Pennsylvania Railfan Locations

Central PA is home to Norfolk Southern's Mainline between Harrisburg and Reading PA. there are many good locations to railfan and some other interesting attractions along the Harrisburg Line The biggest attraction is Hershey PA. The town of Hershey is on the line and the Chocolate factory uses SW Switchers at the plant. Hershey has many non-railfan attractions such as the park and giant center.

Hershey PA- is located along the Harrisburg line. A good railfan Spot on the Southside of the park. There is even parking area here.The bridge into town is also a good spot. Sight lines are good and trains going by the Chocolate factory are unique shots. On the West side of town is lodging and food. Applebees is in a great location to get a bite to eat and watch some trains while dinning (From some of the tables in the resturant.)On the East side of the Chocolate factory there is a grade crossing at a flower shop parking lot on Derry Road. There are signals above the tracks The two mainline tracks and setout tracks for the factory all visable from the location. NS switchers move cars from the setout tracks into the Hershey plant. The Derry Road Crossing also has crossovers. Location Rating 9

Hummelstown is a great and my favorite location along the Harrisburg line. Hummelstown is MP 103.0 and is about 3or 4 miles east of the new Intermodal Yard at Rutherford. The spot in Hummelstown is a large gravel "parking lot". It is at a great height above the tracks and there is no immediate vegetation. Looking east there is a curve and to the west is a long strait section with a curve about a mile down. There are defect detectors at milepost 103.0 and MP 99; there are block signals for crossovers around MP 104.0. Recently there have been telephone poll type logs put trackside to sit on. Spot Rating 9!

c. BK

2 GE Dash 9s pull loaded intermodal East.(Cleona)

On a map the line is parallel to US 422. Each town along 422 is also on the Railroad line, Most of the towns have good railfaning locations. The location in the picture is Cleona. There is a small Shopping center with a Giant about 1/2 mile west of Cleona. go past the front parking lot and park behind the buildings. Walk up to the Railroad Crossing and wait for a train. The Harrisburg line has about a train every 15-20 minutes. Looking west from the crossing one can see the signals.(I think mile post 90)Watch that brush there are old powerlines that have fallin in them. I they might still be live.. Spot Rating 7 A better Spot is if you walk east to the other end of the parking lot through a row of trees there is a baseball field that is safer. Sight lines are poor to the west however. Spot Rating 7