Horseshoe Curve and the Norfolk Southern Railroad

By Warren L. Kennedy, O.D.

Two years ago I traveled to Pennsylvania to celebrate my father’s 90th

birthday. After the party

it was time to chase trains, both full size and model. It has been said that 70% of the toy trains

sold in the United States were sold in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Rarely can one

find decent toy trains in antique shops on the West Coast. However, it appears that they are

more readily available in the stores in the Pennsylvania area and usually at somewhat more

reasonable prices compared to the overpriced, rusty treasures found in California.

Not only does Pennsylvania contain the National Toy Train Museum in Strasburg but just down

the road is the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania containing over 100 historic locomotives and

railroad cars.

Located within a few miles of Strasburg you will find:

The Choo Choo Barn: With 22 model trains running on a layout simultaneously.

The Strasburg Railway: A 45-minute ride to Paradise, PA aboard America's oldest short-

line railroad.

Strasburg Train Shop: Everything for model railroaders – specializing in detail parts and

scenery.

The Red Caboose Motel where you can spend the night in a caboose decorated with the

logos of your favorite railroad

The Red Caboose Motel

Elsewhere in the state you can visit the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, Steam Town National

Historic Site, the Lincoln Train Museum in Gettysburg, the Railroaders Memorial Museum in

Altoona and nearby Horseshoe Curve. This is heaven for a rail fan.

While visiting, my cousin asked if I would accompany him to Horseshoe Curve, so off we went

for a day’s drive to Altoona. What a trip. It would seem that there is not a straight road in the

whole state of Pennsylvania. I love curvy roads but this was too much. Still, the destination was

worth the travel.

The Horseshoe Curve opened February 15, 1854 and was engineered by J. Edgar Thompson. It

is located at Kittanning Point, at the base of the Allegheny Mountains. Construction of the

Curve was accomplished by approximately 450 workers, most of whom were Irish immigrants.

Work was done completely by hand and workers were paid 25 cents per hour for a twelve hour

day. The curved track is 2,375 feet long and is a 1.8% grade.

By the year 1900 there were four tracks and up to 168 trains passing per day. These tracks were

run until Conrail removed one track in 1981 due to declining traffic. The traffic today averages

about 68 trains daily, not including the helper engines. Due to the steep incline, helper engines

shuttle back and forth to aid in getting the heavily loaded freight cars over the mountain.

Presently, the trains traversing the Horseshoe Curve are Norfolk Southern consists, of which the

largest percentage are coal trains. The Norfolk Southern has some very formidable ancestors.

These predecessors were three branches all formed in the 1800s; the Norfolk & Western

(founded in 1881), the Southern Railway system (founded in 1894) and the Conrail system

(formed 1976 from the Penn Central). The Penn Central was made up of three railroads; the

Pennsylvania Railroad (1846), the New York Central Railroad (founded in 1831) and the New

York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (NYNH&H, 1872). There is a visitor’s center below the

Curve with a funicular which takes tourists up to the actual tracks. In the hour we were present,

five trains and several helper engines traversed the Horseshoe Curve.

The Funicular

Norfolk Southern freight in the Horseshoe Curve

The Horseshoe Curve was on a list of twelve key industrial sites targeted by eight Nazi

saboteurs, who were dropped off at two sites on the U. S. coast in June, 1942. This Operation

Pastorius targeted an obvious choke point which would have greatly damaged our war efforts

should the Germans had been successful, as war materials would not have been able to move

from coast to coast. Fortunately for the US, the infiltrators ran into problems almost

immediately and were apprehended within two weeks of landing.

Norfolk Southern honored its predecessor railroads during 2012, its 30th anniversary year, by

painting twenty new locomotives in commemorative schemes that reflect the heritage of those

train lines. Each paint scheme was modified to fit contemporary locomotives while staying as

true as possible to the original designs. Norfolk Southern employees in Altoona and

Chattanooga, Tennessee painted GE ES44AC locomotives, while the EMD SD70ACe units were

painted at Progress Rail Services' facility in Muncie, Indiana. The heritage locomotives are now

hauling freight across Norfolk Southern's 20,000-mile, 22-state network.

The 20 Norfolk Southern commemorative engines

Following Norfolk Southern’s lead, Lionel introduces the first group of ten ES44AC heritage

schemes with the locomotives in both powered and non-powered versions. And for each engine,

a matching caboose and freight car are also available. Lionel also has at least 15 of Norfolk

Southern SD70Ace Heritage name engines available on its website.

Here is a picture of the Norfolk Southern SD70ACe commemorating

the Norfolk and Western Railway

This locomotive has all the latest electronics with Lionel’s Legacy Railsounds, Legacy Control

System and Odyssey II System. Essentially, this beauty has all the bells and whistles of a real

train. Meet me at the Train Collectors Association meet in York, PA this year, it will be great

to see the other heritage engines which are available.