PRR PC Conrail - Harrisburg to Horseshoe

This is an expanded version of the "Mountain in Film" video with new footage covering the Middle Division from Harrisburg to Altoona, as well as new material at Horseshoe Curve.

[@russellgxy2905]

I still find it incredible that the Pennsy, well known for being the Standard railroad, was trying pretty much anything in its last two decades. From the giant experimental duplexes and "borrowed" J1's to buying almost any model the builders put out. I don't think I've ever seen E's, F's, Geeps, and ALCo power along with Centipedes, _both_ kinds of diesel Sharks, and Trainmasters in the same video!

[@fmnut]

The decisions to do the Duplex program were made during WWII, as well as the purchase of the J's which were clones of the C&O's due to wartime restrictions. At that point, the benefits of dieselization were only beginning to be understood, and the railroad was committed to using coal. By the end of the war, the economics were better understood, but the Duplex program was already underway, and the problems with the designs were already becoming apparent. The decision then was made to dieselize as rapidly as possible, as the railroad was already in a financial decline and needed the savings diesels provided. The reason for the plethora of different manufacturers and models was the sheer number of units needed could not have been provided by a single manufacturer, given the orders they had ongoing from other railroads. In hindsight, they should have waited and not done the Duplexes at all, but it seemed the way to go at the time.

[@theamazingtrainkidproducti6865]

these are some of my favorite railroads especially conrail

[@cjrexh875]

Same here

[@williamschlenger1518]

Pennsylvania railroad, once the greatest railroad. I love the steam engines.

[@chuckgilly]

I beg to differ, "Santa Fe All The Way" LOL

[@chuckgilly]

Thanx again, fmnut, for another National Treasure of Historical footage. All your hard work deserves a Historian award.

[@chriskrazmuski745]

Wow! FMN sure delivers phenomenal content from the past! Twenty-six minutes simply packed with interest...like a massive box of chocolates for the nostalgic eye!;-)

[@eastcoastghost2521]

This video is beyond great. Conrail is in my blood BIG BLUE will never be forgotten.

[@105C09]

Probably one of the finest PRR videos...........ever. Without apology.

[@enjoyingrailroading1013]

Very nice compliation. Have rail fanned Horseshoe since 1978 and was a Conrail employee from 9/1985 - 5/1999. Thanks VERY much for sharing this wonderful "Trip Through the Time Machine" from Pennsy up through Conrail. Happy New Year to all!

[@twospeed209]

Wow! an action shot of a two unit centipede in run 8! With sound! The content of film by all the various photographers is amazing My eyes were wide open watching this! Thank you sir for uploading this footage. Mark

[@fmnut]

Well, technically I cheated. The film was silent. I created the sound of four eight cylinder Baldwin diesels by overlaying a clip of a pair of AS616's with another clip, staggered the sound by a few frames so it wasn't just the same sound but louder, then speeded it up by about 150% to get the effect I wanted. Others have used switcher sounds but they just aren't beefy enough for my ear.

[@mshotz1]

Centipedes! Never seen movie footage of them before!

[@robertswickard1262]

There are short clips of them in passenger service but there black and white ...... I'm a devoted P fan ,,,, this is some of the best color film I've seen of them as BF 60 ..... Baldwin Freight 6000 HP set They were repainted in 1952/1953 from 5 stripe to single stripe and regeared to freight but not down graded to 5000 HP until 1960 , when they had the fuel metering devices adjusted to reduce valve wear and classed BH 50 Baldwin Helper 5000 HP set Then retired in 1962 at the ripe old age of 15 years ... Trade in value went to 15 GE U25B's Foot note #5824 / 5812 and 5826 / 5814 had low air intakes on the engineers side !!!!! Also those 2 sets were not painted into single stripe until 1957 .... In 1958 to 1960 all were stored but those 2 set were pulling empty hopper. ((((( nonrevenue )))) around Philadelphia in 5 stripes !!!

[@105C09]

I've only seen them in one other movie. What a find!

[@litespan466]

I have a set of them in Ho , they are beasts. Originally they were 6,000 hp passenger, derated to 5,000 and put in freight ,then helper service .

[@DavidWright-yn9bi]

That's the first time I ever laid eyes on those. My jaw dropped and I had to rewind the footage a few times to count the wheels. Never knew about those until just now. 6,000 hp? Wow! Thanks for sharing this incredible footage. Growing up in NE Ohio, I'm certainly familiar with the "big blue" running in the 80's and 90's. It's all NFS now. Nothing sounds as good as 4 or 5 GP-40-2 running on the main.

