JR, pretty much covered ROSE in his post above this one. This was the bridge that I made mention to in one of the posts that is a few blocks to the east (railroad east) of Juniata.
As for the police. NS has two cops in the Altoona area, and they do not take kindly to tresspassing, but for the most part if you use your head you won't have a problem. If you do happen to run into one of the NS cops and you aren't doing anything stupid they aren't that bad, and they are sort of railfans themselves, although they won't let on to this at first. Most of the encounters that I have heard with them is that they will ask you to leave NS property. Just be respectful. As for the Altoona Police, I don't really know. In my opinion they should be spending their time trying to control the hooligans which seem to run rampant over there these days, but I don't think they are winning that battle. I have never had a problem with them, but then again I haven't spent that much time in downtown Altoona since the aforementioned crowd of delinquents rolled into town. With that pretty much the only place I would foresee having a problem would be the lot across from Alto, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, as long as you are respectful to the NS property, the tower operators are cool with you being there.
As for railfanning by foot to try and help you out I found some areial shots of downtown to give you an idea of what you are going up against. I am just going to put in a link and then give you a description of what you are looking at. Also keep in mind that the pictures are from 1994, so some of the stuff has changed, I'll try to make note of what is different, at least for your needs. Once on the page you can zoom in on the photos and move around for more detail. First up is the area around Alto and the station
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image. ... na%7cpa%7c
In the center of the page there is a four lane over pass crossing the tracks which run from the bottom left corner to the top right corner. This bridge is 17th St. Just to the left of the bridge you can just see Alto on the north side of the tracks, with the Cove secondary curving off towards the bottom of the picture. Beginning at the bottom left corner there is an overpass just at the edge of the picture, this location is Slope. There is a road that parallels the tracks the whole way from Alto to Slope, although it dips up and down from the level of the tracks at spots. Slope is a cool place to shoot stuff coming out of town in the afternoon. Heading the other way from 17th st. you can see the station which is about four blocks up from there. It is directly across the tracks from the museum, of which you can see the equipment parked out side in the photo. You can also see the pedestrian bridge just to the east of the station as well. Since the picture was taken a new ped bridge was built at the station. Also notice that just to the north of the tracks that there is a multilane road that parallels them. There is a sidewalk on the north side of this road. Just east of the ped bridge in the picture you will notice that the road begins to leave the tracks and that there is a parking lot between it and the tracks. You can set up here and get some decent morning light for some eastbounds coming into town. Beyond that to the east you will see a pair of bridges crossing the tracks. They rebuilt these bridges a few years ago and changed the intersection a little bit, but to get to Juniata you want to follow the road up through the goofy looking intersection. At the very top right corner of the shot you can see the Union Tank Car facility. To proceed further east you want to follow the road that runs on the north side of the facility. As for shooting off the bridges, well I haven't been on them since they were rebuilt so I really can't say, you may want to check them out for yourself. On to the next shot.
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image. ... na%7cpa%7c
Here we see part of the yard and also the south west end of the shops. There was a pedestrian bridge that at one point was accessable at one point just east of the UTLX facility. It is visible in the picture about two blocks east from the double bridges. This is also where the yard begins to fan out toward the south east. I don't know if you can still get on this bridge or not, but when you could it was a cool shot down into the yard, especially in the afternoon and evening hours. Continuing railroad east, north east geographically, you will begin to pass some of the shop buildings. The road runs along the north west edge of the facility here and there is fence the whole way. However you can shoot through the fence in many places or even over it at some. Through here they often park junk equipment. Most often there are a bunch of old Conrail Trailvan trailers, some old locos and cars, most missing a healthy dose of parts. Towards the top center of the shot there is a long skinny building out near the road. This is where the executive train is kept when not in use. Everyonce in a while they leave one of the doors open on the north east end of the building and you can get a peak inside, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Also of note here is that the road goes up on a hill and you will be looking down into the shops. Next pic.
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image. ... na%7cpa%7c
Here we see the heart of the shops. Again the road that you will be on runs along the north west edge of the facility and there isn't a whole lot to see once you get past the shop entrance, which in the picture is about 3 blocks up from the end of the executive building where the shop buildings form a gap that makes for an opening from the road to the tracks. Just before you reach the entrance there are a couple of tracks that sit out next to the road. They often park wrecked units here, or stuff that is stripped down for a rebuild. They also store traction motors wheels and various other parts here, usually something interesting to look at. Once you get past the entrance you can't see anything until you get to the end of the last building where you will be able to see the turntable. This is visible just to the north east of the large light gray building. To the north of this there is a Sheetz convenience store and you can shoot from there parking lot. Also a good place to stop and get something to eat. There is a fence surrounding the turntable area, however it is an old metal rod fence and it is a piece of cake to shoot through the bars, it's almost like it isn't even there. At the north east edge of the turntable you will see a street that runs perpendicular to the tracks. This is also another great spot to shoot from as you are about 15 ft from the edge of the table. Back here you will often see units in various states of dissassembly and also various parts off of locos. Another thing to look for here is NS 1000 which is the load test unit for the shops. It is an old Erie Lackawanna SD45 which is missing the center portion of its long hood. It is repainted in the new horsehead scheme now and looks quite presentable considering the fact that part of the hood is gone! When you are done here, go back out to the main road and head north east two blocks to the bridge which is visible in the picture. This is the bridge that crosses by the Rose yard office. The old yard with the stored euipment is visible in the picture to the south east of the main line, it looks darker in the picture than the active yard.
As for food, well I can't really help you much there. Sheetz is a good bet if you want to get something fast, there is one on 17th street two blocks south of the tracks and there is also the one by the shops. Other than that there is a puke-Donalds located in the shopping center next to the museum. I don't really know about downtown though, again due to my avoidance of the area.
I hope this gives you a better idea of what you are up against here, and again I wish you the best of luck and any other questions keep them coming.
Scooter
