Panhandle

[Fred Schneider]

Oh yes ... the National and the rough track.  I recall that much of the
mainline across Illinois and Indiana had gone to pot and was literally
infested with 10 mph slow orders.  It was probably about 1975 that my wife
and I took a vacation in Colorado.  We left Lancaster, PA about the same
time the National did.  About midnight we holed up in a Holiday Inn near
Columbus, Ohio, and returned to the highway the next morning after
breakfast.  Somewhere out around Effingham we passed the train that had left
Lancaster the night before and had been pursuing its tortoise pace all night
long and was still inching its way westward.   I can guarantee you that we
were out on the other side of St. Louis long before the train got to its
destination.  It might have been the next year that a Santa Fe crew I met in
Williams AZ said they were late because of waiting in Kansas City for the
connection from the late National Limited!     



		-----Original Message-----
		From:	Donald Galt [mailto:galtfd at att.net]
		Sent:	Thursday, January 06, 2000 5:11 PM
		To:	pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
		Subject:	Re: Panhandle

		On 6 Jan 00, at 11:52, HRBran99 at aol.com wrote:

		> The bridge was completely there and was used by Conrail
almost to the date that
		> rebuilding started. It is not a new bridge. It looks the
same now as it did 20
		> or 30 years ago.

		Hmm. When I rode Amtrak from SW Ohio to Pittsburgh in 1974
(yes, it was 
		possible, though a bone-jarring experience at this date) the
train went 
		roundabout to cross the Ohio at Brunot's Island and approach
the station via 
		the PFW&C. So I assumed that the Panhandle Bridge was
unavailable 25 
		years ago.

		D2