{"id":40579,"date":"2024-11-22T06:17:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T11:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=40579"},"modified":"2024-11-19T23:00:19","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T04:00:19","slug":"the-world-famous-horseshoe-curve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/the-world-famous-horseshoe-curve\/","title":{"rendered":"The World Famous Horseshoe Curve"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the world of railways there are many horseshoe curves. I’ve visited many of these over the years: Utah’s Gilluly Loops; California’s Caliente Horseshoe in the Tehachapis; the famous Stanford Curve on Donner; and Oregon’s Leonard horseshoe among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While impressive, none compare to the World Famous Curve on the former Pennsylvania Railroad near Altoona, Pa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is more than just a horseshoe curve. It is among the great cosmic settings for American railroading and icon of 19th century railroad building. I don’t know if there’s much I can write about the Curve that hasn’t been written before. My friend Dan Cupper wrote a book on the subject (years ago my copy fell apart from over use).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I paid my first visit to Horseshoe Curve with my family back in August 1981. In the mid 1980s, my pal TSH and I made myriad trips to this Mecca of Pennsylvania railroading. Kris and I traveled here together for the first time three years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, Kris treated me to a 58th Birthday visit to Altoona, including a pilgrimage to the Curve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My curve ears started ringing about 1\/3 the way up the stairs from the visitor’s center to the park at center of the great curve. ‘Westbound. GE’s in the lead. . . . No helper.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we climbed the steps, I recalled the first time I ascended these steps: We had just arrived at the parking lot in our 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser. In the distance I heard the rhythmic drumming of a 20-cylinder SD45. My brother Sean and I ran as fast as we could to reach trackside (near the old K4s Pacific on display) before the train passed. It was one of the few times that I witnessed a Conrail SD45 in full run-8. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 43 years later, Kris and I reached trackside in time to a position trackside to take in the action. (A PRR GP9 had replaced the K4s in the mid-1980s.) Before the westward freight passed, a light helper consiting of a pair of Norfolk Southern SD70ACU’s worked west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real show was not far behind . . . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tracking the Light Posts Daily!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In October, Kris treated me to a 58th Birthday visit to Altoona, including a pilgrimage to the Curve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6060,10,6108,48],"tags":[7026,7022,5383,6630,8133],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/NS_SD70ACU_7249_helpers_at_Horseshoe_Curve_\u00a9BrianSolomon_DSC_2081.jpg?fit=2048%2C1066","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-ayv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40579"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40579"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40594,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40579\/revisions\/40594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}