Spring 2002 NRHS Board of Director's Meeting
ROCKVILLE LIMITED RR TRIP

Saturday & Sunday April 13 & 14, 2002

Saturday Trip Summary

Former Pennsylvania RR Business Car 120 brings up the markers on the trip

Our trip departed the Harrisburg, PA Amtrak Station on Market St. (former Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) station), at 7:30 AM. This trip was somewhat unique in that it is a circle trip, meaning except for the origination station, no other location on the route is visited more than once. The trip commemorated the 100th Anniversary of the construction of the PRR Bridge over the Susquehanna River at Rockville, PA.

The locomotives, PRR 5711A and 5809A are E-8A locomotives, which were last part of the Conrail Business Fleet. They were purchased by Juniata Terminal Company after the breakup of Conrail and subsequently restored to a beautiful PRR livery. 5809 was originally built by General Motor's Electro Motive Division (EMD) for the PRR in 1951; EMD built and deliver the 5711 a year later to PRR. Each locomotive is rated at 2250 horse power, weights 159 tons, can hold 2000 gallons of fuel, and has 660 gallons of lubrication.

The trip route was over the rails formerly owned by the once mighty Pennsylvania Railroad, which touted itself as the "Standard Railroad of the World." Our train departed east towards Philadelphia along Amtrak's Harrisburg to Philadelphia route. As we headed east out of Harrisburg, we rambled past the steel plants along the Susquehanna River before turning east through the beautiful Amish Farm Country of Lancaster County. Then we headed into the suburbs and Philadelphia, running through the 30th Street Station where we entered Amtrak's North-South Northeast Corridor (NEC) after a high-speed trip of about 101 miles.

Upon entering the NEC, the scenery changed drastically as we sailed along the heavily industrialized areas of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. Numerous refineries, automobile, steel, and chemical plants were spotted along the way. At Perryville, after a 59.5 mile trip, we turned right up the "Port Road", so named for the original railroad on the line, the Columbia and Port Deposit (subsequently PRR trackage). The Port Road, which parallels the lower Susquehanna River from Perryville to Harrisburg along the banks of the river, has not seen a regular passenger train since the early days of Amtrak in the 1970's. The Port Road is now owned by Norfolk Southern (NS), which purchased it in the 1999 breakup of Conrail, the 1976 successor to the Penn-Central Corporation, which was the merged produce of the PRR and the New York Central Railroad in 1968. This homeward bound leg of the trip covered 104 additional miles.

The lower Susquehanna Valley is a fairly remote, sparsely populated, but extremely scenic area. Waterfowl, boats, and budding trees were along the way. There were also several tunnels and branch lines (abandoned and current) along the route. The river in this area is not through navigable, and a series of dams and power plants, including Three Mile Island site of the US's most serious Nuclear Power incident in 1979, were spotted along the way.

The first-half of the trip was along the east bank of the River, but at Shocks Mill we crossed over a stone-arch bridge to the West Bank before proceeding on northwest. Just across the river from Harrisburg, we passed slowly through NS's Enola Yard and then swung right across Rockville Bridge. Rockville Bridge, which opened March 30, 1902 as a four-track structure, is the third bridge on this site, which replaced a 1877 steel structure which replaced a single-track wooden bridge. It is 3,860 feet long and fifty-two feet wide, and is the longest stone-arch bridge in the world with 48 arches that carry the railroad 46 feet above the low-water mark of the river. There are 48 arches, 70 feet in length. The structure took two years to build, cost $975,150 dollars to build, and included 220,000 tons of sandstone. A major east-west artery, it has carried many famous train and persons across its deck. Today the bridge is a two-track main of NS's east-west central Pennsylvania mainline, carrying on average 50-60 trains per day.

After crossing the bridge, the train turned right and headed for Harrisburg. After a brief fueling stop our train returned to it's origination point, on-time.

Some special notes about the trip. Coach tickets were $85.00 (including a box-lunch) and First-class was $250.00. First-class accommodations were provided aboard the first two vintage railroad cars, listed below. Lunch (a lunch table setting on the Greenwich Harbor is shown on the right) was included in first-class fare and included Salad, Chicken Valdosta, Turkey Barley Soup, Mixed Vegetables, and desert, in a truly elegant setting.

In addition to comfortable seats, the train had plenty of restrooms, a cafe car (shown left) for snacks, sandwiches, and drinks, and a souvenir sales area.

Passengers aboard the train were provided with a detailed route guide to the trip.

