Harrisburg PA Railfan Guide - Railroad Signals of the US

RAILROAD SIGNALS of the U.S.

HARRISBURG PA
Railfan Guide

Rockville Bridge
Enola Yard
Harrisburg Yard
Harris Tower
the Amtrak Station and GG1 #4859
Rutherford Yard
the Camp Hill Depot
Capital Tower
the Other Bridges
the PA Capitol Building
Signals
Amtrak Schedules

Upcoming: the PRRT&HS Annual Meeting
will be held in Camp Hill on May 17-20th, 2012
For more info, check out: http://2012.pennsyrr.com/index.php

Harrisburg is a "compact" railfan town, with most sights you'll want to see not much more than 20 minutes or so away from each other during non-peak hours. Even during the rush hour traffic, it seems to move along better than most other cities. The worst traffic I came across was in leaving Marysville around 6pm, and there was a one mile backup at the I81/I83 interchange going EB, but it was a rolling backup, not really stopping much.

Please be patient, there is a lot on this page to download. There are over 200 pictures, and even tho most of them are thumbnails, it's still a lot.

Since my main thing is signals, I'm going to touch on them slightly first.... pictures of most of the signals in Harrisburg and Camp Hill are towards the bottom of this page. Harrisburg is smack dab in the middle of Pennsy PL (Position Light) signal territory, yet, you can find searchlight signals, a lone "tri-light" signal, and the newer color light installations where PL's and Reading searchlights have been replaced. Missing though are the Pedestal signals which you find around the Philadelphia and Baltimore stations, altho a few miles north of Harrisburg (ok, maybe 15 miles) across from Duncannon (where 22 crosses the river), you will come across the much coveted "red-eye" pedestals. A 45 mile drive to the north will also take you to Northumberland, where the most unique of all Pennsy PL signals exist. There are pix of these treasures on my Pennsy PL Page. If you go there, I also suggest grabbing lunch or dinner at the train station restaurant.

Now that everything going through Harrisburg is Norfolk Southern or an occasional Amtrak, railfanning isn't as much fun as it used to be since the early Conrail days. The Pennsy used to have most of the action around here, with it's Enola and Harrisburg yards.

Rails radiate from Harrisburg and head to: Pittsburgh to the west, Baltimore to the south via the Port Road and then Amtrak's NEC at Perryville, York to the south, Hagerstown to the southwest, Reading and Lancaster to the east (and onto Allentown (via the Reading) and Philadelphia (via the Pennsy)), and Buffalo to the northwest, via Williamsport. Amtrak shoots through on the old Pennsy's Pittsburgh Line, coming from Philadelphia via Lancaster (pronounced LANG-kes-ter).

The best of the three yards, without a doubt, is Enola. Pictures of yard action is easy from US15, which overlooks much of the yard. If you come off of I81 from the east, you can also manage to get freights at the very north end of the yard. Enola was on the western end of Pennsy's electric service, and was reportedly the largest classification yard on the Pennsy at one time. The Penn Central continued using Enola in full force, electrics included. Once Conrail took over, they slowly scaled back the operations there, and killed electric service in 1982 :-(

We didn't see it the other day, but a fellow at the Marysville bed-n-breakfast told us of engine #999, which is ALL electric, being chock full of batteries instead of a prime mover. If you see a black and green engine in the yard, that's it!... Update October 2011.... the engine was last seen in Altoona at the Juniata Shops... check out my Altoona page for pix.

Harrisburg and Rutherford are much harder to shoot because there just isn't much in the way of good access... I don't usually waste much time except at the north end of the Harrisburg yard, cause there just isn't any easy access to the tracks without getting into trouble.

The Reading use to come into Rutherford yard, a little to the east of downtown. It used to be a classification yard for the Reading. Conrail pretty much abandoned the yard, but under Norfolk Southern rule, it has been reconfigured as an intermodal / railroader yard. More railfanning info down where the pictures are below.

The downtown area around the depot offers a variety of interesting places for photos... take your pick on either the north or south side.

