On the train trip back here from Iowa, the Amtrak train follows along small rivers from Pittsburgh to Cumberland. Very scenic even if it was early in the morning. At one point I noticed a couple of sidings at a wide spot between the steep hills and then a railroad sign that said "Summit of the Alleghenies". Then the track steepened on its way down hill. In an hour or so we were in Cumberland. I was curious about the sign, so I Googled it and found out that this was the top of the long grade from Cumberland and on many-car trains CSX would add "helper" locomotives to boost the freight trains make the grade. Then, at the Summit the helpers would drop off onto the siding to return to Cumberland. CSX has a big yard in Cumberland.
So I decided the next weekend to try and find this spot by road. I remembered that a road crossed the tracks near this spot, so perhaps I could puzzle out where this was exactly. The Pennsylvania state map was missing many of the smaller roads in this area, but eventually I found it even though later I discovered I had taken the wrong road and only serendipitously made my way there. Not much to see really.
I then made my way to Meyersdale PA, one of the bigger towns in the area and one of the many towns the tracks pass thorugh. A short ways out of town I passed a covered bridge.
On the way back, while traveling a winding road down towards Cumberland, on top of a meadowed hill, I spotted a red caboose! Someone had moved it up there and made it into a small house - I could see electric lines connected to it. There was a rutted dirt road which turned off the road which didn't look so good, but I thought aw what the heck, I'll go see if I can get a closer look.
I crept up this rutted rocky trail until I came to a bend in the road alongside a two-story weather beaten building and the CSX tracks. As I pulled up in front of the old building I saw two older fellows with a camera and tripod, two folding canvas seats and a cooler standing next to the tracks. The dirt road crossed the tracks turned right and went away into the distance along the tracks.
The two fellows told me they were from Pittsburgh and I had stumbled upon one of the well known trainspotting spots. The tracks made about a 270 degree curve here which made for some interesting photos and videos. The unpainted, bare board building was formerly the Mance post office built sometime in the late 1800s now a house. It was owned by two other railfans from Baltimore who came out on weekends.
We had a great little chat about their hobby. While we talked two freight trains came chugging slowly up the hill past us and the two railfans happily videotaped them. Unfortunately, my camera batteries died.
Before I left, I asked about the caboose which had been placed there by another weekend railfan, but they didn't know much about it. The day before they had been in Altoona, PA at a busy freight track that has sixty trains a day. I wished them good luck and followed the twisting streams as they tumbled their way to Cumberland. There I had some terrific ice cream at the Queen City Cremery.
