If there's been an upshot to being jobless and stuck at home in Pittsburgh, it's that I've been able to go trackside quite often and check out some spots I never had been able to before. On June 6th, I headed out to East Pittsburgh in the shadow of the George Westinghouse bridge to catch the first Pennsylvanian since late March, delayed because (supposedly) the P42DC had been sitting in Penn Station since March and not had an FRA 180-day inspection.
As hoped, but not expected, I encountered a Union Railroad switch job switching the J. Edgar Thompson Works a stone's throw from my perch. A trio of MP15DCs, all in original Union paint (blue/blue and green/yellow) pull a cut of hot slab cars up the viaduct.
Odd as it seems, these deactivated signal heads are likely now the only standing PRR-style targets between Ohio and Harrisburg. Even if they were dark and supplemented by color lights, they were a welcome sight after months of "Darth Vader" hood signals (or no signals) on NS.
The brakeman, kitted out in a full mask for the mill, talks to the engineer as the cut is backed down into Duquesne Yard, and eventually over to the Irvin works for rolling and shaping.
The power backs down to the yard.
The three locos returned light with their shove platform about 15 minutes later and backed down into JET Works again.
Amtrak 42/04T showed up about 12:30, almost 5 hours off its scheduled departure, behind a thoroughbred painted C44-9W with mechanical bell. The engineer, perhaps in a hurry, neglected most of their lights.
The train curves under Braddock Avenue, about to pass under the Union lines.. I said "supposedly" earlier, because one source, an engineer with NS, provided the claim, while another source deep within Amtrak claimed otherwise.
That's my shots for this week, I hope they lift your spirits against the resurgent virus.