[@b3j8]

Loved the last of PRR steam clips! Those Centipedes were nightmares to maintain! Leaked oil constantly. Lucky the Pennsy even got 15 yrs out of them!

[@imacgra1]

seriously interesting stuff there - such a variety of manufacturers' power. Haven't seen the FMs or centipedes anywhere else online.

[@TheRrxing]

Love the horns on the streamliners. You could hear those old diesels coming from far away unlike what we have now. Going to have to add this to my favorites!

[@zigman8550]

Great video!I love the old Pennsy footage and the Baldwin Centipedes were very cool even if they were religated to freight service.

[@pennsylvaniamodelrailroad]

I could watch this all day.

[@jbbatulis3513]

Thanks for sharing....spent alot of time at the Curve growing up. Dad was an RPO on the PRR from 59-67...

[@nyccrcsx]

Great video old time railroading better than today’s

[@robertswickard1262]

ONE OF THE BEST VIDEOS I'VE EVER SEEN !!!!!! BF 50 ON THE POINT , SHARKS , EMD , FIRST GENERATION IS MORE RARE THAN MOST FOLKS THINK ,,, IT WAS TABOO TO WASTE FILM ON THEM !!!!! 2 FM 24 66 LEADING 3 SHARKS IS TRULY A RARE SIGHT !!!!!! RAIL FANS MILLING AROUND RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CURVE FILMING AND TAKING PHOTOS !!!!!!!

[@fmnut]

The rail fans at the curve were waiting for the 2102 and 4070 doubleheader. This was the trip when the 4070 threw a rod. We waited for hours and finally got them coming down the hill being ignominiously dragged by diesels.

[@robertswickard1262]

@@fmnut still is some beautiful footage of true railfans enjoying and RESPECTING THE CURVE AND THE P. COMPANY

[@hemihead68]

Wow really Great footage thanks for sharing

[@redbarnz]

Just Fabulous! Love the sound of those Baldwin diesels, "Blum, blum, blum, blum"

[@jonathanwreck8914]

Fantastic enjoyed every minute

[@judyrush3219]

We model N-scale PRR up till the Conrail take over, been my favorite since the late 60s as a kid.

[@southpenn7973]

just plain outstanding !!! thank you for posting this

[@GMEMD_SD40-2]

What great memories...thank you so much for posting this.

[@iusetano]

I enjoyed watching this video very much. Thank you for the upload.

[@rimodeler7963]

Excellent footage ...... enjoyed every minute of it! Thanks for sharing. Mike

[@theyettifromcanada3688]

Thats a really neat film!!.thank you!

[@glennmcqueen9475]

Thank you so much for this, made my day

[@highballinghogger]

Awesome video thanks for sharing !

[@30yrsengr41]

Absolutely great stuff

[@FrehleyFan3988]

PRR had it all!

[@scoobycarr5558]

Those Penn Central Geeps looked nice and clean

[@kelvintorrence5994]

So a geep is what replaced the old,steam engine on the curve. I would like to see it up close 1 day I been by it on route,22 in my tractor trailer lots,of times.

[@EmpireBeltRR]

Totally awesome!!!

[@indyrat500]

Very interesting video for all the reasons already stated. I was especially intrigued by the Pennsy using steam upfront and diesel pushers. Just the opposite where I grew up in Utah during the transition to diesel power.

[@tombarnes7196]

What's not to love: Centipedes, Sharks, Train Masters, big steam, Baldwins, Alcos, EMDs, Pennsy, Horseshoe Curve.... ??!!??

[@agentM1991]

How frequent was trains on the Pittsburgh line when these clips was filmed? Was is more, less, or equal to today? Great catches though. I love seeing the world famous caboose in action. It is very rare today as "FRED" (flashing rear end detector") is the cats' meow these days. How long were trains with the caboose? And awesome video by the way.

[@fmnut]

This video covers nearly a 40 year time span, so it's hard to give just one answer. Generally, the farther back you go, the smaller the freight cars get both in length and tonnage capacity. So a 100 car train of the 1980's would be hauling roughly twice as much tonnage as a similar length train from the early 50's. Trains in the 40's and 50's tended to be shorter and more frequent, so you would generally see roughly double the moves in 1953, say, than you would today. And that's not counting the coal and iron ore trains that don't run anymore because of changes in industry. Plus there were more passenger trains back in the 50's hauling mail and express that all goes piggyback or by highway today. So there were a lot more trains even in the 80's than what you see today.

