Pennsylvania Railroad war emergency caboose?

[AmtrakCr74108]

Since we're on Pennsy, got a shot of railroads pride and joy at one time-GG1. This example, GG1 4859 was supposedly the one to pull first electrically powered scheduled train to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The year was 1938 and train was the "Metropolitan". View attachment 167109
It is now standing here in Harrisburg under the original shed, which actually had to be raised about a foot, to fit in catenary wires. Coupled to it is a Pennsy N6 wooden caboose and together they look like a typical caboose hop, say from Enola into Harrisburg yard. Coincidentally next to it is a control cab rebuilt from original "Metroliner" high speed train set. The Metroliners were the last electric equipment ordered by Pennsy to institute high speed train service between New York and Washington D.C. in 1960s. Unfortunatelly by the time trainsets entered revenue service, Pennsy merged with New York Central to create ill fated Penn Central. Metroliners proved to be unsuccessfull and actually spend most of their career as cab control cars just like this one working for Amtrak. View attachment 167110
This particular GG1 is also one of only two saved which worked pulling freight for Conrail starting in April 1976. It was actually saved from a scrap yard by a bunch of voluntiers in 1980 and after full repaint at the rail museum in Strasburg, it's been residing here for several decades. As one familiar with Pennsy paint schemes will notise, it's wearing "Futura" lettering, short lived scheme applied to few of its kind when they were new. Possibly the only saved "G" with this scheme. View attachment 167111View attachment 167112
Somewhat European looking styling of this unique shed provides attractive setting and i dare to say this is the best displayed GG1 of them all.

Have you ever been to the PA. railroad museum to see their GG1 inside?

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Have you ever been to the PA. railroad museum to see their GG1 inside?

Countless times. I used to volunteer there.

 

[Bruette]

Flanger (railroad) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[KriegslokBR52]

On that same day i photographed the GG1, i turned in the opposite direction and grabbed a shot of almost new Siemens Sprinter set up to pull up under the shed eventually. While obviously not a Pennsy engine, if you take the time to look next to it, you'll see what made past railroads so much more attractive than now. This is part of original low platform which thankfully have been saved. Besides the beautifull overhead roof, those platforms actually have hand layed brickwork:

Now they just slap some concrete on strictly for utility and they call it a day.

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Friday afternoon instead of going home like a good boy, i decided to head over to Perryville, Maryland for some action. Perryville is a small town on the north shore of Susquehanna River right where it flows into Chesapeake Bay. Two railroads run through the town; Pennsylvania RR-now what is called Amtrak Northeast Corridor, with Norfolk Southern having running rights over. Second railroad is the Baltimore and Ohio, now CSX which more or less runs pararell to Amtrak. Since this is a topic about Pennsylvania Railroad, and since i'm a nut when it comes to American electric locomotives, we'll focus on the Pennsy side. Here is the satelite shot of Perryville station for the purpose of our trip:
Perryville

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One can see the station building inside a "wye". Northeast Corridor runs geografically from northeast to soutwest here and right before a spectacular bridge over Susquehanna it narrows down from 4 tracks into 2. Coming in from the west is "Port Road", or "Columbia and Port Deposit Branch"-frieght only railroad from Enola/Harrisburg area. Port road used to be electrified and it is a short cut from the west into Baltimore bypassing busy Philadelphia area. Freight traffic passes here generally at night to avoid interfering with high speed Amtrak trains. Station area is a very pleasant place, free to park and enjoy some high speed action. It is also northernmost terminus for MARC commuter trains from Washington D.C. adding to interest. My object was to hopefully see a very rare bird now-HHP8; the only trully streamlined electric locomotive since GG1s left the scene (there were also EP5 electrics for a short time from former New Haven). Coming into parking lot i saw MARC commuter train already standing in the station. Turned out to be diesel powered:
One can see beautifully complicated Pennsy electrification here, as well as steam era round signals and Perry tower on the other side. MP36 is just leaving for Baltimore, track from the right is the southern entrance from "Port Road".

Next one of several Amtrak Sprinters flying through:

Weather was rainy and it progressively got cold. Next commuter from Washington was also powered by MP36 diesel:

To get to platform at the station, MARC trains have to cross over to the other side of Corridor as the northbound platform is not being used.

After standing several minutes this one also was leaving back toward Baltimore:

I figured by this time the HHP8s are not assigned to Perryville trains, but only to heavier Baltimore consists. Sitting and warming myself in the car i passed some Amtrak opportunities untill something unusuall flashed by coming into station after dark, blasted out of my car

Standing in the rain was this exotic looking beast. Some railfans reffer to it as "Hippo", although i heard the nickname "Turd" also. When Amtrak still ran theirs, their engineers called them "Armadillo".

Amtrak got 15 units in 2000 and MARC has 6 of them. Unfortunatelly they had issues with electronics and with 8000 horsepower on only 4 axles sometimes slipping on wet rail trying to get 12 Amfleet cars going. Amtrak unfortunatelly retired theirs even before last AEM7s. MARC on the other hand has been rebuilding theirs with apparent success. Two diesels can barely do the work of one of these on double deck coach set. With time running out on these, now is a opportunity to get some shots of these exotic locomotives. One last one in drizzling rain and with me shaking from cold, it was worth it though:

 

[wombat457]

On that same day i photographed the GG1, i turned in the opposite direction and grabbed a shot of almost new Siemens Sprinter set up to pull up under the shed eventually. While obviously not a Pennsy engine, if you take the time to look next to it, you'll see what made past railroads so much more attractive than now. This is part of original low platform which thankfully have been saved. Besides the beautifull overhead roof, those platforms actually have hand layed brickwork:View attachment 167259
Now they just slap some concrete on strictly for utility and they call it a day.

That was back in the day when people had pride in what they did and how it looked. Now it is all about nothing but money - quick, cheap and nasty!

 

[KriegslokBR52]

I was on vacation last week, so i did few trips deep into Appallachians. On wednesday i found myself back on Pennsy mainline in Cresson/Altoona area. Former Pennsylvania Railroad is becoming less and less like Pennsy, but there is plenty of action and surprising variety. On the way there and already past Blue mountain a double stack is heading west along Juniata River just past Duncanon:

I wound up chasing that train all the way to Cresson. At Spruce Creek and with head end power already passed, a DPU shows up in the middle:

After getting to Gallitzin i walked around a little. Parked on display by the tunnels is N5c caboose:

That house screen door is deffinitely out of place;

There were three tunnels at the peak in Gallitzin. Conrail has enlarged one of the westbound tunnels for double stacks, after which they closed the one on the left. In late 90s i was able to walk through that one before it was sealed with the rail still running through it:

A nice place to stay there is Tunnelhill Inn just to the right of that picture. Not seeing or hearing anything here i decided to go to Cresson, which is top of the grade. There was untill recently a helper station and inspection area in Cresson, but that is standing idle now as all helper units travel to Johnstown.

This small fuel facility is located inside a wye;

With mainline visible past that, behind me starts one of several mine branches and before leaving town there is also locomotive graveyard i mentioned already. First another N5c caboose, this one in Cresson:

At the scrapyard were four C40-8 diesels;