West of Harrisburg PA Railfan Guide - Railroad Signals of the US

RAILROAD SIGNALS of the U.S.

WEST OF HARRISBURG PA
Railfan Guide
the ex-Pennsy mainline between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh

This map of the tracks heading west out of Harrisburg is usable by any railfan, but is aimed towards the signal fan who wants to go out and capture the Pennsy PL signals before Norfolk Southern decides to replace them with colorlights. Anyone with pictures at these locations are encouraged to send them in. Credit is always given.

More info on the southern area of this map are given on the Harrisburg and Rockville Bridge pages, listed below.

Maps and aerial photos are from Google Maps, which does the best job of covering the area once outside the Birds Eye view on Bing's Maps.

My map below is also here as a PDF.

Harrisburg to Pittsburgh - the Pennsy Main Line:
I'm working on a set of maps to cover the entire line from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh....
the Harrisburg area
the Rockville Bridge
Harrisburg West - to Macedonia - your on this page now!
Mt Union East - to Macedonia
the East Broad Top RR
Altoona East - to Mt Union
Altoona
Altoona West - to South Fork

Getting Here:

Getting to Harrisburg is easy, for it is conveniently located off of I81, I83, and I76 - the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

To follow the main line west out of Harrisburg, it's a simple drive up the west side of the Susquehanna on US15/11. If you want to bypass all of the stuff on the west coast, you can take US322 on the east side of the river up to Duncannon, where you can jump off and follow the mainline.

From the south via I81, as in Hagerstown MD or Roanoke VA, I would get off at exit 65 and either start at the Rockville Bridge or Enola. Coming up from the south via I95, you would have to go thru DC and Baltimore, and then take I83 bnorth from the Beltway, thru York, and then eventually Harrisburg.

From the north, you can come down I81 from the likes of Wilkes-Barre (exit 170) and Scranton (exit 185 to dntn), and Syracuse. I81 would also be the funnel into Harrisburg from Buffalo and Albany.

I78 is only 20 miles to the east, and is the portal from the Allentown area and NYC. You can also take the PA Turnpike from the Philly area and New Jersey.

Roanoke is about 4hrs away (exit 125 in VA), Hagerstown is less then an hour away (exit 6 in MD), Scranton about two hours, Allentown maybe a little over an hour, Pittsburgh about 3 - 3 1/2 hours, and Philly is about 2 1/2 hours.

The aerial shots come from www.maps.live.com (now www.bing.com/maps ), in their "birds eye" view.... great resource!!!

If you have any additional info you would like to share with the rest of us, it would be greatly appreciated.... please email me

Security:

In these post 911 days, the railroads are always watching out for terrorists. We, unfortunately, fall into the suspect category and are always being plagued and harassed by the railroad police unnecessarily. Stay on public property, I can't emphasize this enough, and try to be civil to the railroad cops if they do come around. BUT, and here's the big one, NS cops in Harrisburg just tried to tell a friend of mine last week, Feb 2010, that he couldn't take pictures of Enola from the US15 "overlook". If it wasn't for the fact that my buddy personally knows the chief of police, and he came onsite to help my buddy chase off the NS cops, they would probably still be there arguing.

1 This is the first set of signals north of the Rockville Bridge

4 Even though these signals in Duncannon are close to the bridge, there's no easy way to get in there to get close to them without a lot of hiking. On the right is a snapshot of the exchange between US22 and US15.