| Wye Switches. Here is the third of seven successive original photos that I took at the Wye Switches in Duncansville, Pennsylvania, on 3 July 1965. Shown here (L to R) are Pennsylvania Railroad engines #9541, #9686, and #7072. All were built by GM-EMD. #9541 is an EF-15 built in September of 1948 and rated at 1,500 horsepower. #9686 is an EF-15A built as an EH-15 for helper service in February of 1949, rated at 1,500 horsepower, but later regeared and reclassified as an EF-15A. #7072 is an EFS-17M built in October of 1956 and rated at 1,750 horsepower. These locomotives and a 77-car mixed-cargo freight train are stopped at 3rd Street in Duncansville, awaiting orders to proceed up the New Portage Branch line to Gallitzin and points West. There are also two pushers on the end: engines #8613 and #8606. Once upon a time, there were four sets of tracks at this point ~ as evidenced by the wide signal bridge. This is also where an eastbound freight train that had lost its brakes coming down the New Portage Branch line crashed into several waiting locomotives on Sunday, 6 November 1916. |