A rare occurrence on Thursday morning most likely left an engineer with a headache, as the horn on Amtrak’s eastbound Pennsylvanian (42) was stuck for several hours and miles as it ran across the state.
Virtual Railfan, an online railfan site that has multiple cameras across the United States for rail enthusiasts, captured the train’s arrival to Johnstown’s station around 9:00am with the horn blaring its way in.
The horn stayed idle and loud as it picked up Johnstown’s passengers and proceeded around the Horseshoe Curve just after 10:00am into Altoona.
According to a Facebook thread by Altoona Pennsylvania History, individuals heard the blaring horn echo through Bellwood, Tyrone, Huntingdon, and Lewisburg.
It is not known how or when the horn got stuck, but it surely created an annoyance for passengers and rail crews. On the bright side, the horn’s constant use was a sure sign that the train was able to keep enough air pressure as it traveled across the state.
