Well, I’ve been waiting rather impatiently for the weather to clear long enough to get into Pennsylvania to aerial research the B&S. Finally, this past Sunday the 21st I got to go. The forecast was clear all day everywhere and I knew the next storm was only a day away, so I called Akron and to my amazement, the plane was open all day. So I took it.
I just finished reviewing the photographs I took. I am very pleased that 99% of the them turned out okay. I took two shots of everything I photographed. It was turbulent in the area due to a strong NW flow over the hills. I’m actually surprised that most of the pics turned out okay. It will take me a while to get the pics in order before I post them so this posting is just a summary of the trip.
I departed Akron about 12:15pm and headed directly to Wellsville VOR. On the way I passed over Darien Lake and then over the Southern Tier Line. I spotted a NS eastbound headed towards Attica. I was going to follow him but I was already at 5500ft and time and fuel was limited. So I kept going. I passed over a couple of abandoned rows. One I passed over I couldn’t figure out who it was until I traced it on my chart. Turns out to be the BR&P. It’s pretty curvy down there. Must have been slow going.
I barely spotted Rushford Lake as it just passed by to my right [West]. Passing Belfast was cool because I could not only see the concrete “posts/pillars” of the former bridge but the row far into the distance. Visibility was very good the further south I went. 40+ miles.
Around this point I spotted a large contrail to the south. I had expected to see either ANA or Korean Air 777’s on my way down but it turns out to be a United Airlines 747-400 from Washington to Tokyo. I was very happy to share the airspace with the airline I always wanted to fly for since I was a little kid. Because I was paying attention to UA, I missed spotting Belmont. Then came Wellsville.
I never found the Wellsville airport as it must have gone directly underneath me. Maybe they didn’t plow it because everything looked identical. Snow covered. After Wellsville it was like entering into no mans land. Because of my route, there isn’t really any visual check points south of Wellsville. I had to use my single VOR, switching between different VOR’s to get a fix. I finally tuned in the Stonyfork VOR with the 265 degree radial set. This radial crosses over the fire tower. When the needle centered, I knew I was there, or nearly so.
But I couldn’t find the tower so I didn’t know where I was for certain. There were various roads and cuts in the hills. I started to look for the B&S crossing at PA44. Just couldn’t really tell one thing from another. So I decided to look for the abandoned airfield and start from there. I knew that PA44 goes past it. The winds were strong and took me forever to go 5 miles. Well, I got to the airport, got myself oriented to PA44 and followed it. And sure enough I find the crossing. I follow the row from PA44 and I located switchbacks 4&5. Man am I happy. All snow covered and very visible as you’ll see later.
I got the camera out and start snapping away. The turbulence start making the plane jump around. I was beginning to wonder if any of my pictures would come out okay. I took two pictures of the trestle at the bottom of 4&5 but neither came out good. To much bouncing around. But the view from the plane looking back into history was amazing. Having read Paul Pietrak’s The B&S and recalling some of the pictures taken on the switchbacks made me really appreciate what I was looking at.
After circling 4&5 I started flying westerly in search of switchbacks 2&3. After the PA44 crossing it became very difficult discerning the difference between a snowmobile path, I seasonal road or a row. I lost it. I felt I was to far south and returned to the airfield. I started flying a little more westerly and picked it up again. This switchback was hard to pick out at first as there are seasonal roads and long driveways into places on the hills. You’ll see this when the pictures are posted. But once you “edit” them out, the switchbacks are easy to see. 2&3 look like hell to operate on having to operate around such a tight corner as you’ll see. Did they operate at night?
After photographing 2&3 I followed the line down the valley. I saw what appeared to be curves headed south. I was wondering if these were the row’s headed to either Cross Forks Jct or somewhere else. The map in the B&S book says that Cross Forks was between 4&5 and 2&3. But I saw others too. But there was too much overgrowth to know for sure and I didn’t take the time to follow them beyond the valley. I kept going down the valley to Wharton then up to Costello, Austin and then Keating Summit where I found Switchback #1.
The row makes a sharp turn over the edge and down the switchback to the valley floor! Heart stopper for passengers. Keating Summit doesn’t really look like a summit from 3000 feet as far as the PRR is concerned. Looks kinda flat. I didn’t see any traffic or locomotives sitting around. But I wasn’t really looking hard either.
Buy this time I had been airborne about 1.5 hours so from Keating Summit I headed to Bradford for fuel and mother nature. It took a half hour to get to Bradford due to the winds so I knew it was going to be a long ride home back to Akron, which is why I took on a little extra fuel.
As I approached Bradford, I noticed the bridge blown down. I didn’t realize how much of the bridge is still standing. I don’t understand why they folded up the RR. Sure it would be nice to cross the whole trestle. But they could have converted a couple of gons as open-air cars and back them out onto the remaining bridge. The view would be just as good. But hey, what do I know.
After fueling and doing my preflight, I departed for home. Strong headwinds and a slow ride home. I passed Ellicottville and I tried to look for the spot for the first relocation of the depot but I was to far east so I couldn’t get a perfect view. But I did pass Springville and photographed the B&S wye. The snow accents it really well. Landed at Akron after a 3.1 hours of flight. No smoke in the cabin. No more money in the pocket either.
