26. ALTOONA

The NS Norfolk Southern passenger speed is 44 mph at milepost 238.3, Brick Yard. Named for a brick manufacturing facility located nearby, Brick Yard is a place often visited by railfans to watch and photograph train operations over the Allegheny frontal. Milepost 237.3 is the 24th Street crossing. At milepost 237 the passenger speed becomes 30 mph. Milepost 236.7 a signal tower named ALTO is located. Milepost 236.4 is the 12th Street pedestrian bridge over the NS line adjacent to the Amtrak passenger station.

Altoona was created by the Pennsylvania Railroad when the locomotive and car manufacturing and maintenance facilities were established there in 1850. ("History of City of Altoona and Blair County," by Ewing and Slep, 1880, Mirror Printing House, Altoona, PA, Page 63.) The original workshops were located where today's Railroaders Memorial Museum and adjacent shopping center is located in downtown, Altoona, PA. In 1905, a stationary test plant where prototype locomotives were operated under controlled and measured conditions to determine appropriate locomotive design became part of the workshop complex.