Hello All:

My wife and I are considering a 4th of July visit to Altoona, PA. Would be interested in anyones input into things not to miss - including train stores. Also if anyone has suggestions on places to stay that they've had luck at would be appreciated. Anyone local with fireworks information on Friday night would be an extra bonus! Thank you all.

John

Your first stop, after the curve of course, has to be Jim's Trains in Homer City. He has an amazing working layout, all the MTH stuff you could ever want and you'll never meet a nicer guy.

I also attended a home game of the Altoona Curve, which is a minor league baseball team. Great stadium, fair prices, fun time.

For places to stay their is a nice Comfort Inn just south of town about 15" from down town. Right in town is the Railroaders Museum. After visiting the Curve, you could drive over to Gallitzen and see the tunnels and a small park there. About 15" drive to here. About another 5" west, go into Cresson on Hwy 53 and when in town go one block west to the tracks and there is a train watching platform and a PRR caboose there. The Curve ball park is the double a farm team for Pittsburgh. Google the team and see if they are even home that weekend. They may have fireworks show after the game. We drove down to Roaring Springs, about 8 miles south of Hollidaysburg and in town stands the last remaining PRR depot in the county. Nicely restored, town uses it for their meetings. I think the Everett RR runs down to this location. You could drive out to Tyronne and watch the trains go by from the Amtrak platform...

Marty

By the stadium is Lakemont Park. The Alto Model Railroad Club did have layouts in there. S and O. The last time I heard anything they were open on weekends.

Alto Model Train Museum Go to the Contact Us Page. I spoke with Don Goebel at York and he gave me a paper with special things going on. Unfortunetly I don't know what I did with it.

Gene Anstine

If you go to Cresson you should head to Lilly and the bridge at Cassandra.
The "Lilly" detector is located at Milepost 253.1 (Carney's Crossing). There is a dragging equipment detector and a hot box detector. (Lilly is located about 3 miles south of Cresson on PA Rt 53.) At milepost 255.8 is the abandoned iron bridge at Cassandra. To get to the iron bridge, continue on Rt 53 from Lilly. When you reach the bottom of the hill at the Gas Station/car wash/convenience store turn right onto Cassandra Road/main Street into Cassandra. The town of Cassandra had recently cleared some of the brush and placed a park bench at the Bridge for the purpose of attracting railfans. Note that the bridge is closed to vehicles. There usually is other railfans there.

I went a couple of summer ago. There are a couple of rail fanning location around the area. My favorite is Gallitzen. It has a park and a bridge to walk over the tracks. I have some pictures below:






More Pictures

It's been years since I've lived in the area, but the hobbie shops I remember are Ye Old Hobbie Shop, On The Right Track, and Uncle Joe's used to have a few trains. Altoona is a great town - don't forget to go by the Juniata shops. An hour north is State College (my hometown) and they always put on a great 45-50 min. firework show at Beaver Stadium.

quote:

Originally posted by PatapscoValleyRR:
I went a couple of summer ago. There are a couple of rail fanning location around the area. My favorite is Gallitzen. It has a park and a bridge to walk over the tracks. I have some pictures below:






More Pictures

Stay at the Tunnel Inn, it is to the right of the above engine. I have stayed there no less than a dozen times. The rooms are all immaculate and it is the best place in the world if you are one of us. There website is the tunnelinn.com. The owner is a friend and a great guy. THere is also a train store called either gold eagle trains or american eagle trains down in Altoona. He carries the whole Lionel Line. He also has stuff that you cant find anywhere..Have fun and trust me about the Tunnel Inn. I love the place!!

for overnight lodgeing, i'm kind of surprized no one mentioned tom davis' - station inn right in cression,pa. sit on the front porch- the n.s. mainline is 150' in front of you. its a place for railfans- not to many creature comforts- my favorite location on the whole mountain- the rt53 overpass just north of town. 2nd place goes to cassandra bridge already mentioned. the museum in altoona is ok if you never been there.
jim

You guys are the best! I'm printing out the responses thus far and putting together a list of options - thank you so much!

John, I got you the phone number for the Tunnel Inn, 814-884-2975 and it is thetunnelinn.com. Having stayed at both the Station Inn in Cresson and the Tunnel Inn in Gallitzen, there is no comparison. I stayed at the Station Inn 1 time and the Tunnel Inn at least a dozen. The station inn is roughing it, no air condtioning, rooms very dated..

Good Morning Mr. Newberger,
We will send you a colored flyer concerning The Tunnel Inn. Its a lovely Bed and Breakfast.

Here is their information.

Web address
www.thetunnelinn.com

E-Mail address
tunlinggallitzin@aol.com

Mailing address
P. O. Box 93 Gallitzin, PA 16641

Phone number
814-884-2975

If you get up this away over the fourth and have a little extra time we are only fifty minutes from the curve. We would be glad to have you stop in for a visit. Hope you have a wonderful Thursday.
Jimmy

www.jimstrainshop.com
Jimmy

Consider making a visit to the ALlegheny Portage RR National Historic Site, which is in Gallitzin. You can see how trains made it over the Alleghenies in the mid-nineteenth century.

http://www.nps.gov/alpo/

You might want to delay your trip by 1 week -- Altoona is having it's railfest July 11-13 (see http://www.railroadcity.com/ for details). The highlight again this year is the return of Bennett Levin's restored PRR E8's for excursions around the Curve.

