Mostly NS Action On The Way To The 2014 CRHS BoD Meeting

February 21, 2014June 3, 2016 Ed KapuscinskiPhotos Altoona, Amtrak, C40-8W, Gallitzin, GEVO, GP59E, Juniata Valley, Lewistown, Norfolk Southern, NS Pittsburgh Line, SD40E, SD60I, SD60M, SW9, Tyrone

2014’s CRHS Board of Directors meeting was held in February, but that didn’t change the weather. I’ve found that snow actually makes NS’s plain black paint scheme interesting to photograph. And photograph we did on the way out to the meeting.

The gang’s first stop was in Lewistown, when we heard that the S&A heritage unit and an eastbound special Amtrak move was going to be coming through.

First, though, the semi-standard NS fare.

Eastbound NS Intermodal at Lewistown — Our first catch of the day, an otherwise boring NS intermodal, spiced up a bit by the BNSF “Executive Scheme” SD70MAC trailing.

Then our heritage unit showed up, as expected.

NS NYC Heritage Unit In The Rain — The weather is always bad when the interesting stuff shows up. But railroading doesn’t stop for showers, even if they’re freezing.

And then the special Amtrak move. This was a train bringing a car back to Philly from Pittsburgh that had been bad ordered and needed some repairs that prevented it from continuing on with the rest of the Pennsylvanian.

Amtrak Extra At Lewistown — The Amtrak extra rolls through the rain, headed for the coach yards to the east.

Hot on his heels was a loaded coal train with a pair of ex-cons.

NS Strawberry Ridge Coal Train at Lewistown — A pair of former Conrail widecab SD60s.

And just as he was clearing up, we heard the Juniata Valley’s local working its way down the street trackage in town, and approaching the station.

JVRR Local Returning From Standard Steel — The Juniata Valley’s switcher is hauling a handful of gons back from the mill in Burnham.

After the arrival of the JVRR job, we headed off for points west.

We heard one of the few locals on the Pittsburgh Line getting out of the sand plant east of Huntingdon, so we setup where the line parallels US 22 at Mill Creek.

NS Sand Train At Mill Creek — It’s fast railroad out there, even for a local, and these guys were wasting no time getting back to Altoona.

Huntingdon brought lunch time, and a pair of westbound intermodals for desert.

NS SD60I and UP On A Westbound Intermodal — A catfish free consist hustles some pigs west.

NS C40-8W Splitting the Signals at Hunt — Another former Conrail unit knocks down the signals in Huntingdon.

Our next stop was Tyrone, where we waited for a while with only a single train to show for it. Of course it was coming the wrong way for the sun.

Eastbound NS Intermodal at Tyrone — GEVO 7690 hauls some containers east through the curves at Tyrone.

Having no luck in Tyrone, we moved on to Altoona. The scene at Rose Yard has changed so significantly in the past 5 years that it’s almost unrecognizable.

Some work still continues though, and we caught back up with GP59E 4650 working the RIP track area.