My house (by choice) is surrounded by trees, some of which I planted, some I just let come up from seed and some, well, they just kinda are “there”. Of course, there are trade-offs to having all these trees and come fall, my work begins. I must pay for my love of trees and this fall was no exception.

It’s a late November day, the trees have finally said, enough is enough, and have shed the last of their leaves. This Sunday morning is quiet and the coffee (all 8 cups!) has kicked in, so it’s high time to get the last raking done. Most of the trees are up behind the house, so I proceed to make three big leaf piles there, before heading to the front to make two more piles of nice dry leaves. Now, out come the leaf bags and I clear the back yard quickly before heading to the front yard and as I do what do I spy but a headlight on the Allegheny River Bridge—an Allegheny Valley Railroad train is making a morning run to the Buffalo and Pittsburgh railroad. There is an advantage to living up on a ridge above the railroad, especially when the leaves fall. This may be worth a couple shots. The weather’s not great, but there’s a train to be had!

I trade the leaf bags for a camera bag and jump into my trusty Mazda 3 for a run up the Allegheny Valley Railroad’s (AVR) ex Baltimore & Ohio Pittsburg and Western sub-division. This line used to be the way west for the B&O, but was sold off a few years back to allow the AVR to reach the Buffalo and Pittsburgh interchange near to Callery, Pennsylvania. I chose to end up on the west side of the Glenshaw tunnel. It’s a short tunnel on a tight curve which frames the lead motor as it grinds up the hill. After patiently awaiting the mostly empty tank car train to pass, it was off to the races—kind of a misnomer since the whole AVR is run as 10 MPH yard limits! It goes so slow that the chase is a bit anticlimactic—shoot, drive a mile or two and shoot again, repeat as necessary.

The weather didn’t cooperate, but a train is a train and I amused a few locals by climbing onto some broken up concrete to gain a bit of elevation

The Pittsburg & Western is a typical Western Pennsylvania line, hilly with many twists and turns and as such is fun to follow. The slow pace allows you to pick and chose your shots and on a Sunday morning traffic is light—unless you get in a post-church car caravan! An advantage to the leaves dropping is that a few good locations open up during what is known as “stick season” and I took advantage of this, even getting an errant turkey lollygagging on the right of way.

The weather didn’t cooperate, but a train is a train and I amused a few locals by climbing onto some broken up concrete to gain a bit of elevation on a shot or two before I gave up at the Austin’s Bleach plant in Mars and headed back to my home duties.

Those piles of leaves were still waiting on me and no more headlights crossed that bridge. Time to put the camera bag back and pick up the leaf bags again.

Kevin N. Tomasic – Photographs and text Copyright 2019