The portion of the former Reading Company’s Lebanon Valley Branch/Crossline running between Reading and Harrisburg, PA is now operated by Norfolk Southern as the western end of its Harrisburg Line.

Since the Conrail-era, this route has hosted the lion’s share of through freights moving east of Harrisburg toward the New York City and Philadelphia metro areas.

This heavily built line is signaled for two-main tracks [bi-directional signaling allows moves on signal indication in both directions on either track].

Although conceptually interesting, I’ve found this to be a difficult route to photograph effectively.

Last Saturday, Kris and I were exploring the area and visited the town of Richland, Pa., which is bisected by NS’s Harrisburg Line. Shortly after we parked east of the main crossing, I heard a roar to the west.

“There’s a freight coming.”

Kris made a video with her phone, and I exposed a sequence of photos using my Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm lens and Lumix LX3.

This was an impressive mixed carload freight. Following the lead locomotives were 136 cars and a single-engine DPU (distributed power unit) at the back.

The view at Richland was hardly the magnificent vista offered by the famous Horseshoe Curve, but it was a neat place to roll a train by.

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