Cresson Railroad Observation Platform
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First off, The Newtown Pentacle Time Warp (patent pending) is still in effect. Your humble narrator has somehow managed to maintain at least a month or so of ‘lead time’ on these posts recently and is chronologically disconnected. The photos in today’s post were captured at the very start of May, and the words you’re reading were typed out at the end of that same month. Fun, huh?
So, I decided to take a road trip. Loaded the car up with camera gear, a cup of tea and a bottle of water, and then set off in an easterly direction from Pittsburgh. A bit longer than two hours worth of driving found me in Cresson, Pennsylvania, where a ‘proper’ railfanning park and observation platform can be found. Neat!
Ummm… Hey Now! That’s Norfolk Southern #4259 pictured above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Basically a huge patio deck, the observation platform allows one some elevation. There’s seating, and a couple of spots where you can escape the sun. Cresson is perilously close to Altoona and the Horseshoe Curve, meaning that that the tracks leading aways from that bit of mega-infrastructure are chokepoints that literally ‘everything’ needs to travel through.
I’d heard of this spot, and few others near it, so the resolve to ‘check it out’ grew in my brain. Cresson Railroading Park is found here on Google Maps.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! NS #7230 is pictured above, which seemed to be doing ‘switcher’ duty.
Have to say, this was a pretty pleasant morning for me, and train sets were rolling through about every fifteen minutes. There’s a LOT of other rail stuff in Cresson which I want to get photos of, including a Wye. I’ll definitely be coming back here in the future.
Likely in the fall, I think those BW locomotives of theirs will look really cool against an autumn backdrop.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This section of Pennsylvania is ‘feature rich.’
Multi day ‘explores’ in this zone include: Johnstown (of horrific flooding and mass casualties fame), Altoona and the Horseshoe Curve, and there’s also a host of other historical RR goodies in this area, left behind by the Pennsylvania Rail Road Company.
yeah… HEY NOW! NS #4673 passed through next.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now… NS #7648 arrived next, heading westerly.
Both of the larger subjects – Johnstown and Altoona – will be receiving my attentions sometime this year as well. I have to develop a shot list for each zone, and when those lists grow long enough to warrant overnighting there in a motel or AirBNB, I’ll go. Saying that, Cresson and my other destinations on this particular day were ‘one and done’s’ so any return here is a day trip. It’s only a two hour drive.
Very much car country, this.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m all out of Hey Now’s.
Norfolk Southern #4212 was the last train I shot before heading back to the Mobile Oppression Platform (a Toyota), and firing up the engine to get to my next destination, which you’ll see next week. Hurray!
Enjoy the fireworks.
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