From Washington PA to Altoona, PA

We discovered that the Ligoneer train museum was on our way to Altoona, so we took a slight detour and stopped to see this depot.   As luck would have it, they had received a gift of $$, so Wednesday, August 24 everyone got in free.   There had been a big article on it in the local paper, so the docents were busy explaining the purpose of the train route and we toured the ground and learned more about railroad signals.   We were there about an hour, and then proceeded on our way to Altoona.

Altoona was a busy railroad hub, and the Pennsylvania Railroad had built a huge roundhouse and repair shop here and at it's busiest employed 18,000 people.  We went to the Railroader's Memorial Museum which is located in one of the Altoona PRR shops.   The shops built 6000 engines while it was in operation and repaired thousands more.   We watched several short films on the Era of Steam and one on the birth of the Horseshoe Curve.  The Museum had 3 floors .   On Second we learned about the various shops at the location and also about the various ethnic neighborhoods that existed.  The third floor had displays about disasters on the rails, and a hands on laboratory that took us through several tests that were done here.   We also learned about the reasons for the decline in railroading in the 1950's.   We went across the yard and walked through the roundhouse portion that was open to us.  

After lunch we drove out to the Horseshoe Curve which opened in 1854.   It revolutionized rail travel and cleared the way for westward expansion of the railroad.    It has been declared a National Historic Landmark.   Unfortunately the funicular was hit by lightning a few weeks ago so Jack and I trudged up the 194 stops to the tracks to view the trains passing on the curve.   It was definitely worth the climb.   Of special interest is the fact that the huge hill filled in a section of valley so that trains could travel from one mountain to the next and it was filled in BY HAND.   The workers used picks, shovels and wheelbarrows to haul the dirt up to build the incline.  

Friday we drove to Johnstown, PA to see the museum of the Great Flood of 1889.   Rain fell heavily for two days and on May 31 rising water from the lake broke through the South Fork Dam sending 20 million gallons of water down through the valley destroying everything in it's path.  It literally swept the town away.   When it was over, 2,209 people were dead.  It was the worst national disaster of the 19th century.   Clara Barton and her American Red Cross provided the first disaster relieve effort of the American Red Cross.