Power over the Alleghenies

In this program we witness some of the most powerful diesel locomotives working in the United States, with superb soundtracks of trains struggling up grades over the Allegheny Mountains. We cover two routes including the old Baltimore and Ohio line over Sand Patch, now CSX, and the Pennsylvania Railroad over the summit at Gallitzin, close to the famous Horseshoe Curve, now Norfolk Southern territory. We begin at Sand Patch where BNSF & CSX locos storm up the grade with container & manifests headed by SD50, SD70Mac, Dash-9s & Dash-8s: we also see Amtrak’s The Capitol’ as it travels between Chicago & Washington. We then travel north to the Norfolk Southern route where freight trains are banked up the grades by powerful SD40E & SD40-2 locos – the sound from these unsilenced machines is awesome! To add to the variety, container, mixed freight, coal trains, trash trains, gravel & a load of farm equipment are also seen with a mixture of SD60, SD70, Dash-9, AC44CW & Dash-8 locos up front.

Altoona is another location where we study the action including Amtrak P40-2s on The Pennsylvanian’ passenger working, Conrail liveried SD40-2s on helper duties & even a shot of a GG1 electric in Altoona’s National Railroaders Museum. Travelling back to line through Hyndman to witness CSX Dash-8s & SD50-2s on freight as well as a spectacular scene from Wills Creek Valley of two freight trains passing on tight curves. Finally we are back at Cresson on the old PRR route to witness what has got to be one of the loudest sequences we’ve yet filmed, a 120-wagon coal train headed up the grade by two SD70s with the train being pushed from the rear by four SD40 helpers.