Only one of the bridges crossing the Susquehanna in the downtown area has track on it anymore, the other one has a short tail track going out on it a couple hundred feet used in turning trains around.

The old Northern Central line to York and Baltimore cuts off a couple of miles to the south of these two bridges on the western shore, but since hurricane Agnes came thru in 1972, thru freights haven't seen the tracks - they now go down the Port Road on the east side of the river, and gets into Baltimore via Perryville MD. NS does go down as far as York, but as far as the NC is concerned, nothing has been down that "branch" since the Stewartstown stopped serving a lumber yard and the NC Dinner train stopped running back in 1999 (or so).

Gone are the GG1, E-33 and E-44 electrics, but remnants of the service are evident all over the place, especially on the Enola side.

As far as the Rockville bridge is concerned, you can good shots from either end, but it's a little easier from the east side only because it's easier to park. There is also a fishing place on the western shore just south of the bridge, where you can rent boats by the half day... Never mind, someone just told me it has been turned into a Bed n Breakfast... :-(

US15 follows the R-O-W up the west side for quite some distance, and there are many opportunities for action along the way. US22 on the other side of the river also follows the tracks well, but it is a high speed highway, with few places to pull over and shoot.

When you are downtown, don't forget to visit the restored Harris Tower, which opened to the public in 2008. It is usually open on Saturdays, May thru October. I believe the hours are 10 to 3, but make sure you get there well before the closing time, as it is run by volunteers.

The parking lot adjacent to the tower is also a good spot for railfanning, with freights coming by with a fair bit of regularity and the areas only searchlight signals.

Notice the absence of anything about the Steelton and Highspire RR, which is/was one of Bethlehem Steel's railroads. The last time I went down that way, I didn't see anything running around, and I can't find much reference to them on the internet. I'll have to try the phone number I found for them... stay tuned.

Harrisburg to Pittsburgh - the Pennsy Main Line:
I'm working on a set of maps to cover the entire line from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh....
Harrisburg area - your on this page now!
the Rockville Bridge
Harrisburg West - to Macedonia
Mt Union East - to Macedonia
the East Broad Top RR
Altoona East - to Mt Union
Altoona
Altoona West - to South Fork
All of the above maps are in one PDF file here.

Getting Here:

Harrisburg is conveniently located off of I81, I83, and I76 - the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

I81 to the south will take you to Hagerstown MD and Roanoke VA - home to the ole Norfolk and Western (good railfanning city!). Running "north", I81 runs almost due east from Harrisburg, where it joins up with I78 (at exit 89), then goes north to Wilkes-Barre (exit 170) and Scranton (exit 185 to dntn) where you'll find Steamtown!

I78 is only 20 miles to the east and will take you to Allentown (exit 57) and Bethlehem PA (exit 67), and then on to NYC. In getting to I78, you will pass the home of Hershey's Chocolate (exit 77) and the Hershey Amusement Park! About halfway to Allentown you will go by the northern end of the Blue Mountain and Reading in Hamburg (exit 29).

Roanoke is about 4hrs away (exit 125 in VA), Hagerstown is less then an hour away (exit 6 in MD), Scranton about two hours, Allentown maybe a little over an hour, Pittsburgh about 3 - 3 1/2 hours, and Philly is about 2 1/2 hours.

The aerial shots come from www.maps.live.com (now www.bing.com/maps ), in their "birds eye" view.... great resource!!!

If you have any additional info you would like to share with the rest of us, it would be greatly appreciated.... please email me

Some resources I've come across for the area:
     http://www.railfanusa.com/pics/ns_harrisburg.html
     http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/Rail/Prr/Fan/guide_lancaster.html
     http://www.trainweb.org/eastpenn/harris.html
     http://www.thebluecomet.com/pcenola.html
     http://nepa.railfan.net/
     http://www.railroad.net/articles/railfanning/yorkpa/index.php
     http://www.parailfan.com/Gallery/index.php
     http://www.frograil.com/tours/ns/NSWyoHbg.htm
     http://www.stvinc.com/project.aspx?id=264
     http://www.railfanreading.com/FallenFlags/Rutherford.htm
     http://thecrhs.org/?q=ConrailFacilities/Yards

