How about some fun for a change?  Peek over my shoulder on one of my train watching trips...this time to Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, PA on the July, 4, 2000 weekend.  Without a doubt, "the Curve" is probably the best train watching place in the states!

Take my word for it, this page has lots of pictures, so it will take a minute or two to load.  If you have any kids, go get 'em--they'll love it!

In a nutshell, Horseshoe Curve is an engineering wonder first created in 1854 to raise the railroad from the valley floor in Altoona over the Allegheny Mountains so the trains could pass on to Pittsburgh and points west.  Through a serious of cuts and fills across several ridges, the tracks rise at a rate of 91 vertical feet to the mile ultimately reaching a point where a tunnel at Gallitzin punches them through the last bit of mountain mass to the other side of the Allegheny's.

How about a couple of pictures and informational pages to orient you?

• Click here and a map will appear.
• Click here and you'll get some background information on "the Curve".
• Note to Moms & Dads: This is a great place to take your kids to for a weekend--lots for kids to see and do OUTSIDE and inside!  Click here for details. As my mom would call it, "a good family place."

Now how about some pictures now?  Here goes...

Walking to the west towards the Horseshoe Curve Museum entrance from the free parking lot, what do we see about 75 feet above us?

A train still wearing its old blue Conrail colors heading east down the curve towards Altoona! See the road behind the building?  About another 50 feet past there, it goes into a tunnel that's about 30 feet below the train's tracks!

As my southern friends would say, Mama didn't raise no fools, so let's take the funicular (read "cable car") up to the trackside viewing rather than the 198 step staircase!  Notice how the cable car is painted in the Pennsylvania Railroad colors. (Yes, I have taken the steps--walking up once is enough for a lifetime, thank you!)

And look what we caught up with at trackside--six locomotives pulling a train eastbound to Altoona.

Here comes a train of trailers and shipping containers, most likely heading to New York City, on the east bound line...

...while a mixed train of hoppers containing various items like grains or plastic and tankers containing chemicals heads west on another track.

Here's the end of that mixed train, heading westbound, towards the Gallitzin tunnels.

It looks like that mixed train sure was heavy--it had two helper engines on the back helping to push it over the mountains.

Speaking of taking off, let's jump in the car, zip through the tunnel and cruise over to Gallitzin and see what's there.  And just what do we see? Our train popping out of the Gallitzin Tunnels!

I hope you liked peeking over my shoulder to see the sights at Horseshoe Curve.  If you really want to see some great train stuff, get to Altoona in October when they have the Railroad Heritage Festival which includes a tour of the inside of the locomotive shops.  You'll see locomotives like the ones on this page hanging sixty feet in the air, having their engines removed and re-installed and all sorts of other things you've probably never seen before.