Out On The Town #15253

The Story

With a backlight of dark blue pre-dawn skies filled with clouds, Everett Railroad #11 waits for departure with yet another train into The Cove and Martinsburg. The powerful headlight shines a long narrow beam down the track and the fallen oak leaves have gathered along the ties. Some of the old buildings in the town of Hollidaysburg can be seen in the distance, lit up by streetlights. The gleaming metal of the steam locomotive’s drive rods reflects in the near lights of the station platform, and light steam wafts upward around the engine.

In these times, the old steam engines have been long gone, gone since the mid-1950s which is approaching 75 years ago. It’s an amazing thing to stand next to such simmering, hissing, and breathing machines and smell smoke and fire as happened here. Soon the engineer will ease the throttle, those wheels will turn, and that sharp loud steam whistle will announce to the world that steam trains do indeed live on. There are still a few left out there that evaded the scrap yards, restored machines with heart who also have their great caretakers who keep them running.

On this day, Everett Railroad #11 will soon be pulling a short train of vintage railroad cars and one passenger car filled with railroad steam train enthusiasts such as myself. But there are plenty of opportunities to ride this train on your own as the Everett Railroad offers many themed excursions throughout the year through some beautiful central Pennsylvania countryside. All the rides leave their new and nicely done station and platform in Hollidaysburg PA which has plenty of parking. Go have some fun and don’t forget the Santa trains around Christmas!

If you’d like to see and read more about this historical little train, check out my entire Everett Railroad gallery.

Click on this Everett Railroad link for a full schedule on their website. Even the well-done looped video of the train running on the website is interesting and fun to watch.

Location: near Hollidaysburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania. Picture and story © Andrew Dierks