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Greetings! Welcome back to the Midweek Photos thread.  As the world is slowly re-opening to business, I am also returning to work, and seeing some more of the real world of railroading.  I hope that all of you reading this have stayed healthy, and that goes for your family members as well.  Today was rather interesting, as we are preparing for Steamtown National Historic Site's re-opening.  We have been closed to the public since March 17, and we are looking at how we can follow CDC guidelines to make the facility as user-friendly in the coming months as possible.  

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It was a fun mix of power to watch today.  F3 no. 664, in Lackawanna Railroad markings, but originally for the Bangor & Aroostook, waits near the turntable to help in moving some of the museum pieces around.  

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The yellow track-mobile pulls the 1935 EMC switcher no. 426 onto the turntable, for placement in the roundhouse.  For at least part of the season, this diesel will be displayed with caboose no. 889. Both of these pieces are genuine Delaware Lackawanna & Western. The caboose was built in 1952 in Scranton at what was called the Keyser Valley Shops. 

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No. 889 was sitting only a few tracks away from another local celebrity, Erie Railroad caboose no. C191.  This privately owned caboose is still in the colors of her most recent painting in 1974, when she was painted in Meadville,  PA during the Erie Lackawanna days.  This caboose was built in Dunmore car shops of the Erie, about 2 miles from Steamtown. 

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After re-assembling Baldwin no. 26, following an annual inspection, she was brought on the turntable to go to rest in her stall of no. 18 in the roundhouse.  Until this afternoon, she has been in two pieces since late 2019.  Things are coming together. 

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Caboose no. 889 is being placed in the roundhouse to be a display along with the EMC no.  426. 

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Afte a while, it was off to moving the Reading FP7 AA set no. 902-903 a bit away from being right next to Reading 4-8-4 no. 2124. 

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Th final move of the day. Pulling Canadian National no. 3254, a 2-8-2 out of the roundhouse for display in the museum complex. 

Thank you for putting up with the delays on my posts.  We have no definite day on when Steamtown will open to the public, or for how long, as the COVID-19 infection rate changes.  If you plan to visit, check out www.nps.gov/stea and search for news releases to find any updates.

If you have been out in the world lately. Anywhere.  Please feel free to use this thread as a way to share some of your images of the railroading life.  We always like to see what you have encountered. 

 

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 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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The power backs down to the yard.

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The three locos returned light with their shove platform about 15 minutes later and backed down into JET Works again.

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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.

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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.

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That's my shots for this week, I hope they lift your spirits against the resurgent virus.

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Last edited by pittsburghrailfan

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