40 Lewistown

The severe curves approaching and leaving the Lewistown, PA, passenger station demand slowing to 35 mph whether passenger or Norfolk Southern freight train. The proposed realignment would be a 1 degree curve with a potential 110 mph speed. The Lewistown passenger station has been across the Juniata River from the town of Lewistown since the Pennsylvania Railroad built the line in the 1850's. State College with the Pennsylvania State University's large student population is a 50 minute drive from Lewistown.

 

A westbound Amtrak passenger train was captured westbound on the 4.4 degree curve east of the Lewistown Amtrak passenger station. The current Norfolk Southern line permits a 45 mph passenger speed here. The yellow line is the proposed realignment by a 1 degree curve.

 

The center of 6.8 degree curve is at milepost 165.4 where Route 103 crosses over the 1850's right of way now owned by the Norfolk Southern Company. The original line is in blue. The Amtrak Station is not the original passenger station. The original station was built in 1849 and is now owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society. It is the larger structure to the west of the x identifying the Amtrak Station facility. The 6.8 degree curve requires a 35 mph speed for both freight and passenger trains.

 

Herre is the continuation east of the Lewistown Amtrak station propose realignment of 1 degree curvature potentially allowing 110 mph. The realignment would return to the original line at milepost 161.9. Milepost 161.9 is the beginning of the Lewistown Narrows of the Juniata Valley.

 

"Juniata River Near Lewistown" by Artist George Hetzel,  1873, owned by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum. The view is from about milepost 165 looking east and downstream into the beginning of the Lewistown Narrows of the Juniata River Valley. In the foreground is the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks. In the middle distance at the base of the Blacklog Mountain a steam powered train can be seen eastbound as a faint lineal blackness against the green. The Pennsylvania Canal was along the opposite bank of the Juniata River.