[@agentM1991]

@@fmnut thank you.

[@litespan466]

agentM1991 penn central ran more trains than Conrail .conrail had more routes to choose from ,but on a really good day you could see 80 trains . Norfolk Southern has 40-50 maybe today. But they run much longer trains

[@geoffreylee5199]

That area is so full of trees!

[@stuartlee6622]

Lewistown. I want to see the Lewistown station!

[@dingo5827]

The good old days !!

[@indyrat500]

Also loved the catch of GP9B.

[@davidvanschaick5565]

Good Stuff, oldies but goodies

[@KLTrainz]

From 22:26 though 24:35, there was an exceptional amount of people on site, plenty off on the ridge, inside the curve, and around side as well.....were they waiting for RDG 2102 or NKP 759?

[@fmnut]

2102 and GTW 4070. They never made it, 4070 threw a rod.

[@billsmith9937]

Very neat.

[@stonemason848]

always liked the Es and Fs

[@mccoy79productions66]

cool video

[@gmpullman]

Thanks for uploading this, Very Informative. From 22:25 on, what were all the "Daisy-Pickers" on the property waiting for, cameras ready? Was there a fan-trip operating that day?

[@fmnut]

Yes, it was the day of the I'll fated 2102/4070 trip when 4070 threw a rod.

[@gmpullman]

@@fmnut Small World, I was the 4070 fireman on the weekend BEFORE that trip!

[@dwayneday9458]

As ad for hire of Conrail route shipping railroad LLC and jersey shores conrail shared assets operation of NJ

[@ijarika7534]

Would you happen to have anymore clips of RSD-7s?

[@fmnut]

What you see in the video is all I've got.

[@ijarika7534]

@@fmnut Ah well, something is better than nothing. Definitely a treat to see anything.

[@DuMontTV]

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@deandanielson8074]

Quite the transition period. I'm glad we still have trains even with railroad mismanagement and government involvement.

[@kurtkauffman4326]

It is now used by Norfolk Southern.Still operated today.

[@stonemason848]

where did the old steamer go from the display?

[@fmnut]

Sorry for the late reply. The K4 was pulled from the Curve and replaced with a GP9 donated by Conrail. The K4 was given some light repairs and ran some fantrips on Conrail branch lines in the early 80s. It then went to Steamtown in Scranton for a heavy overhaul. Politics and poor choices stymied that effort. It was returned to Altoona in pieces and is now undergoing a proper restoration as time and finances permit.

[@JetsMakeWoosh]

How many cars could a double head centipede pull usually

[@fmnut]

That's a complicated answer depending on the grades and curvature of the line, loads versus empties in the train, and weather conditions. On level track a pair could pull well over 150 cars but not at great speeds. The limiting factor was the strength of the couplings which would break when trains exceeded 10,000 tons.

[@jamesdavis5096]

At 3:26 was that a hot box?

[@fmnut]

I think it was brake shoe smoke, slowing for the stop at Mt. Union.

[@kingdoughnut7244]

Blows my mind how close the railfans would stand next to the tracks back then! Today the NS police will get you.

[@billlazenby9808]

Times were different back then vs now

[@dknowles60]

Rail roads did not have lawyer problems back them

[@christopherstehn1716]

this footage of the take of contrail of 1978 merger and take over

[@fmnut]

No. The Conrail takeover was in 1976, not 78.

[@christopherstehn1716]

@@fmnut okay

[@user-kz4ye6lm9v]

🌐🌐🌐🌐

[@csxtrainfan319]

Who took over all their railroads let me know

[@fmnut]

Penn Central merged PRR and New York Central. Conrail took over Penn Central. Conrail was split between CSX and Norfolk Southern, with NS getting most of the old PRR. CSX got most of the old NYC.

[@williamh.jarvis6795]

@@fmnut I have read comments, from another film somewhere here on KZbin, about the late Alfred Perlman, former CEO of the NYC back then, supposedly suggesting that the NYC should merge with the C&O, while the PRR should merge with the N&W. Isn't today's CSXT and the NS somewhat close to that today?

[@fmnut]

@@williamh.jarvis6795 yes, an ironic twist of history. He was a man ahead of his time.

[@stonemason848]

sharknose?

[@fmnut]

Yes. Both freight Sharks (DR4-4-1500 and RF16) and passenger Sharks (DR6-4-2000) are shown in the video.

[@magnuswettermark8293]

Pennsylvania Railroad was a fine railroad before the Penn Central disaster,no fan of conrail either...btw.