Time Out for Steam Excursion

Last weekend, I took time off from model railroading to "rail fan" at the Horseshoe Curve area in Pennsylvania and ride the NKP 765 steam excursion. It was a day-long event, going from Lewiston, PA, through Altoona, around the Curve, and through the tunnels at Gallitzin, and back. Great weather, HUGE crowds, loads of fun. The 17-car train had the 765 on the point, with Norfolk Southern Heritage units - Pennsylvania and Conrail - along for an assist. One of the highlights for friends David James and his father Hank, Ken Heyl and me was a stop for water in the middle of Works, the huge engine facility in Juniata Yard in Altoona.

Coal Loading Facility

Ah, finally! The start of the coal-loading facility. As I have stated in previous posts, the P&LE is basically a coal-hauling railroad. This is the start of a four-track storage yard. The flood loader will be located "around the corner" to the right, and have a three-track loading capability as well as a run-around track. The four tracks seen here come off the main line, and combined with the shuffling of cars between here and the loading facility and necessarily using the main line for some of those moves, the process will provide some interesting operational issues. The back of Brian Post is also seen here as he wires some turnouts.

Still Moving Forward

Even though I haven't posted for a few days, we (Brian Post) are moving forward, primarily with the electronics. Pictured here are two Digitrax DS-64's. The problem is that as you can tell from the numbers, there are supposed to be three; one was defective and has been shipped back to the folks in Florida for replacement. The DS 64 is what is known as a "stationary decoder", and hooked together (layman's terms), they can be used to route trains through a series of turnouts. Their application on the Paducah & Lake Erie is routing engines from the main line into one of nine different engine bays of the Freytag Engine House. When third unit is installed, engines will, by the use of two or three buttons on the throttle, be routed from the main line to the desired engine house bay. The numbers seen correspond with the bays.