On November 17th, 2001, I spent few hours at Horseshoe Curve in Altoona PA on my way back to Ohio from Steamtown National Historical Park in Scranton PA.  It was pretty cold for mid-November in the Allegheny Mountains...

...but I didn't expect it to start snowing as soon as I walked across the street to take a picture of an Amtrak train passing through Horseshoe Curve!

(See that little building straight ahead of you in the picture?  That's a snack bar called "Tracksnacks" which is operated by Dee from Altoona, a friend of Bluejeans' Place!) (Hi, Dee--sorry I didn't run across you and yours when I was there!  Some hot coffee would have been great that morning to keep my hands warm!)

But back to the trains--for the whole time the train passed through the curve, flurries flew with flakes the size of nickels and quarters!

You can see the engine passing through the curve about 200 feet above you, followed by the "Ambox" baggage, mail and freight express cars, then some passenger cars and then more express cars...

It was amazing to see the snow flurries disappear and the sky clear a few minutes later as a Norfolk Southern train approached from the east (right side of the picture).  Look at how bright it became in just a few minutes!

The sky just got clearer and brighter as the train wound its way around the curve, hugging the side of the mountain...

And then it disappeared as its helper engines on the rear of the train slipped around the curve of the mountain.