Security:

In these post 911 days, the railroads are always watching out for terrorists. We, unfortunately, fall into the suspect category and are always being plagued and harassed by the railroad police unnecessarily. Stay on public property, I can't emphasize this enough, and try to be civil to the railroad cops if they do come around. BUT, and here's the big one, NS cops in Harrisburg told a friend of mine back in February 2010, that he couldn't take pictures of Enola from the US15 "overlook". If it wasn't for the fact that my buddy personally knows the chief of police, and he came onsite to help my buddy chase off the NS cops, they would probably still be there arguing. This one is for Tom K who said I wasn't justified for badmouthing the NS on one of my other pages.

The above map is available here as a PDF.

Conrail's Map of the Harrisburg Area

1 Rockville Bridge
Probably the most scenic spot around for pictures. The lower set is from the east coast off N. Front St. In the upper set is an Amtrak train heading to Altoona and Pittsburgh, and the next full signal bridge north of the Rockville bridge. The foggy pix are from my trip up the other day... the fog didn't burn off till 10:30 :-( On the bottom row are some shots from later in the day on the east side, around 5pm, when activity was pretty good. The last two on the right are from the bed-n-breakfast on the west coast around 10am before the fog went away.

2 Enola Yard
A few shots of the more exciting places to take pictures. You can park at one of the fast food restaurants at the top of the "hill" for access to pretty good pictures from that vantage point. There is also the lot of a former used car dealer a little further north, which affords good views of the northern end, where hump action and the yard office can be seen. The second row of pictures are taken from the very "top" end of the yard (on the north side of I81), from the River Rd overpass, where they have been nice enough to put in viewing holes in the fence - the Conrail Historical Society had also placed an info box on the one side of the bridge, which, when we were there, had some large postcard size info cards -- many thanks to them for this effort! The fog had not yet burned off completely in the third row of pictures. The forth row of pictures is from the used car dealer parking lot. The three photos on the 4th row are taken at the entrance to the yard -- being Norfolk Southern, the cops are not very nice, so please don't go into the yard, I'm not available to bail you out of jail. Pictures on the bottom row are taken at the very south end of the yard, and remnants of the electric service are still evident.

3 Harrisburg Yard
There are not many opportunities to shoot Harrisburg Yard. One of the few places is adjacent to the volunteer fire company just south of the I81 overpass. Another is at the end of Division St, adjacent to a shopping center. The aerial photo to the right of the map (which is of the northern end of the yard), shows a parking lot next to Herr St, where you can get good shots of trains, and is adjacent to the only signal bridge in town with searchlights on it. Make sure you get pictures of them before they get replaced!!!

4 Harris Tower
Just north of the Amtrak Depot.... The 3rd photo from the left shows how close the tower and depot are. Also included are pictures of the impressive "Soldiers and Sailors" monuments at the end of the State St. bridge, which, if you are coming towards the Capitol Building, frame the building very nicely. During the weekday, the lot adjacent to the tower is used for state employee parking, so let it be said that if you park there, you have been warned. Also viewable from the parking lot, and up on the bridge, are the area's only searchlight signals.

Here's a link to webcam files at the Harris Tower: http://www.trainorders.com/cameras/harrisburg/

Shots from the parking lot.

5 The Amtrak station
A former Pennsylvania Railroad depot. Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 #4859 and Pennsy N6b caboose #980016 are still located down on the tracks, although they sure would like to get rid of it from down there! The scuttlebut is that they are talking to the Harris Tower folks to see if the thing can moved down there, although I would imagine that would entail building a siding to move it there since the tracks in front of the tower are all currently used. Access to them is not open unless you go to the Amtrak Customer Service office and nicely ask if you can go down to the platform. If you do go in and ask, they will require you to NOT climb on the equipment and STAY on the platform. Failure to follow this could result in the management revoking the privilege for ALL OF US. It might not be a bad idea after you go down and take pictures, to stop by the office one more time and thank them again, good PR goes a long way. The management of the station is divided between Amtrak, and a private management company. The private company manages the building, and the areas not used by Amtrak. Everyone I ran into the other day was nice, in fact, the Amtrak cop didn't hassle us while taking pictures of the interior. The right picture on the 2nd row is of the WB Pennsylvanian coming into the station, which was only 3 minutes late!

