Passenger Trains > Whitford PA

This is not a great photo but some like me might be interested in seeing this eastbound Keystone fly through Whitford, PA on Track 1 this afternoon.
The old truss bridge carried the PRR's electrified, low-grade, freight only, Philadelphia and Thorndale Branch over the Main Line here.  The last Conrail train to use this bridge ran around 1985.  The eastern abutment of this bridge goes wayyyy down to the road below the tracks - quite a drop.
AEM-7s are very rare on Keystone's these days.  They're on only one or two trains per day from what I can tell.
Whitford is now a very well-patronized SEPTA station with a large multi-tiered parking lot.  Amtrak Keystones used to stop at Whitford years ago (maybe 20 years ago?) when there was low ridership and little more than a gravel lot next to the tracks under the bridge, and the Keystones were 3-car affairs (which were all diesel for several years as Amtrak considered shutting down the electrification to Harrisburg) that terminated in Philadelphia instead of the 5 car trains of today that run through to NY.  Before the diesel years, electric powered Amtrak Keystones (including repurposed Metroliners) went through the upper level of 30th St. Station, across the Schuylkill River and then down into a tunnel at underground Suburban Station.
So there is lots of history to contemplate here.

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One experience that I was able to cross off my "what to do" list, though why I thought of it, I don't know,
was to walk across that truss bridge at Whitford.  It is easy enough to get onto it but once there, you have to be
careful as you walk across, because there are no footboards; you have to carefully step from one
deck beam to the next.

There is a famous photo of a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train, eastbound under that bridge, with
a PRR coal train above it.  Several years ago I figured out the exact vantage point and got an Amtrak
Keystone at precisely the same spot, but a Genesis is no GG-1, Phase V is not Tuscan Red, and there
was no coal train on the bridge.  It's just an ordinary photo, if you don't remember the PRR one.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/15 15:18 by GenePoon.

GenePoon Wrote:
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> One experience that I was able to cross of my
> "what to do" list, though why I thought of it, I
> don't know,
> was to walk across that truss bridge at
> Whitford.  It is easy enough to get onto it but
> once there, you have to be
> careful as you walk across, because there are no
> footboards; you have to carefully step from one
> deck beam to the next.
>
> There is a famous photo of a Pennsylvania Railroad
> passenger train, eastbound under that bridge,
> with
> a PRR coal train above it.  Several years ago I
> figured out the exact vantage point and got an
> Amtrak
> Keystone at precisely the same spot, but a Genesis
> is no GG-1, Phase V is not Tuscan Red, and there
> was no coal train on the bridge.  It's just an
> ordinary photo, if you don't remember the PRR one.

i just bought a Morning Sun book by Bob Davis called "Conrail Under Pennsy Wires" Volume 2 ... Bob was a PC/CR employee and covers the trains both electric and diesel on the A&S, C&PD, P&T, Enola and Royalton Branches and the PHL-Har Main from years 1970-1989 ... he has quite a few photos in the Whitford area from both the main and P&T and one nice over and under at the truss bridge ... he also has photos of the A&S in the Safe Harbor area including a daring shot right on the bridge ... he was VERY detailed in his record keeping and has good train info with all his photos ... the book just came out Nov 15th ... ...

Grif Teller painted a PRR calendar scene of a steam powered coal train on the bridge as a GG1 psgr train went by below.

Posted from iPhone

RRTom Wrote:
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> Grif Teller painted a PRR calendar scene of a
> steam powered coal train on the bridge as a GG1
> psgr train went by below.

As I understand it, Grif Teller's painting was based on the PRR photograph mentioned. 

Both are classics.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/15 15:27 by GenePoon.

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The locomotive on the coal train appears to be a J1! The J1's never got east of Altoona! (And that's not the only Griff Teller painting with a J1at a location they never ran at! )

Posted from Android

mp109 Wrote:
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> The locomotive on the coal train appears to be a
> J1! The J1's never got east of Altoona! (And
> that's not the only Griff Teller painting with a
> J1at a location they never ran at! )
> 8
> Posted from Android


the book i referred to above has a cpl over under shots albeit electrics and diesels ...

It's a neat spot.  I made sure I was in position to get this photo on our Pennsylvanian trip in Sept.

Andy

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