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Horseshoe Curve 125 Years SC 1981 by Rails Northeast
Soft Cover
Copyright 1981
48 Pages
By Rails Northeast
70-million gross tons per mile - That is how Conrail's main line is described in the AAR statistics. The line between Harrisburg, Alloona and Pittsburgh Pa. is in a class all by itself. It may well be true that some of the longest and steepest mountain railroading exists elsewhere in the U.S., but none compare with "Horseshoe" for tonnage and frequency of movements. The traffic volume sets apart the Horseshoe Curve and the east slope of the Alleghany Mountains from all other mountain ranges.
No other spot gives the train watcher more entertainment than does the Horseshoe Curve and the area between Altoona and Cresson. The fifteen mile stretch of mainline provides the train watcher an experience unequalled. The four track main line handles in excess of 70 million gross ton miles a year. Now if that figure is hard to comprehend, think of it in terms of about 120 freights a day, each hauling an average of 95 cars.
If you have never visited the famous Horseshoe Curve, visualize for a moment the steady stream of trains moving up and down the four track main line. The treat to the train watcher is fantastic. Any time of the day you could be met with the sounds of straining engines or the whine of dynamic brakes. The greetings of two orthree or even four trains passing before you passing east and west is an experience that all railfans should be exposed to during their life, if but just for once!
Eighty car solid piggybacks making 15-mph up grade with a helper, 105-car unit coal drags drifting downgrade in a cloud of brake shoe smoke, behind the whine of big diesels operating in the dynamic brake mode; Seventy and eighty car ore trains with four to six units on the point and four unit helpers pushing on the rear sanding the rails; This is Horseshoe. Between 70 and 120 trains a day, create a 24-hour parade.
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