Besides Horsecuve does anyone have sugestions to do in the Altoona area?
Other train related stuff or regular family stuff?
In Altoona itself is the Railroaders Museum. Not far from Horseshoe Curve is Gallitzin Tunnel. Here’s that link.
If you follow Interstate 99 south to Bedford, PA, you will find Old Bedford Village. You can easily spend a couple of enjoyable hours there.
Have fun.
Tom
…And if you would go to Bedford, I understand the Bedford Springs Resort is about to reopen after a complete re-do. It is a world famous resort from the last century…A beautiful place. Just enter the name on the internet and you can see their new website. Believe it’s about to open in early July. It’s about 3 mi. {on rt. 220, south of Bedford}.
It has been in disrepair for years and somehow it has been brought back to life…The wife and I stopped there 10 or so years ago and it was my opinion it would never “live” again…Guess I’m about to be proven wrong. It was in shambles…!
Amtrak stops at Altoona and right behind that station is the above mentioned Railroad museum. Have been there too, but it’s been years ago and it’s probably nicer now. Does anyone know if 1361 K4 is still there…
Also as mentioned above, the Gallitzin tunnel…{there are two but one was double tracked and the 2nd one is out of service}, but there is another one just out of sight from the first one. {total of 3 bores}, It’s an interesting place to watch the action. A brand new city bridge spans the main line and you can look right into the tunnel.
If you care to drop down into Johnstown…West from Altoona, check out the Flood museum there. Amtrak station there too. Also, in sight from the F. museum you can see the famous Johnstown Incline Plane…Ride or drive up to the top and look all over the Johnstown valley. Restaurant up at the top, with windows looking out over about 800 ft. drop down into Johnstown and you can see the former Pennsylvania station {now Amtrak}, and lots of rail traffic visible from up there.
Thanks guys for the suggestions
If you like baseball the Altoona Curve are a AA affiliate of the Pirates.
K4 1361 is still in Scranton, where it’s been for the past ten or so years.
…Wow, time sure does fly. Didn’t realize it’s been that long since we’ve visited there at the museum. Rode on Amtrak from Johnstown to Altoona and had a couple of hours to visit and then catch the west bound back to Johnsown.
At that time I did photograph 1361 there at museum tracks. Hopefully it will run once again.
By the way, back in the WWII era I did ride around the “Curve” and beyond and I wonder if it might be possible that one of those engines just might have been 1361 helping to move our train…??? We’ll never know now.
“Y’uns hunt?”
“No”
“Y’uns fish?”
“No”
“Well…what DO you do?”
-transcript of Mech. Dept. trainee and JBS mechanic concerning leisure time activities in Altoona circa 1978
How close to Altoona do you want ideas. The East Broad Top is an hour or two east.
Buy a T-shirt with “ALTOONA” on it, c’mon, that’s not a real name.
…Looks like we all have found plenty for you to do in the general area. One more: Between Altoona and Johnstown, you can stand on the embankment of the ill fated dam {failure}, that occured in 1889 to cause the "great flood " that killed over 2000 people in the Johnstown area.