Less Prepared for Bad Weather?

[Ulrich]

It’s not just trains…my kids take the school bus to school…and whenever there’s a snow covering the buses are cancelled (although school isn’t) and the parents are left to fend for themselves. Back when I was a kid the trains ran through heavy now…the school buses ran unless the roads were completely impassable. Things are different today, everyone is more risk averse these days…If you’re the manager who OKed a crew to be out in bad weather, and someone gets hurt…you get McFired…

[Ulrich]

On the flip side we’ve also become spoiled consumers. Back in the day we didn’t expect super duper overnight delivery every time regardless of weather or whatever else…and we didn’t freak out over the odd delay…we simply made allowances and rolled with it.

[zugmann]

NS gets into Enola on the west or south bank of the Susquehanna from a point east of Harrisburg and not from Rockville Bridge on the west. Enola traffic wesbound does not go through Harrisburg Amtrak station although some traffic does. Rockville has wyes on each end of the bridge for directing traffic in and out and around Enola and Harrisburg but Enola is also fed from the east and south. Thus it is possible to have backed out of Harrisburg (I really don’t know how far) then gone west via Enola to ALtoona and west.

Zug, I’m not a railroader like you but it doesn’t mean us non railroaders know nothing.

Spare me the geography lecture Henry. I know the territory quite well (being where I pretty much grew up). There is no “easy” way to get from the east shore over to the Pittsburgh line without using Rockville. Even trains going from Enola yard to Hagerstown and points south go “round the world” (across the Rockville Bridge, past the amtrak station, and back across the river AGAIN on the Reading bridge.

To detour the Pennsylvanian: you’d have to reverse from the station to Capitol. Then you might as well spin the train there as CP-Mary was most likely blocked on the west shore. Then reverse over the Reading bridge to the Camp Hill connector. Then change directions again, and go over to Stell and the whole way through Enola yard - that is a long way to be going restricted speed, not to exceed 10mph. Can it be done? Yes, but hopefully the tracks weren’t completely plugged with freight traffic. Anyway, you are adding a minimum of 2 hours, more likely 3. Forget about making the connection with the Capitol, which was achieved through the use of busing.

Of course you will need a pilot crew. I’m just a dumb railroader, but I think amtrak made the right choice.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Although we’ve now managed to conflate the NS-containers-in-the-drink thread with the Amtrak-in-the-snow thread . . .

For those who might be seeking enlightenment in this lifetime on the rail geography of the Harrisburg area, here’s a link to a 1999 ConRail track chart - the most recent that I could find on-line quickly - that has some decent sketch maps on a few pages of the ‘PDF’ format version, as below. Be forewarned - it’s a large file, 441 pages, approx. 14.5 MB in size:

Conrail Archives - Maintenance Program and Track Charts

http://www.multimodalways.org/archives/rrs/CR/CR%20Track%20Charts/CR%20Track%20Charts.html

CR Philadelphia Track Chart 1999: http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/railroads/companies/CR/CR%20Track%20Charts/CR%20Philadelphia%20Track%20Chart%201999.pdf

HARRISBURG, PA -Courtesy of Don Plummer, Jr., Enola, PA - Page 41 of 441

Rockville - Marysville - Page 42 of 441

ENOLA YARD - Page 47 of 441

HARRISBURG-ENOLA TERMINAL AREA - Page 48 of 441

Obviously, NS (and maybe Amtrak and/ or CSX as well) might have changed some names and rearranged some tracks and interlockings in the intervening almost 12 years since this was published - if so, I hope someone here will provide appropriate updates/ additions/ corrections/ clarifications, etc.

• Paul North.

[henry6]

Yeah, the crossing of the river east of Harrisburg is much further east than I thought. Train would have to have been rerouted out of Lancaster to do what I proposed. At least according to a contemporary book of topo maps of PA. I don’t know what condition that track may be in as it is part of the Port Deposit and Columbia branches on the shores of the River south into MD. Paul, thanks for your effort; the H’brg map didn’t go far enough east to descern anything. But didn’t there used to be a PRR easy round about in the Harrisburg area…much simpler than having to take a ride on the Reading!

[zugmann]

Could go down the Columbia secondary, up the port road, across Shocks Mills, then up through Enola. Still going to add a couple hours, plus you would have to bus the passengers from E-town and Harrisburg (since the train would bypass both stations).

The pennsy did have the electrified bridge in harrisburg for access to enola via LEMO, but the tracks and connection are long gone.

[henry6]

The LEMO connecting bridge…that’s the one I remember from timetables and maps. NS e.t. shows nothing! And a look at today’s PA maps shows messy ‘erasures’ which cannot be descerened.

[wanswheel]

Trains were crucially important to the Post Office, which was crucially important to banks and businesses. Plus long distance calls were expensive, so everybody wrote letters. I wonder how much the duty of transporting the mail caused railroads to strive to keep trains running through blizzards back when.

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess.T2989/pg.1/

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess.T3308/pg.1/

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess.T3032/pg.1/

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess.T3094/pg.1/

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/search/results?t=Transportation-Railroads