Photo of the Week: 6/17/2011

Today is Friday, which means it's time for a photo again! With Father's Day coming up this weekend, I wanted to post a photo of my dad with trains...but since he is extremely camera shy, I have very few photos of him with a train and he probably wouldn't appreciate having his photo on the internet! Instead, I will borrow one of his photos for this week. In 2003, my dad, James, myself, and my younger brother, Michael, all went to Pennsylvania for a few days. We stopped at Gettysburg, which is always a nice place to visit, but our ultimate destination was Altoona. We spent our time there exploring the Pennsylvania State Railroad Museum and watching the endless stream of trains at Horseshoe Curve just outside Altoona. This photo is from that location.

I am on the left, James is in the middle, and our younger brother Michael is on the right. I was 12 when this photo was taken in August of 2003. This was shortly after the Conrail split, so Norfolk Southern had taken over operating this line, but there was still plenty of Conrail blue running around. This was also when Amtrak was still running mail and express service, so the Three Rivers was running several times a day, instead of today's once-daily Pennsylvanian.

I remember this trip pretty well. I was no photographer back then, so my photos really aren't that great. I would love to go back out there. Pennsylvania has a lot for railroading, including Altoona and Horseshoe Curve, Steamtown, several trolley museums, and a portion of the Northeast Corridor. I could easily spend a week at Altoona alone, but I would love to go back and visit the other places as well.

Photo of the Week: 1/7/2011

It's Friday, which means it's time for another photo. As I've said before, although I've posted this on Saturdays in the past, I will be posting it on Fridays as often as I can remember to.

This weeks photo was shot at Ayer, MA. It is a small town in eastern Massachusetts where not much ever happens...unless you're a railfan. Boston's MBTA has a station in Ayer on the Fitchburg Line, which makes a great vantage point to watch all the action. The station is literally in the middle of a wye, which connects two freight yards. The main line through Ayer connects Boston with Albany, but there are branches connecting Ayer to Worcester and Nashua. Pan Am and MBTA run plenty of trains on the ex-B&M main line, plus there are other freights coming from the other branch lines as well.

Without any further ado, here is the photo:

Although Pan Am owns the tracks here, Norfolk Southern equipment is a very common sight. One train is MOAY and AYMO (Mohawk Yard in Albany to Ayer). This is a daily intermodal train that almost always has Norfolk Southern power leading it. MOAY arrives at Ayer in the evening, and returns as AYMO just after noon the next day. In this shot, Pan Am is using the laying over NS power to switch one of the yards. My vantage point is the end of the platform, and I am looking down the east leg of the wye. The main line is behind me. I spent the whole morning there railfanning, and this locomotive pair kept appearing and disappearing on the wye, each time with a new string of freight cars behind it. It provided some good entertainment during otherwise dull moments, and every time it showed up I got another chance at the same shot. This one was the best one I got of the train.