6 Rutherford Yard.
Some good pictures may be had from Dexter St on the north side of the yard, from the Milroy overpass on the east end of the yard, the 63rd St overpass - kinda in the middle of the yard, Grayson Rd on the west end of the yard, or the 40th St overpass on the west approach to the yard. The pictures below are from 63rd St, viewed as you walk from the south side, where you can park in the shopping center off Grayson. The fence is tightly knit, as can be seen in the photo below, but there are a couple of places at foot level for the rain to exit where you can shoot from if you really see anything interesting. The thru tracks are on the north side, or, in the photo all the way to the right -- there is a set of WB signals way far in the distance.

East of the yard, on the way to Reading, Pleasant View Rd goes under the tracks, so forget it here.... Overview Rd is a fairly good crossing with a slight curve.... Old Farm Rd also has a crossing with fairly good sight lines.... and N Duke St has a crossing with straight track... that should get you started. These are easy to get to via Paxton St (US322) and Bridge St from the downtown area - I83, after it passes thru Harrisburg proper, turns into US322 as I83 takes a hard left to head up to I81.

7 the Ex Reading Depot in Camp Hill.
It's on South 18th St, just off Hummel Ave. There is also a set of pedestrian crossing gates here too. It's easy to get to from Enola by coming down US15 till you can't go any further on South Front St, and taking a right onto Market St, then taking a left onto 17th and taking it to Hummel. 18th street will be just off to your right...... From downtown, take the Market Street bridge over..... From the south, as in coming up I83, take the hard right exit ramp from 83 to the Harrisburg Expressway like your heading into Harrisburg, but take the first exit dropping you off on Lowther St and hang a right, it will merge onto Carlisle Road, and 18th Street will soon be on your right... take it up to the depot.
More Reading info and pictures from the pre-Conrail days here

8 Capitol Tower
Located at the wye, just south of the Amtrak Station. It's not accessible. Plenty of signals tho :-) The picture I took was taken from the Mulberry St overpass. The bridge has a solid protection fence over the Philly line because of the 25kV below you.

9 the Other Bridges
There are two other bridges in Harrisburg proper. One is the ex Reading bridge, and is still in use with two tracks going over it, coming off the above wye. The other bridge, slightly to the north, was used by the Pennsy, and no longer has tracks going over the whole bridge. There is a small tail track coming off the wye adjacent to the Amtrak station, used to turn trains around.

This is the Pennsy bridge, picture on the right is the western shore over the Port Road.

The Reading bridge.

The piers to the left of the Reading bridge, and below, are from another attempt to cross the Susquehanna around 1884, as noted on Wikimapia: The South Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge would have carried the South Pennsylvania Railroad rail lines across the Susquehanna River between Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Work began on the South Penn and was abruptly halted by banker J. P. Morgan in 1885 when he called a truce in the railroad wars that threatened to undermine investor confidence in the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads. Eight piers still rise from the water at the west side of the river near the current location of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Bridge.

10 the Pennsylvania Capitol Building
The left photo shows you how close the Capitol Building is to the Harris Tower and the tracks.

A Personal Favorite.
I don't usually push commercial enterprises, but this one I feel compelled to. Being Italian, I grew up with some of the best food ever made, pastries were no exception. The Pennsylvania Bakery, at 1713 Market St is absolutely fantastic. I was turned onto this place a number of years ago by my friend Phil who lives in Harrisburg. The bakery is not all that far away from the Radisson Hotel on the Camp Hill Bypass, and if you are going to visit the Camp Hill depot, it is on the way!!!

SIGNALS

1 SW, Lemoyne, Stella Ave
A Set of SB Signals on a Signal Bridge along with a grade crossing and over height detector. South of here, there is a crossover, and it goes from two to three tracks.

