In August 2016, we wanted to take a one-day trip to Altoona, Pennsylvania to visit the Horseshoe Curve and the Railroaders Memorial Museum, as part of my 20th birthday. As many of you know, Altoona has one of the best railfanning locations in the United States and also a busy railroad complex involving several locomotive shops, called Altoona Works (originally operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad), today known as the Juniata Shops, operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway. While planning to go there, I thought the Horseshoe Curve is an open region, but I found out that it is not meant to be open for 24 hours a day, which was sort of a bummer to me. However, I realized that there's always an alternate place to watch trains in Altoona in case the Horseshoe Curve is closed for the day. By the time we arrived in Altoona on the day of my birthday, we knew that we missed going to the Horseshoe Curve, but I chose to watch trains downtown instead and I was still happy with it.

 

Eventually, we decided to go to an Italian restaurant for my special birthday dinner. It was a good idea because those Italian restaurants in Altoona were inspired by Italian immigrants who moved there for their jobs, especially on the railroad. Next, we needed to stay at a motel for the night. Initially, we had some trouble finding an available room because oddly enough, there were so many vacationers visiting Altoona. Are there so many more railfans than I thought? I guess not because summer is always a season for vacationing which often makes things so hectic for us. After trying out a few hotels in town, we successfully reserved a room.

 

Next morning, the first thing we wanted to do was to go to the Railroaders Memorial Museum, which offers exhibits and information about the history of a typical day's work at Altoona Works as well the history of the Horseshoe Curve. It was so fun to learn things there that I highly recommend it for those of you who love trains. Before leaving the museum, I wanted to go to the gift shop to find the best birthday presents for my 20th year and we did. The next thing we wanted to do was to go to the Horseshoe Curve and we were able enough to do so. By the time we got there, it was just a little bit less than one hour before closing. We ended up seeing at least three trains passing by and I videotaped a couple of them. Overall, I was extremely excited of everything in our trip. I am more and more convinced of watching trains in Altoona than ever before. This was a perfect way to celebrate my age of one-fifth of a century old. In other words, my mom told me that we could visit the Horseshoe Curve again in the fall because of the beautiful autumn scenery filled with orange and brown leaves falling from the trees.