The upper level of my two-level layout is all narrow gauge, depicting a portion of the former Denver & Rio Grande Western’s Fourth Division line in southwestern Colorado and northern New Mexico.
Altoona and More:
1970 Railfanning trip in OH, PA, MD, WV, VA and NC
In September 1970, my friend Larry and I took a great railfanning trip to see Horseshoe Curve outside Altoona PA. We started the trip in Columbus Ohio, headed east to Altoona, then south to Roanoke VA, and to North Carolina, with several stops in between. Here are some highlights from that trip.
Columbus OH
Our first stop was Penn Central’s new Buckeye Yard near Hilliard, outside Columbus Ohio. Its centerpiece was a 40 track hump yard for classification. Fortunately the road overpass at the south end gave us a great vantage point to see some of Penn Central’s motive power.
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Horseshoe Curve and Altoona PA
Our next stop was Horseshoe Curve, Juniata Shops and Altoona PA, a place every railfan has to experience. There was a lot of action, and we caught a number of freights under the signal bridge just below the middle of the curve, before moving into the town of Altoona itself. Although the merger of New York Central and the Pennsylvania RR had occurred in 1967, there was little mixing of motive power between the NYC’s Water Level Route (4 axle units without dynamic brakes) and PRR’s crossing of the Allegheny Mountains - so most of the locomotives here were ex-PRR, and mostly with 6 axles and dynamic brakes.
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Brunswick MD and Harpers Ferry WV
After a brief visit to the East Broad Top narrow gauge at Mt. Union PA, our next stop was to Brunswick MD and nearby Harpers Ferry WV on the Baltimore and Ohio main line.
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The N&W in Roanoke
Our next destination was Roanoke, VA, on the Norfolk and Western. Roanoke was a major division point and locomotive shop, and it was still very active in 1970. The N&W built many of their own steam locomotives at these shops until 1953, and was the last major US railroad to completely dieselize. The yard was so active that we decided to not try to wander through the engine facilities or the yard, as was our normal railfanning routine. Anyway, there was almost too much to try to see, as may be evident in some of these images.
The Norfolk and Western, along with the Southern Railway, were two nonconformists when it came to their preferred configuration of second-generation diesel road switcher locomotives. With the advent of EMD’s GP20 and Alco’s RS-11, which offered a low short-nose on the forward end, most railroads chose the new design for greater visibility. Earlier units of all manufacturers had the long hood running forward, which meant the engineer could not see to the left (that was the fireman’s job, as on a steam locomotive). While everyone else opted for low-nose-forward, both Norfolk and Western and Southern Ry stuck with high-short-hood and long-hood-forward. This is evident in the following photos.
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Variety in North Carolina
After Roanoke, we headed west into the extreme western end of North Carolina to Robbinsville, the home of the Graham County Railroad. This short line featured a steep grade from its connection at Topton NC, on Southern Ry’s Murphy branch, and Shay locomotives. Nothing was operating on that day, but it was interesting nonetheless and was quite a contrast from the massive power seen on Horseshoe Curve and at Roanoke. After Robbinsville, we headed to the Triangle area of North Carolina, with a few fortuitous stops along the way, as seen below.
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The railfanning trip ended in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina, but those photos are for another day….
I have additional images of these locations. Contact me if you are interested.