I made two trips to Pennsylvania in 2009. I went in May and again in August. The May trip was cloudy and overcast on my only free day, but I was able to get some new shots around Portage, PA and Altoona to Tyrone. My second trip in August did not leave much time for watching trains. I did get some shots in the Pittsburgh area, but my memory card failed and I lost some good early morning shots around the old Homestead Works. I will be back there in the fall so maybe I will get lucky. The good news is that with a new memory card, I stopped in Cresson and caught a heavy east-bound manifest with a switcher in the consist. I took a couple of shots of him in Cresson and beat him to Gallitzin, where I got him going by the old “AR” Tower and dropping down the slide. I also took a couple of pictures on Horseshoe Curve.
A couple of sad things to report about Horseshoe Curve. It is overgrown again. If you want to visit there, and see the trains, I would go from late fall, when the leaves are gone to early spring when the buds are just starting. It’s just too overgrown for any other time. The other sad thing is that the Pennsy style signal bridges are falling. The most visible one for the curve may already be down as I write this. When I was there on August 20th 2009 the new mast had been erected. So if you are to get there this year, forget the curve. Instead, you should go to places like Lilly, Summer Hill and Tipton (McFarlands) and see if those signal bridges are still up. Get your pictures of them while you can.