Altoona, still a railroad town

Altoona has been an important railroad town since it was founded by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1849. Even the RV park had a railroad theme.

A major tourist attraction is Horseshoe Curve. Completed in 1854, rail fans have been visiting it ever since. The curve is a tight arc of approximately 220 degrees with a radius tightening to nearly 600 feet. It is still a major east-west rail line, now owned by Norfolk Southern Railway.

The curve was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1966. There is a park, visitors center and a small funicular railway to save climbing the hundreds of steps up from the parking lot.

Later we went to the Railroaders Memorial Museum in downtown Altoona. Located in the former Master Mechanics Building of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Altoona Works. The Altoona Works were once the largest railroad shop complex in the world. A total of 6,783 steam, diesel and electric locomotives were manufactured in Altoona between 1866 and 1946

The museum is unique in that it focuses on the railroaders, not the equipment. Exhibits demonstrate life in Altoona and “working on the railroad.”

The next day we went west of Horseshoe Curve, where the old Pennsylvania Railroad main line crosses the summit of the Allegany Mountains through a set a tunnels.

These tunnels have long been a popular train watching spot.

The Allegheny Tunnel, the original 1854 bore, was rebuilt in 1993 to provide clearance for “double-stack” container trains.