Tag Archives: #Harrisburg Line

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A brief look at the old Lebanon Valley Branch.

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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Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Look Ma No Pans!

High winds on Tuesday resulted in some unusual activity on Wednesday.

Norfolk Southern’s New Holland Branch is a line that runs near (and ultimately connects with) Amtrak’s electrified former Pennsylvania Railroad Harrisburg Line. At Jefferson Drive in Lancaster, the lines are in sight of one another. While I was waiting for NS’s branch local, I was surprised by late running Amtrak Keystone that passed under wire with a P42 diesel leading an ACS-64 electric with its pantographs down.

I was out of position to photograph the eastward Amtrak train, but I made my photos of the Norfolk Southern freight (for a later post). Afterward I made a few inquiries to learn about Amtrak’s situation.

From my understanding the high winds on Tuesday had damaged the overhead lines in the Philadelphia area. To keep its trains running, Amtrak assigned P42s in the lead. Give credit to Amtrak for doing what was needed to get trains over the road!

Later in the day, during the lunch hour, Kris and I went trackside at Bird-in-Hand, Pa., where we caught westward Amtrak 643 Keystone running ‘behind the advertised’ with a P42 at the Harrisburg-end and an ACS-64 with its pans down on the Philadelphia end.

I made these images using my Nikon Z7-II. The NEF RAW files were adjusted for contrast, exposure and saturation in post processing.

Amtrak 643 at Bird-in-Hand, Pa.
Amtrak 643 at Bird-in-Hand, Pa.
Amtrak 643 at Bird-in-Hand, Pa.

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