E-8 Excursion Report

Staying a couple of nights at the Quality Inn Enola, where I can look out and see the hump from my window. I rode the first excursion at 9AM. Turnout was great...looked like a sellout. The engines were set up as push pull. Run started about 10 minutes behind schedule, as the Harrisburg Terminal Dispatcher had to fit the 'Amtrak Special' in with the busy freight traffic. Apparently this busy traffic on NS resulted in alot of cars in the Enola Yards...The Excursion was originally supposed to run through the Yards to Lemoyne. On the first run, we made it as far as the West Hump, located almost directly across from the Quality Inn. Here we were blocked by a train crossing our path being shoved over the hump, so we had to reverse and head back, to the surprise of many riders on board....Don't know if either of the other two runs got any further then we did.....I photographed the other two runs from the Iron Bridge at Enola, along River Road, and from the Boat launch at Marysville as the train crossed over the Rockville Bridge...all in all, an enjoyable day in spite of the shortened run. Dave Williams @ [email protected]

dwil89 wrote:On the first run, we made it as far as the West Hump, located almost directly across from the Quality Inn. Here we were blocked by a train crossing our path being shoved over the hump, so we had to reverse and head back, to the surprise of many riders on board....

I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same. During my time as trainmaster in Enola, operations were much as you describe pretty much all of the time. If you wanted to move a train, you had to wait until the hump was finished. If you wanted to hump, you wait for a train to move. Yet, system operations expected throughput to be the equivalent of other major terminals that were designed properly (or didn't have super-close track centers, or every other track out of service).

Thankfully I can say I once worked in Enola....

The PA system did not work in our car...Car number 1...The Guide that was on board mentioned that the East Hump was going to be reactivated at Enola...hopefully within the next year or two, to join the West hump currently in operation..Anyone else hear anything on this...this is the first I've heard of it...Dave Williams @ [email protected]

I was wearing Black pants and black t shirt with a maroon plaid flannel shirt, and black cap with 'Cassandra Railroad Overlook" on it...I was shooting the 12 Noon from the Iron Bridge at Enola.....I was at the Harrisburg Station from 8AM until about 11AM though good part of that was riding the 9AM run...shot alot around the station after the first run returned....Dave Williams@ [email protected]