mean sea level and is known today as the Allegheny Tunnel. The second tunnel, the southernmost of the bores, was constructed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1852 to 1855 as part of the New Portage Railroad (NPRR). In 1857, the PRR bought the New Portage Railroad from the Commonwealth, and appropriated the "Allegheny" name for its "Summit" tunnel. The PRR took the New Portage Tunnel out of service shortly thereafter. In the 1890s, it was expanded to two tracks and used as the primary route for eastbound traffic. The third tunnel, the Gallitzin Tunnel, was begun in 1902 and opened in 1904 immediately to the north of the Allegheny Tunnel. The tunnel was expanded to accommodate double-stack container on flatcar (COFC) trains. The New Portage Tunnel was opened for eastbound COFC traffic in 1993. The Allegheny Tunnel was enlarged from its original 1854 cross-section to contain two tracks for that could be used for double-stack traffic in either direction. The work was completed in September 1995, and the Gallitzin Tunnel (which was not enlarged) was taken out of service.”
As I was there, I met up with a fellow railfan named Wes from Mansfield, Ohio who has visited the tunnels and Horseshoe Curve over the last 30 years. We were lucky enough to catch 2 westbounds come roaring out of the tunnel: a unit auto carrier train:
And an empty unit coal train which happened to be the same one I saw back in Tyrone. And nearby the tunnels is an old Pennsylvania caboose which use to be a souvenir shop back 20 years ago:
Sure would make a nice ham radio shack with a 50 foot tower next to it.
After bidding Wes goodbye, it was time to head to Horseshoe Curve. But for right now, let’s end today’s episode here.
Tomorrow, we’ll tell you more about the history of the Curve and its landscape. And show you how much the Curve now resembles its old self from 20 years ago. Talk to you tomorrow.
I am Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In Altoona, Pennsylvania.
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