NVNTRAK Invades Pennsylvania

On May 16^th, a hearty band from the Army of Northern Virginia set forth on a beautiful day from Obie’s Trains, headed for Strasburg, PA, and later on to Harrisburg. Our intrepid bus driver from two years ago, Ed, was on hand to brave narrow streets while safely carrying us to our destinations. He had quite a chuckle over photos that our scouting expedition brought back. "You want disoo go where?"

After loading what seemed like enough supplies for a three day journey, and waiting to the last minute for any late arrivals, we put a tape into the VCR and headed north. Since no one thought to check and see what time Klein’s opened, we headed for Strasburg. Gil showed an old tape that provided a bit of NVNTRAK history from prior to the convention. You knew we were getting close as railroad equipment appeared beside the road and noses (and cameras) began to be pressed against windows. We arrived about 45 minutes prior our planned departure on the first run of the Strasburg Steamer at 11 a.m.

The Steamer is powered by a Baldwin 2-8-0, built in 1925 for a Colorado railroad. The engine is still hand-fired, with the fireman and engineer exchanging jobs at the halfway point in the run. The engine backs out to Paradise, PA, where the Strasburg branch joined the PRR mainline. The mainline still exists but is mainly used by AMTRAK. At Strasburg, the engine runs around the train for the 4.5 mile journey back to Strasburg. Only one club member thought to take lunch out on the train, and then forgot to bring a cheeseburger. Jimmy Buffett fans immediately began to plan a return trip (Cheeseburger in Paradise).

Upon arrival back at Strasburg, we chatted with the Long Island NTRAK crew that was on the next excursion. We bought and distributed tickets for the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and then dispersed to view the collection and for lunch. The Museum is more than a collection of equipment from the Pennsylvania Railroad; the pieces ran on railroads in Pennsylvania. There are some one of a kind pieces, including the only E-7 left. The recently completed expansion of the indoor display area is fantastic. It is well-lit and doubled the indoor display area. There are still a number of engines and cars displayed outside around a turntable pit. Volunteers at the Museum stated that this area was going to be reworked later in the year, with a track removed and pieces shifted.

In keeping with our Raisin Bran Cannonball tradition, our next stop was the Strasburg Hobby Shop. Everyone seemed to find a thing or two, including N-scale versions of the passenger cars from the Strasburg Railroad. John Drye and I ensured that our visit will be remembered like we are in Staunton as we split the entire store stock of PRR Micro-Trains hoppers. As the plastic began to melt down, we reboarded the bus and headed for Harrisburg.

John Drye and I had scouted the area in April and quickly revealed our first surprise. Arriving south of Harrisburg at Steeltown, we drove slowly by the Bethlehem Steel plants making pipe and rail. While there was no safe place for us to stop and unload the bus, most of the facilities are visible from the street through a chain link fence. I’m sure a few notes were taken in anticipation of return trips. We then headed up to the Harrisburg AMTRAK station.

Harrisburg is the terminating point for AMTRAK’s Keystone Service, which is partly funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Three Keystone Service trains, consisting of a Genesis engine and three Northeast Direct coaches, were parked in the station, all with engines idling. Harrisburg is also the terminating point for overhead catenary wiring, although we saw no active electric engines. The Harrisburg Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society has a PRR GG-1 electric engine and an N6 cabin car (caboose) displayed in the station. That GG-1 was the first electric engine to arrive in Harrisburg, As the debate began about the particular shade of Dark Green Locomotive Enamel that the GG-1 was painted, AMTRAK train 41 began to arrive at the station.

It was quickly obvious that AMTRAK is making money off time-sensitive freight and mail. There were 5 material handling or mail cars at the front end of the train, behind the 2 Genesis engines, and there were 5 Road-Railers on the end of the train. There were only 5 cars on the train for passengers. Our members who are modeling AMTRAK got numerous shots of every scheme that AMTRAK uses on its equipment. Fortunately, no one was able to capture the peculiar smell coming from the Road-Railer with the mud flap caught in the bogey truck and being melted away.

After crew change and departure of the train, most people had left the platform when Brian spotted our second surprise of the day. The Conrail business train was stopped just north of the station and beginning to move through. Cameras were quickly redeployed to capture images of the train accelerating through the station. As the train headed east for Philadelphia, we reboarded the bus for our next stop.

Our scouting expedition had convinced us that there was no safe location to stop the bus and observe activities in Enola Yard, on the west bank of the Susquehanna River. We made two slow drive-bys of the yard, before heading off to the end of Buena Vista Road. After Gallitzin, Ed (and certain club members) wasn’t quite certain about what we were getting him into as we headed away from the yard and town. But, at the end of the road was a large place for Ed to park the bus and a closed highway bridge that crossed the northern throat for Enola Yard. We didn’t have long to wait, as a Conrail freight of empty hopper cars soon left the yard, after the crew threw the last switch by hand! As this freight began to leave the yard, someone spotted a mixed freight on Rockville Bridge. Just as the empty coal drag departed, the mixed freight arrived to enter the yard. The majority of this freight was loaded autoracks. Towards the end of this freight, we had our third surprise of the day. Several TTX painted autoracks were articulated. About the same time, we had a light engine move, headed by an SW-1500 pulling several SWs and road engines into the yard, possibly for servicing. And another Conrail crew, including an engine painted for the Ballast Express, began to assemble another freight for departure to the north/west.

Anticipating that the freight might head across Rockville Bridge, we reboarded the bus and headed for a park about ½ mile north of Rockville Bridge. A number of members headed on foot back to the bridge, while others remained in the park. The club radios came in handy for warning the other group when a short AMTRAK train crossed the bridge and a highrail pick-up truck backed across the bridge and headed south for Enola. The freight never materialized (it could have headed west towards Altoona), so we headed for dinner and the trip back home.

But, our surprises for the day weren’t complete. As we passed through Frederick, MD, we were treated to fireworks from the town fair. We finally ran through all the other videos and had to put in the tape on the "NSX Pokey Subdivision." But, the last surprise was as we pulled into Obie’s. Fred arrived and opened the store for some late night shopping.

All in all, it was quite an educational day, from old time steam passenger operations to one of the largest museum collections to up-to-the-minute passenger and freight operations. While there will be many photos available for those who didn’t make the trip (the rumor is that Kodak stock went up 2 points), I would encourage those who missed the trip to make the next one. Even if you model a "Fallen Flag" like me, you can still learn from how things are done today and apply that back to the era you model.