Train Ride Greensburg to Altoona Aug 16, 2006

We arrived in Greensburg and made our way to the train station. It is a beautiful building with a clock tower. Greg, a staff member helped us figure out where to park. There is meter parking out front and we put in $5 worth of quarters to last the day. Greg was going to call the metermaid to wave any penalties if the train comes in late. We walked up the stps to the train platform and immediately a freight train wizzed by. We were on the wrong platform and had to walk back down the steps and up the otherside. It was not long and our train arrived on time. We boarded and were assigned seats. When we got back there someone was sleeping in that seat so we sat across the asile. The conductor came and woke her and filled tha seat with someone else. Then he gave us our tickets based on our on line reservation. We headed east bound to Altoona. Right outside Greensburg the train stopped on a siding to check safty switches. A frieght train passed going westbound. Our first stop was in Latrobe, pronounced laytrobe-we looked for Nicole dropping her kids off. There was a slight wiggle waggle as the train moved along at about 60mph. A freight train passed westbound..fast and colorful. Others passed with all white cargo cars. The engineer blew the whistle for each road crossing..whoooo whoooo, long and loud.

We walked back to the dining car and found it very open and comfortable. We sat in a booth on the right side and watched out the window. The engine could be seen when we went around tight bends. It was fun passing places we had driven to by car. At Horseshoe Curve people waved at us just as we had done last week. Again in was fun passing a place we had spent time at. Johnstown was a big city when we drove thru and just as big when the train went by. Our stop was Altoona.

Altoona is known as the Railroad City. We first checked in at the ticket office to get our return ticket, the railroad sells all tickets as one way. The public crossing goes over the four tracks and as we past a freight train chugged under us. Our destination was the Railroaders Memorial Museum, four floors of railroad displays housed in the historic 1882 Master Mechanics Building that was once home to the extensive testing labs of the "Pennsy" and an outside display as well. The first floor includes a theater where we watched two films: Altoona at Work and Working the Mountain-Horseshoe Curve. The exhibits are exceptional. Working the Railroad exhibit has the sounds of steam engine K-4#1361. It represents the 6,000 steam locomotives built in Altoona and the workers who built them. The display is life size with conductor reaching for your ticket and a woman waving the green flag.

The second floor has some neat exhibits about the community back in its hayday. The bar reminded Kathy of the one her parents use to own. We tested our skills at the track switching. Keeping up with the cars coming was hard. The real guys had over 5,000 cars a day to line up! Kathy imagined her dad making sure cars were in the cities they needed to be in as a transportation distributer.

All Aboard for Kids was a fun room filled with wooden train sets. Yep, we played with the trains! Railroaders as American Heroes has an extensive database and is hoping to have over 279,000, the number of active employees the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) had at its height. The system was down so we are going to have to look on the internet to see if Carmen is on the list. The model trains in the exhibit How to Run a Railroad really worked! The basement has some more wooden trains to play with. The fourth floor is mostly administrative offices and an extensive cuatorial department.

Outside is still under construction. It willhave a roundhouse with a 105foot turntable, indoor storage bays and outdoor spurs to house the museum's rolling stock. Some of the stock was out and all were accessable. K-4#1661, a replica is inside the museum, retired from service in 1956 just a year before the PRR ended its steam locomotives. She is the official state steam locomotive and is one of two of her type saved. You may have seen her on display at Horseshoe Curve between 1957-1985. She was refurbished and used a few times before the axle failed.

We walked through the Loretto, a private car once belonging to Charles Schwab. There was a fire in the front of the car and they are refurbishing it. The back of the car is intack and looks very elegant.

What a great way to walk down a little piece of history's way. Kathy wished the family would have saved more of her father's memoribilia.

We had some time before our train arrived for the trip back so we walked over to the Boyers Candy factory. The store had mallowcups, peanut butter pretzels and peanut butter cups as samples-all you could eat while in the store! We took home a box of mallowcups, yumm.

The ride home was also enjoyable. The dining car was taken over so we found comfortable seats with lots of leg room and watched out the window at the passing countryside. Back around Horseshoe Curve and on to Greensburg where we found our roadtrek safe and sound; no ticket.

On the way back to Jayne's we stopped at Ricks Sport Bar and played a little trivia. We now have two names that we play under: Van Go and Van G2. Van G2, Will's handle, made the home board!