After an absence of more than 30 years, steam returned to the Pennsylvania Railroad’s famous Middle Division. After many a year without steam, the 30th Anniversary Norfolk Southern Employee Appreciation Specials arrived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania behind Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 #765. The Harrisburg trips were very short, operating from Enola Yard to a wye near the Harrisburg Amtrak Station. The main feature was the crossing the Susquehanna River on the famous Rockville Bridge. This was the first steam engine over the bridge since the Blue Mountain & Reading 4-8-4 #2102 in the late 1980s. It also would mark the first visit of the 765 to Harrisburg, even though she was supposed to have visited during the NRHS 1988 Convention on a trip that was turned back near Reading, PA due to operational delays. With the short trip, chasing was out of the question, so most simply set up for one shot per run. The fifty or sixty people lining up to shoot the 765 backing under the bridge into Enola was a harbinger for tomorrow. More than one person simply shot the photo line rushing back to their cars.
All this was the lead up to the Monday, August 20, 2012 ferry run from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, PA over the old Pennsy Middle Division. She left bright and early at 6AM, and quickly made her way to Altoona, PA for servicing around lunchtime. Then, it was time for the show to start. West of Altoona, the railroad rises quickly, climbing through famous Horseshoe Curve to Gallitzen. In the cab was Norfolk Southern CEO Wick Moorman, who permitted the 765 to run unassisted through Horseshoe Curve with the diesel in idle. After a service stop at Cresson, the 765 continued west with a short stop near Latrobe for Moorman to catch a flight back to Norfolk, VA. It’s hard to estimate how many were out chasing today, but the photo lines at some of the good locations were between 50-70 people. From a friend, Horseshoe Curve was somewhere between 300 and 400 people. Amazingly enough though, the chase lines really weren’t a problem as long as you realized that you couldn’t pull into the spot at the last minute and expect to find a parking space. The sheer number of cars (not necessarily railfans) would prove to be a major hassle, however.
West of Johnstown, the rather productive chase also descended into madness with a combination of VERY heavy traffic, a plethora of stoplights, several instances of gridlock, an accident that shut US 30 west down to one lane at one point, a tremendous amount of road construction (may I nominate the orange traffic cone as the new state flower of Pennsylvania?), multi-mile detours and various combinations of the above. Note to self: chasing into downtown Pittsburgh at 5PM on Monday afternoon is not a good idea. 765 tied up for the night in Conway…and so did we, sometime later.
Kevin
