Remarks: I wondered what trip number, over the mountain, this was for these tired dash-8 soldiers still wearing Conrail blue as they worked past the brickyard and under the Pennsy position lights at MP 238. The sight reminded me of my childhood and how I lived to spend time at the Brickyard with my father. Growing up in Connecticut, trips to the Brickyard did not come often, and came only when we went to Altoona to visit family on my mom’s side. Conrail dash-8’s were a common sight then, and the Pennsy lights began symbolizing, to me, the Brickyard and the time I spent there with dad. Unfortunately, those days slowly came to an end when I was in high school. Now, he is very busy authoring text books back in Connecticut, and I am going to college in Pennsylvania. I still make it out to the tracks whenever I get a chance, but each and every time I get out to see trains, I wish dad was right there with me.
