Waiting the Scrapper’s Torch in East Altoona

Every once in a while, I’ll find some glassine envelopes containing treasures from a long ago trip. The first part of one such envelope contains photos of the Penn Central scrap line in East Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1969 or 1970.

We see former Pennsylvania Railroad 6810 (6810 is its PC number), formerly PRR 8610, an Alco RSD-7. We also see New York Central Alco S4 No. 9760. On the far right is my good friend John Woodworth taking down the roster numbers.

Behind the 9760 is PRR Fairbanks Morse Train Master No. 6707. A side shot is blocked by the next line of locomotives.

Other images include PRR 6708, an FM H24-66 Train Master. NYC 8305, an FM H12-44, and a second NYC FM switcher are sunning themselves. Soon these locomotives will feel the heat of the scrapper’s torch.

Finally, we see PRR 4216, an EMD E7A, and PRR 7949 (PC number), which I believe this is a Baldwin DS44-1000.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

Tags: East Altoona, locomotive dead line, New York Central locomotives, New York Central motive power, Penn Central, Penn Central locomotives, Penn Central motive power, Pennsylvania Railroad, PRR locomotives, PRR motive power, Robert Farkas photography