2 SW, Lemoyne, Walnut St
The signal here is not easily found or seen, it is a single mast mounted signal for the middle NB track.

3 SW, Camp Hill, Hummel St
The EB and WB signals are located several blocks away from each other, with fair access from various parking lots of commercial business'. Dart Vader style color lights replace the Reading searchlights, and have simple number plates such as 2W and 1E.

The westbound signal.

The eastbound signal.

In between the two signals is a storage area, and this (I think) ex Reading building and Pennsy N5b caboose.

3a SW, Lemoyne, Market and South 3rd
Not on the current map, but at the location where the Pennsy used to cross the river and interchange with the Port Road, sits this lone "tri-light" signal, the only one I am aware of in the Harrisburg area. In the right photo, you can just make out where the Pennsy went on to cross the Susquehanna. Also note the flange lubricator located here.

4 SW, Camp Hill, Hartzdale behind the BJ's
The Reading tracks go from two to one here... gone are the Reading's searchlights, as NS has erected Darth Vader style Safetran color lights at this location.

5 South of Lemoyne, Port Road
Didn't have time for close-ups.

6 South of Lemoyne, Port Road
Didn't have time for close-ups.

7 North of downtown, Harrisburg Yard, Hurlock St
Didn't have time for close-ups.

8 Downtown, Herr St
This is the only signal bridge in town which sports searchlight signals, unique for the area. Also here is "the end" of the electric service for the Keystone trains, and a couple of bridge abutments (use unknown, but nevertheless, interesting). The signals are GRS. The photo on the right was taken from the State St bridge. I didn't get pix of the mast mounted signals across the way from the bridge, that's for another trip :-(

Now for the history lesson part, which I just learned from the guys at the Yahoo PRR Signaling Group. These signals were installed by Conrail sometime around the 1990 timeframe, when Conrail was split it's CP-HARRIS Operation from the Amtrak HARRIS Tower. Thanks to S Jersey Mike.

9 Downtown, State St and Harris Tower
There are searchlight signals to the north of here, and Pennsy PL signals to the south. Not a bad spot for photos, either from the parking lot adjacent to the tower or from the State St bridge.

NB searchlights under State St, and a couple of dwarf PL's.

Looking down at the above signals from State St.

Looking south towards the station, two on the right from the bridge.

Looking north towards Harrisburg Yard.

A NB searchlight on the north side of State St.

Excessive height detector on the north side of the bridge.

Mass quantities of 25kV insulators north of the station.

9a Downtown, In and Around the Amtrak Station
Most of the signals in the immediate area of the station are either Pennsy PL dwarfs, or color light signals. On the left is a NB freight waiting for the signal, one of two color lights in the area. On the right are three unique installations: a dwarf on one of the bridge abutments, one on a piece of angle iron off a telephone pole, and a couple of vertical crossing lights where a road to a private company has to cross the Philadelphia tracks.

10 Downtown, Around Capitol Tower
Most of the signals around the tower are off limits, except for the one you can get from the Mulberry St overpass, and, unless you have a camera like my Canon SX20 which will do up to x80, or an SLR with a 300mm lens, you won't be able to take good shots from the bridge. This area is unique, for there are TWO wyes right next t o each other; one was for the Pennsy, the other for the Reading. The Pennsy track coming off the wye onto the bridge is only used to turn trains around, and does not cross the entire bridge.

11 Downtown, South of the Amtrak Station, Philadelphia Line
There are at least three locations south of station where a single PL signal is placed on the old cantenary supports. The one I got coming off the NB exit ramp of I83, just after crossing the river. Just past this location, the Reading line goes over you, getting ready to cross the river. I think we're all surprised that the Reading lasted through the Penn Central, Conrail, and now the NS era's!

12 Eastside, ex RDG, 17th St, Interlocking
Ran out of feet and light to get pictures of these signals.

13 Eastside, ex RDG, Derry near Eisenhower/I83, behind cemetery
This cantilever bridge spans three tracks, which is not very common, except for around these here parts! It controls WB traffic coming out of Rutherford Yard into the downtown area. Probably a new Norfolk Southern installation with Darth Vader colorlights.