Altoona … from Mike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X99ttv7L_g
https://ia803005.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/30/items/the-saturday-evening-post-1949-03-26/the-saturday-evening-post-1949-03-26_jp2.zip&file=the-saturday-evening-post-1949-03-26_jp2/the-saturday-evening-post-1949-03-26_0033.jp2&scale=1&rotate=0
What an absolutely stunning video! Almost moved me to tears!
Thanks Mike for finding it! And thanks Vince for passing it on!
Maybe one day we’ll have Overmod’s (and my) fondest wish come true and see 4014 roaring through those magnificent mountains on it’s way east for further adventures.
Big steam belongs in those mountains!
Not a super-big Pennsy fan, but all I can say is…
Altoona aeterna est!
It has been speculated that Big Boy might have a problem with the curve. I’d like to hear from the experts.
Horseshoe Curve is less than 10 degrees – would any engine ever built have a problem with it?
Gotta love those LIRR cars in the picture – MP70s, in town for rebuilding?
Here’s a page on them for the interested…
Lawn Gyland MP70s. Real New Yorkers, always showing up where they’re least expected!. [;)]
I first visited Altoona in the early 80’s and saw the long lines of dead power there. I could just imagine what it was like in its heyday. As my username suggests, I have a special interest in railroad ercting/backshops. I’ve seen Paducah, Collinwood, Reading, Colonie and many others, but Altoona dwarfs them all, in both size and aura.
Altoona Train Wreck and Marion Try Slaughter
http://www.gendisasters.com/pennsylvania/14412/altoona-pa-freight-train-crash-nov-1925
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KukleiTamwM
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fslqz
Oh wow, “The Freight Wreck At Altoona!”
That old song’s been part of a private joke between myself and Lady Firestorm since we read “Scalded To Death By The Steam,” that history and anthology of classic train wreck songs. Man, there used to be a LOT of them!
Joke goes like this…
“The Wreck Of The Old Number One.”
“The Wreck Of The Old Number Two.”
“The Wreck Of The Old Number Three.”
“The Wreck Of The Old Number Four.” AND…
“The Freight Wreck At Altoona!”
Spoken in a apropriately grim voice.
Mike strikes again! Thanks Mike, and thanks Vince for passing it on!
Seems kind of up-beat for a wreck song though, doesn’t it?
Altoona Tribune, Aug. 8, 1949
“An engineer from Denmark suggested that since the first railroad shop in the world had been built at Altona in that country, the new railroad town could well be named for it. The extra “o” made the name a bit more individual.”
From Mike:
George Burns in Altoona
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/cQYAAOSwaBZZmswD/s-l1600.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiADy2qchrI
https://archive.org/details/railroadcityfour00wall/page/4
Altoona Cathedral
“In the twentieth century, the Pennsylvania Railroad often promoted itself as the “Standard Railroad of the World.” Among its many achievements, it could claim, in 1945, over 16 percent of all passenger miles in the U.S. It was among the first to use coal-burning locomotives, steel rails, and air brakes; and its Altoona shops, the largest railroad-owned construction shops in the country, had been the training ground for many American railroad builders and engineers.The company saw itself as setting the “standard” by which all railroads should be run and against which all railroads might be measured. In another sense, however, the railroad, particularly in its shops at Altoona, pioneered in standardization itself. At Altoona, the railroad introduced standard car designs in 1859, standard locomotive classes in 1868, and, with the establishment of the first railroad test department in 1874, standard product specifications.”
A railfan dream.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/archiveThumbs.aspx?id=127942 thumbs
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4968629 invititation
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4968630 forward
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4968631 4-5
Agent: They hated you in Mechanicsville (D&H).
Burns: But they loved me in Altoona.
Burns and Allen learned their craft the hard way on the vaudeville circuit, bombing in some places and wowing them in others.
And not a word about the pending electrification all the way to Harrisburg, and the DD2 being tested to optimize performance on it, or any of the pending thought even at that time to extend it over the mountains to Pittsburgh, prioritized as late as 1943…
It’s all about the steam baby, all about the steam.
I have a flyer from the Great Altoona Tour from the Chicago side:
PRR_tour_cover by Edmund, on Flickr
PRR_tour_inside by Edmund, on Flickr
PRR_tour_back by Edmund, on Flickr
Another Altoona Treat!
RR_views_0035 by Edmund, on Flickr
RR_views_0034 by Edmund, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
Wow! A Mack pumper!
Even the PRR’s Altoona Works Fire Department had pure class!
Some more of the story of that Model L (built 1941) including a picture of it in yellow (!) with Conrail lettering (!!)
https://yngfire.com/index.php?threads/pennsylvania-rr-fd-altoona-pa-1895-1985.12642/
Says they ran their Ahrens-Fox all the way to 1965!
Fascinating… good find!