About the private cars:

Trip sponsors:

Train Consist:

LINKS:

Amtrak
Norfolk Southern
Harrisburg Chapter NRHS
Pennsylvania RR Technical & Historical Society Restoration Pages
TrainOrders

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS & VIDEO:

Long View of PRR 5711 & PRR 5809 at Harrisburg

Kitchi Gammi Club Lounge

Greenwich Harbor Lounge

PRR 5711 at Harrisburg

Headlight & Keystone of PRR 5809 viewed from Kitchi Gammi Club Lounge

Harrisburg Train Station (outside shot)

ROCKVILLE LIMITED RAILFAN INFORMATION
(forwarded www.trainorders.com post of PRR 5711)

Tentative Sched. Rockville Limited Author: 5711 This is from Bulletin Order #1 put out by the Personnel Supervisor (me) of the Rockville Express to the Excursion Crew. I based it on fitting in between other train's slots and the pace the 1980 "Farewell to the GG1" did with a little padding. That trip went up the Port Road to Royalton. Oh, by the way, if anyone missed out on a ticket, let it be known that at one point I had a shortage of Car Hosts and got two of them right off this site. The ticket and training window is now closed.

SCHEDULE (tentative), 13 & 14 APRIL 2002

DEPART HARRISBURG 7:30 AM
PASS LANCASTER 8:30 AM
PASS PAOLI 9:40 AM
PASS PHILADELPHIA 10:45 AM (Via 30th St. and behind #89) PASS WILMINGTON 11:20 AM
PASS PERRYVILLE 12:00 PM
PASS COLUMBIA 1:30 PM PASS
SHOCKS MILLS 1:40 PM
PASS ENOLA 2:30 PM
PASS ROCKVILLE 2:40 PM
ARRIVE HARRISBURG 3:00 PM (After the Three Rivers goes West)

There will be no photo stops. This train will be almost impossible to chase. Pick a morning spot on the Harrisburg Line and an and an afternoon spot on the Port Road. By all means be safe and do not trespass on the right of way. The security will be tight on this one and I never fool with the "Dark Horse". The Amtrak Police are no less dedicated.

There are no roads that parallel the Port Road for any distance. The train will stay ahead of you if you try to chase it. I scouted several sites for photos and found few satisfactory. The train will have no photo stops. Pick a favorite spot in the morning and one in the afternoon and wait for it. That's the best bet. The Shocks Mills bridge is inaccessable from either shore (a 10 min. walk down a private drive on the East Shore, North of Marietta and hidden in the trees on the West Shore, South of York Haven). You will need a boat. Also, Safe Harbor is locked up tight and guarded by police with no sense of humor. The sun angle will be bad on the West Shore when the train goes through. The roads are slow in this part of York County. Now the good news. A list follows. These are spots I've used in the past. They are listed in the order that the train will pass them. Pick one as you will not catch up. Departure time: 7:30AM.

Harrisburg to Philly, 1) The area between Steelton and Highspire (milepost 100). View across S&H yard. 2) Hillside on Route 230 opposite the airport and near the entrance to Penn State Capitol Campus. 3) The curve at Middletown. Old Fox's Market Parking lot or the "Amshack" one block east. 4) Route 230 west of Mt. Joy. View across field behind restaurants. 5) Elizabethtown Station. Tight area. 6) Lancaster Station. Prepare for a crowd. 7) Gap. Great curve East of Strasburg. BEST BET. 8) All SEPTA stations into Philadelphia. Other areas are tight, inacessable or take forever to get in and out.

Port Road and Low Grade, 1) Perryville Station. Do not wander off the platform as this area will be heavily patrolled by Amtrak, NS and Local Police. 2) Port Deposit. Never used this area but Route 222 parallels the iron for a short distance. 3) Route 441. Some pace action from Washington Boro to Columbia. 4) Columbia. Tower and historic station on opposite sides of the iron. Forget Marietta. The tracks are on a high fill the whole way through town. You'll have to hustle to get back to the Harrisburg area via Route 30 and I83 (West Shore) or Routes 441, 230, 283 and I83 (East Shore). If you want Enola or Rockville, go there now. 5) New Cumberland. Off Main St. on 9th St. down from "The Station" train shop. Tight shots. 6) Lemoyne at "The Bottleneck". High auto traffic area as this is the West end of the Market St. bridge. 7) Bridges at West Fairview on Route 11/15. Again, high auto traffic area. 8) Iron Bridge at West end of Enola Yard.

Rockville and Harrisburg 1) Rockville West Shore. River Road (from Iron Bridge) or off of Route 11/15 at billboard(don't blame me if you get a ticket parking here!). 2) Rockville East Shore. Front St. (South side) or Ft. Hunter Park (North side). You could drive back Roberts Valley Rd. and hike back to the river for a grand panorama, but that will be the only photo you'll get all day. RailPace did a spread on this area about two years ago and a Harrisburg Guide before that. 3) State St. Bridge. Good, wide sidewalks. Within sight of Harris Tower and the Station. 4) Harris Tower. As the train returns to the Harrisburg Station. I wont be out there as I'll be your friendly Trainman aboard the ROCKVILLE LIMITED.

** All photographs by NRHS Webmaster

Sources of Information:

• Harrisburg NRHS Route Guide for the Rockville Limited
• Webmaster
• Forwarded e-mail post from Trainorders.com