Conrail Juniata Shops and Altoona Yard - August 5, 1994

Ghosts, skeletons, and otherwordly visitors filled the locomotive storage and freight car deadlines around the yard and shops in Altoona on August 5, 1994. The points of interest here were numerous - ex-Santa Fe C30-7s awaited rebuild with a GP35 or two peeking through in the background (is that Reading paint I saw?), scores of end-cab switchers including a white-lined SW1, and various other locomotive oddities.

The car graveyard had a variety of Conrail predecessor logos visible, with a solitary keystone serving as a reminder of whose railroad this was originally. The black-and-yellow SW1500s were a mystery, but shortly after returning home I discovered they were the remaining power for the nearby Cambria & Indiana Railroad which had shut down recently. One mystery I never solved - what were the spine cars doing in cold storage, old prototypes maybe?

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Conrail
• Reading
• Santa
• Fe
• Erie
• Lackawanna
• freight
• train
• railroad
• C30-7
• GP35
• SW1
• SW1500
• Cambria
• Indiana
• Juniata
• scrap
• old
• abandoned
• shops
• yard
• Altoona
• Pennsylvania

[revised33]

Who the hell keeps beepin?

[FastFlyingVirginian]

@revised33 Beats me. I recall the lot we were in was largely empty.

[amtrakjackson]

Those spine cars were CR's 7900XX series 53' cars that they acquired that year from (GBRX??) You saw them before they were repainted and sent into service- they were all out of service (again) by 1998.

[FastFlyingVirginian]

Ah, many thanks for the info. I'll see if I can find more photos of them in action.

[youbite1]

wow...i wish i was old enough to understand how amazing it would have been to see erie lackawanna cars a PRR cars......Now im old enought the oldest cars ive seen were some old Penn Central grain hopper. =-(

[FastFlyingVirginian]

What I really regret on that trip is that we drove through Hollidaysburg, passed right by the massive car shop with the tracks full of cars still painted for nearly every Conrail predecessor, and I did not think enough of it to stop for photos. Now the shop itself is just a shell of itself, abandoned.

[dumbbuff]

WHOA holy switchers batman

[BenAliGtor]

What this venue must have been 60 years ago: T-1s, K-4s, M-1s and I-1sc's belching smoke and steam in all their glory.

[DontTryItProductions]

great video the days of corail wish i was able to see them

[MilwaukeeSDman]

Stuff youll never see again....-Reading hopper- Penn Central Auto Parts boxcar-Kodachrome Dash 7- Santa Fe Dash 7-Yard full of CONRAIL locomotives-That Southern Pacific High-Cube-CNW Boxcars-Pennsy Boxcar-EL Hopper-P&LE Hopper!!!

[JDeere1050]

wow great footage ! all kiinds of good treasure in there !

[DASCO2136]

Nice catch with the Kodachrome Dash-7s

[notalott]

nice.. Kodachrome GE's and a RDG GP35 behind and to the right of the CSX GE. and damn! 8951 a CNJ SW7 coupled to 8712, a RDG SW900..

[notalott]

nice.. Kodachrome GE's and a RDG GP35 behind and to the right of the CSX GE.

[ryanlantzy]

Those Gold-Yellow and Black switchers units were from the Cambria and Indiana RR that ran from around Ebensburg, PA out to points west and north in Indiana County PA. It was mostly a coal branch that brought coal loads from the mines out to the mainline in Cresson, PA. The line ran right past my parents house where I grew up in Ebensburg. The line has since been ripped up and is now a rails to trails.