trains, trains, and more trains

I feel that I should start out by saying it's 3:24 in the morning and it took me about five hours to get the pictures and videos from today to download. That's my problem, but I mention it because my writing may suffer as I try to catch up with all the things I should have done already and get some rest for the 700 mile leg (probably two days) to St. Louis, the Gateway to the West.

We got off to a slow start as we did some reorganization based on our one day of experience. Even so we decided to stop at the Railroaders' Museum in Altoona before going to Horseshoe Curve. (Before getting there we passed by Tyrone, PA, where Mr. Kelly's wonderful Uncle Ray and Aunt Maddy once thrilled students at the Greer School. Ask Mr. Kelly about these two terrific teachers. But please know that there is a very sad part to what he will say. It is my belief, however, that great people should be remembered ... and that much of what you, meaning Mr. Kelly's students, will come to like about Mr. Kelly is a reflection of his Uncle Ray.)

The Railroaders Memorial Museum was a very pleasant surprise with lots of more personalized exhibits than were at Steamtown. Then we headed out for one of the most anticipated stops on our trip - Horseshoe Curve. For the second time in two days, we were stymied by a road closure while following directions given to us at the museum. With a bunch of one way and dead end streets to negotiate, almost all with no names on our map, we got lucky and quickly made our way there. We climbed the almost 200 winding steps to the observation area, not waiting for the tram; not wanting to miss any trains passing by at this world famous train watching spot.

From above, the multiple curving parallel tracks do very much resemble a the shape of a horseshoe. (You can check it out at the Railroaders Museum link.) We waited for half an hour. No trains. Then they began to appear, one after another. Our patience was rewarded with the ultimate treat of trains passing in opposite directions around the nearest point of the curve. See short video link in next paragraph.

All I think I should say here is that if you like trains, you'll love the Horseshoe Curve; if you love trains, you'll never want to leave there. All the trains that pass by during the observation hours have engineers who wave and blow their whistles at the people waiting to see them.



So, Mr. Kelly's class, why would trains go around a four mile curve rather than have a short bridge built between the hills? Just so people could come and watch? Hmmm???

Okay, I've got to wrap this up. It's now 4:40.

We left Horseshoe Curve after a few hours and lots of pictures and videos, went through tunnels, took a section of the old Lincoln Highway (a cobbled together series of roads that formed the first coast to coast highway) that fed us onto an interstate we didn't want to get on that forced us into and through Pittsburgh during the rush hour.

Bad move.

We finally stopped at a motel in Bridgeville, PA.