I used the Amazon link above to order the book, and while searching Amazon to find something else to get, to qualify for free shipping, I found a Harry Bedwell book. I used to love his stories in Railroad Magazine, "True Tales of the Rails," which weren't true, but taught you authentic railroad terminology.
I live near Hamburg, PA, about sixty miles east of Harrsburg. I had a tower job in Hagerstown, MD for a few Months in 1982, on another former PRR line, the Cumberland Valley. So I would always pass Enola going to or from work. One time I took a ride to Williamsport, which didn't seem to be so far away, and visited the tower there. That was a place where the operators couldn't loose a minute pulling up for trains, or there would be delays. The volume of traffic was so great. I think that I also drove up to Altoona one day while I was working Hager.
I was in the army from 1958 to '60, stationed in Fort Holibird, MD, in Baltimore and Dundalk. I had been drafted out of the Pennsy towers, so they took back my annual pass and gave me two trip passes when I left. I used them on weekends traveling between Baltimore and New York. The trainmen never picked them up. A friend on the Lackawanna had the same experience. I used to hitch hike, in my army uniform, whenever necessary to get from my home near Hamburg to Baltimore. One time I hitch hiked to Enola, found a train going to Baltimore, and asked the guys on the head end or a ride. We had box cab P5as, so they put me in the rear cab and a brakeman with me. We had trouble and had to take each siding all the way down the single track line, past Conowingo and Perryville. When we got to Bay View yard in Baltimore, I was late, AWOL; but they didn't shoot me when I got to Fort Holabird.