Andy

I hear the Seldom Seen mine tour is worth it. That's northwest of the curve.

rob

Go to Boyer Candy factory and outlet store, load up on Mallo Cups.

Where is this American Eagle trains located? Never saw it.

Gene Anstine

I have also stayed at the Tunnel Inn and recommend it highly. My son and I also stay at the Econo Lodge in town -- very reasonable, basic accommodations.

We also recommend the curve (if you have those folding camp chairs, you might want to bring them to sit on), Gallitzin Tunnels, the Rt. 53 overpass, Cresson (the restaurant in the middle of town on Rt. 53 is like a trip back in time, friendly service, very reasonable and original jackets for 45 rpm hits from the 50's and 60's on the wall)Lilly, and Cassandra. We like Cassandra a lot -- there's shade, benches and the bridge with a long rock cut to the south and an uphill turn to the north. John Shuniak owns the convenience store and maintains the railfan park. Also a good idea to bri ng insect repellent. We've been to the curve about 5-6 times and only needed it once, but that time in late August, we did need it.

The Altoona shops on the north end of town offer views of lots of diesel power. Just past the shop buildings is a right turn that brings you to the shop turntable. The restored NS F-3's were parked there last time I was there.

The excursion trains around the curve are a lot of fun. If there are 1st class tickets offered and you can spare the bucks, you get a spectacular ride. We went last summer and it was terrific.

No shortage of places to eat. Tons of fast food, restaurant chains and some cool local places. We had good experiences at Pizza Hut, Olive Garden and the Chilis just east of I-99. The innkeeper of the Tunnel Inn gave us a few good recommendations and we ate inexpensively and well in Gallitzin.

You might want to stay in one spot for a day or a least a half day, then try another spot another day. If you jump around too much you will miss some trains. We pack a cooler with drinks, but usually hit somplace for lunch so everyone still there when we get back can tell us about the trains we missed.

You will get lots of opinions but it seems busiest in the mornings with a mid-day lull then an afternoon pick-up into the evening. The gate at the curve is left open and you can get there early or stay late as long as you can climb the 190 steps to the top. Bring a sewater for early morning or late evening, it can get chilly.

A good local road map is also very helpful. The caboose at the gallitzin Tunnels used to have several interesting handouts including maps and train lists.

If you like real trains, this is one of the best places on the planet. If you are lucky, you might see a loaded coal train gingerly descending the curve or an underpowered manifest (mixed) freight with the SD-40 helpers hammering away as it climbs the grade at the curve.

Again - thanks for all of the great info. We've booked for the weekend at the Tunnel Inn and told the owner how highly he came recommended on the OGR forum - very, very nice guy. I looked at the Station Inn and thought that was a great looking spot - but when the wife read no A/C that was it - no matter how cool it looked on the website. No T.V. - no problem - no A/C in summer...watchout!

Would love to be there for the July 11-13 festivities, but our work schedules require we take vacations around long weekends - although we are close enough (3hrs.) to Altoona that we just might try to get back there for one of those days.

John

Er...uhm...about the lack of a/c.....you will be in the mountains....it is actually cool, even in the summer, when the sun goes down...just my 2 cents worth...Tom

Hi Tom - fine for you and me... try explaining it to the wife.

john: i have never had an issue with no ac at station inn- its 10-12 degrees cooler at night than altoona. if you are taking the wife you better stay at the tunnel inn.-my wife is pretty forgiving when it comes to railfan vacations,[we stop at the curve+ area after each york,] but said no thanks to any future stays at s. i.
jim

I and three friends/family just returned from a great Strasburg, Altoona, East Broad Top trip and wanted to thank the forum for mentioning the Tunnel Inn where we stayed. It was great and I highly recommend it. Pictures will follow later.

I also need to pass on a belated "THANK YOU" to the folks on the forum who helped with suggestions during my 4th of July trip. We tried to cram in every one of the suggestions! The recommendation regarding THE TUNNEL INN was dead on. What a great place to stay. Loved the Iron Horse for dinner and the trains... my gosh! We were rained out at Horseshoe Curve, but we saw so many trains pass by THE TUNNEL INN that we didn't feel like we missed out. The ALTOONA RR MUSEUM is well worth a trip - it was light on trains, but packed with the everyday life aspects of a railroading town that you don't get most places. The PORTAGE museum was really interesting as well - had never heard of it until we went up there. Very cool. I could keep on jabbering...

John

quote:

Originally posted by John Newberger:
I also need to pass on a belated "THANK YOU" to the folks on the forum who helped with suggestions during my 4th of July trip. We tried to cram in every one of the suggestions! The recommendation regarding THE TUNNEL INN was dead on. What a great place to stay. Loved the Iron Horse for dinner and the trains... my gosh! We were rained out at Horseshoe Curve, but we saw so many trains pass by THE TUNNEL INN that we didn't feel like we missed out. The ALTOONA RR MUSEUM is well worth a trip - it was light on trains, but packed with the everyday life aspects of a railroading town that you don't get most places. The PORTAGE museum was really interesting as well - had never heard of it until we went up there. Very cool. I could keep on jabbering...

John

John, glad you like it. I am going back in a couple of months!!! I am having withdrawl..I hope you met Mike K. at the Inn. He is a great guy and does alot for us.

Here are some pictures of the Tunnel Inn and tunnels:

Detail of inn, notice lights along guard rail to light up trains at night.


Picture of tunnels with inn at right:



Train entering tunnel: