Track Work

Within hours after my last blog entry I had laid down both sets of mainlines through Juniata. I believe it took about two hours to get all four tracks another fifteen feet to the west end of the yard....

Juniata Looking West

Juniata Looking East

Juniata West End

The next day I was able to put six hours in, but still only made fifteen feet. The west end of Juniata yard leads into Altoona proper and the interlocking at ALTO. While I was able to do away with crossovers on the east end by recreating the "flyunder" at HOMER I didn't want to try the same trick here. The city setting in this area demanded a reasonably level landscape. It took a while to work out crossovers that would effectively handle the traffic. I tried a few different track arrangements...

Early Version of ALTO Interlocking

I finally came up with one that would work, allowing trains to travel to their designated tracks with the least congestion. I then staged some equipment to illustrate the traffic flow...

Traffic Flow Through ALTO

In the overhead view above the two passenger trains have to move to and from Tracks 2 and 3 onto the two "bypass" tracks at the right of the image. These tracks run through the Altoona station area and past Juniata yard. At the same time westbound freight trains (the steamer at the right) have to move from the yard onto Track 4 by crossing over both passenger mains. Eastbound freights, like the four unit diesel and cabin at the bottom of the photo, stay on Track 1 the entire length of the layout. Since passenger trains are superior, the westbound freight traffic has to wait for those trains to clear before passing through the interlocking.

With that all straightened out, trackwork went a lot faster. While I had to a take a break to fetch some more rail joiners (hard to come by these days) I did managed to get all the way to KN and the east side of Horseshoe before calling it a day....

East of Brickyard. Looking Back Through ALTO

West of Brickyard Looking Through SLOPE towards Wikes

West of Wikes Looking from McGarvey toward KN and Horseshoe

Tomorrow (hopefully) work continues around The Curve and onward into Bennington. If I can keep the pace up all four tracks will be finished through Gallitzin and the upper approach to the helix This coming week.

Regards,

Frank Musick

Chief Cook and Bottle Washer

Allegheny Eastern Railroad