Gallitzin and the Curve in Winter

George,

  Thanks for posting the pictures and the video. The last time I was at the Curve was 1996. Could you have still walked up to the top with the funicular closed? Just wondering. 

  Looks like the cabin car needs some TLC.  Nonetheless, it is still nice to see it and what it represents in terms of the history of what many of us believe was the greatest railroad. 

Happy New Year,

Tom 

MNCW posted:

George,

  Thanks for posting the pictures and the video. The last time I was at the Curve was 1996. Could you have still walked up to the top with the funicular closed? Just wondering. 

  Looks like the cabin car needs some TLC.  Nonetheless, it is still nice to see it and what it represents in terms of the history of what many of us believe was the greatest railroad. 

Happy New Year,

Tom 

Yeah, I could have hopped the fence, but I thought there might be cameras.  And I really didn't want to start the new year by spending a night in Altoona's lockup for trespassing.

George

Ahh, a fence. I didn't realize everything was actually fenced off. I may be wrong, but I thought "in the old days" before the Visitors Center and funicular one could always walk/climb up to the top. I could easily be wrong on that, though. 

Yes, better to avoid the hoosegow!

Tom

Good morning,

Yes they do have the gate locked so getting track side you have to either climb over the fence, which I would not suggest or hike up thru the woods.

It does not look much like winter here compared to last year.

Happy New Year !!!!

Wish they would cut down the trees again. They open it up in good weather then you can't see as much because of the trees.  Place looks clean, though.

MarkStrittmatter posted:

Good morning,

Yes they do have the gate locked so getting track side you have to either climb over the fence, which I would not suggest or hike up thru the woods.

It does not look much like winter here compared to last year.

Happy New Year !!!!

Mark,

You can't even hike up easily.  I went back to the farthest reaches of the parking lot, next to where Kittanning Run exits under the curve.  There's an access road (unpaved, grassed actually) on the left.  Even that had a gate across it.  Short of hiking up through the woods onto the tracks themselves (Do NOT do this - it's both dangerous and against the law), there's not an easy way up.

And yeah, winter has not yet really hit the area.  I did wear gloves, coat, and hat while standing on the bridge at Gallitzin but that was mostly because of the wind.  The temperature was in the mid-40s.

George

George,

Nice pics and video, thanks for sharing. The wife and I keep talking about taking the two hour trip west, but still haven't gone yet. Can you upload your video to Youtube, and then post the link?

Don

MarkStrittmatter posted:

Yes they do have the gate locked so getting track side you have to either climb over the fence, which I would not suggest or hike up thru the woods.

 

at the rear or the parking lot where the snack trailer was/is theres that grassed access road that bears to the left.while the gate is there to prevent any  one from driving up, you can easily walk up to curve. i prefer this route to the stairway,even when its open.

i got the chance to work up at the curve visitors center  for 3 weeks in 1990-91 ,we used that road to get the cranes and trucks up top during the curve reconstruction.

while the curve is a great place to visit if you never been there, there are far better locations to railfan the area.my favorite is the rt53 overpass north of cresson. be sure to stay at least 1 night at tom davis's station inn -Jim

G3750 posted:

MarkStrittmatter posted:

Good morning,

Yes they do have the gate locked so getting track side you have to either climb over the fence, which I would not suggest or hike up thru the woods.

It does not look much like winter here compared to last year.

Happy New Year !!!!

Mark,

You can't even hike up easily.  I went back to the farthest reaches of the parking lot, next to where Kittanning Run exits under the curve.  There's an access road (unpaved, grassed actually) on the left.  Even that had a gate across it.  Short of hiking up through the woods onto the tracks themselves (Do NOT do this - it's both dangerous and against the law), there's not an easy way up.

And yeah, winter has not yet really hit the area.  I did wear gloves, coat, and hat while standing on the bridge at Gallitzin but that was mostly because of the wind.  The temperature was in the mid-40s.

George

They have changed their policy a lot over the last few years in regards to after-hours visitors.  They seem to be more strict.   They came out and tossed me off the grounds one day.   I believe it was probably a result of the management change?   Either way, most people tend to enter the woods further up the mountain through the woods.   Seems like a lot of work to me.  I just watch from the road.

Here are a few more photos - these are from the Curve.

This is Kitanning Run where it comes out under the curve.

Here's a panoramic view of the area around the Visitor's Center - from the higher side (West) of the curve to the lower side (East).

This last shot shows the West side of the bowl as well.

George