All things Harrisburg (Keystone) Line

brettj22 wrote:What direction are seats facing on the Keystones going into NY? I'm trying to tell a friend what side to sit on so they can see the city as they approach NYC.

Pretty much evenly split: half towards philly and half towards HBG&NYP

Their best bet is to try to sit on the right side leaving 30th St., facing forward. They may need to be right up front when the line forms in the waiting room; then, when boarding begins and they reach the bottom of the stairs, walk fast toward the north end of the train. (This assumes they're boarding at 30th St.; if they're already on board arriving at 30th St. there should be no problem finding a good seat after the Philadelphia crowd gets off.)

ExCon90 wrote:Their best bet is to try to sit on the right side leaving 30th St., facing forward. They may need to be right up front when the line forms in the waiting room; then, when boarding begins and they reach the bottom of the stairs, walk fast toward the north end of the train. (This assumes they're boarding at 30th St.; if they're already on board arriving at 30th St. there should be no problem finding a good seat after the Philadelphia crowd gets off.)

And if they board west of Philly, not only will they find a good seat after the Philly crowd gets off, remind them to change directions they are facing as well, since the train will leave 30th Street the same way it came in. Best way to sum up is grab a left-hand seat facing backwards if boarding west of Philly.... then you are all set to go.

She's getting on a Lancaster, so it sounds like backwards facing out of Lancaster on the right side of the train will get them the view of NYC as it comes in? (I always rode the Pennsylvanian so the seats only faced one way...)

brettj22 wrote:She's getting on a Lancaster, so it sounds like backwards facing out of Lancaster on the right side of the train will get them the view of NYC as it comes in? (I always rode the Pennsylvanian so the seats only faced one way...)

She'll need to be backwards on the left side of the train out of Lancaster, that way she will be forwards on the right side leaving Philly, and after Newark, you get the view of Midtown and lower Manhattan crossing the Meadows.

Ahhh thank you for keeping my spatial relations in check!

From Progressive Railroading, news of record ridership!

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/p ... p?id=27510

Amtrak’s Keystone service between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa., set a ridership record of 1.33 million trips for the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT). Ridership rose 5 percent compared with FY2010’s 1.27 million trips.

I look forward to seeing how much ridership on the line increases when the top speed goes from 110 to 125 mph.

Someone on facebook told me that Amtrak is going upgrade or have a replacement for the interlocking (I forget which he told me). I was down there this past Saturday watching them switch the westbound trains switch over. Between runs I checked out mp 54.5 to see if they installed the distant signals for Leaman. The old ones are still there and I'm wondering now if Amtrak is going to upgrade it for 45mph. I doubt Amtrak will build a new somewhere else like they did with Park and the work they already did with Leaman.

Here is the video I recorded.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-m012IfVB0

Wow, 30 MPH crossovers in proposed 125 MAS territory. Not good. Are there plans for 80 MPH crossovers ?

why do the trains crossover ???

David Benton wrote:why do the trains crossover ???

They were doing work at Park Interlocking in Atglen.

Looks like PennDOT/Plan The Keystone are seeking public input on the Downingtown Station Project. I remember reading that PA was looking at upgrading this station. Has a decision been made, or is this part of the decision-making process?

http://planthekeystone.typepad.com/plan ... nput-.html

Great catch on the Slow Approach at LEAMAN. Try to round that out with an Approach Slow on one of the distant signals.

LEAMAN will not be upgraded to Limited speed because they would have done it already when they changed the crossover to concrete ties and the signaling from TBS to an interlocking. It will stay a 15mph Slow Speed crossover for the foreseeable future. Also upgrading the line to 125 will only save a coupe of minutes of the trip won't increase ridership significantly. That is why I doubt they will actually do the upgrade least it gets funded through some federal pork project.

I wish I got approach slow on the distant signal. But they are not activated yet. Found a video on youtube of them. I thought the eastern distant signals will be at MP 54.5. They are at 55.3.