Trending
Megan Graupensperger submitted this photo of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Reading 2102 in Cresson in May 1977. It shows the former Reading Company 2102 pulling Grand Trunk Western 4070. The photo was taken by her boyfriend, Jordan Wolf's, great-uncle, Jay Layton Confer Jr., who died on Feb. 9, 2018. See other pictures here as well. If you right-click on the photo and open as a new window, it will tell you the name of the file that corresponds to the captions below:
0001.jpg is a photo of Reading 2102 and Grand Trunk Western 4070 that we believe was taken in Cresson May of 1977.
0002.jpg Reading 2102 and Grand Trunk Western 4070 appears to be stopped in Cresson May 1977.
0003.jpg is a photo of Reading 2102 and Grand Trunk Western 4070 working uphill at Horseshoe Curve May 1977.
0004.jpg Reading 2102 blasts out of the Gallitzin Tunnels of October 1976.
0005.jpg Reading 2102 is seen at Gallitzin Pa October 1976.
0006.jpg Reading 2102 making its way into Horseshoe Curve in the fall of October 1976.
0007.jpg With the crowds of visitors seeing Reading 2102 going around the Horseshoe Curve, we also see Pennsylvania Railroad 1361 K4 on display at horseshoe October 1976. (1361 is now undergoing restoration at the Railroaders Memorial Museum.)
0008.jpg Reading 2102 putting on a show at the Horseshoe Curve October 1976.
0009.jpg we see a rail fan taking a picture of the Reading 2102 as it makes its way around Horseshoe Curve October 1976.
Readers are encouraged to send or deliver old local photographs of general interest for use in Yesteryear. Information about people and places should be included. Photos must be 30 years old or older and should be sent to Yesteryear, Altoona Mirror, P.O. Box 2008, Altoona, PA 16603, or emailed to community@altoonamirror.com. For more information, call Brenda Carberry, community news coordinator, at 814-946-7459.
Local news on this date
Aug. 16, 1950
The Blair Canning Co., Theodore Bair president, was establishing a processing station in Martinsburg to receive tomatoes planted on 50 acres in Blair, Bedford and Huntingdon counties destined for a canning plant in Mount Union.
Aug. 16, 1975
Jeff Lovell of Altoona, a Penn State student, ended his 59-day Great American Bike Tour at the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco after riding from New York's Central Park 4,000 miles ago. Seven men and five women took part, sponsored by JC Penney and Celanese Fibers, presenting musical shows on bicycle safety at shopping centers along the way.
Aug. 16, 2000
The Hollidaysburg Area YMCA, Tom Kopriva director, held a dedication ceremony after two years of renovations. New lighting, new courts, two scoreboards, a new half-court, five new baskets with new scorer tables and benches. The basketball court improvements were dedicated in memory of the late Lynette Williams, a former Hollidaysburg standout player killed in an auto accident.
Aug. 16, 2015
The Altoona Housing Authority asked the federal government for permission to sell 10 scattered site public housing properties it owned that included a single family home, a triplex and several duplexes as inefficient to maintain. They were to offer families affected an apartment in the Fairview Hills housing project.
Aug. 17, 1950
The Blair County Women's Christian Temperance Union (anti-alcohol) held its annual picnic at Lakemont Park, heard a report of the Youth Temperance Council encampment at Newton Hamilton, enjoyed a large cake with the initials W.C.T.U. on it and sang the song "Lips That Touch Liquor Will Never Touch Mine."
The Sherman McDonald farm and family in Bedford treated a fawn that had been hit by a car and when released it returned twice a day to drink milk with the family dog, which it made friends with. The family also allowed it to eat tomatoes, beans, lettuce and cabbage from the family garden.
Aug. 17, 1975
Information from the Standard Rate and Data Service found that there were 66,080 cars in Blair County, 138 for every 100 families. The national average was 124 per 100 families. The cost of maintenance and gasoline in Blair was $24,625,000 per year.
About 15 members of the Relay Citizens Band Radio Club of Altoona had taken on the project of restoring the old Collinsville Church in Altoona, including a new roof and the restoration of the interior. A Mirror photo showed members Robert Delozier, James Marlett and Arthur Holzer at work.
Aug. 17, 2000
Appleton Papers Inc. of Roaring Spring was cited by the state Dept. of Environmental Protection for air pollution and agreed to a $490,00 fine and $10 million equipment to reduce air pollution while not admitting any wrongdoing.
About a dozen families living behind the Logan Valley Mall signed a petition for Altoona City Council not to build a soccer field there after homes were cleared as a flood mitigation project, saying it would attract "loitering youths."
Aug. 17, 2015
David Aliello, 50, a retired state policeman with 20-plus years service, a veteran of the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, and a Penn State graduate, was hired as the first coordinator of the new Blair County Child Advocate office.
The African American Heritage Project of Blair County was to hold a The Rock the Runway Fashion Show at Penn State Altoona as a fundraiser for the project. The African American Heritage Project had held various festivals at Penn State Altoona during the past 20 years.
-- Compiled by Tim Doyle
National, world news on this date
Aug. 16:
In 1948, baseball legend Babe Ruth died in New York at age 53.
In 1954, the first issue of "Sports Illustrated" was released.
In 1962, the Beatles fired their original drummer, Pete Best, replacing him with Ringo Starr.
in 1977, Elvis Presley died at his Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee at the age of 42; forty-one years later, in 2018, singer Aretha Franklin, known as the "Queen of Soul," died in Detroit at the age of 76.
In 1978, James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., told a Capitol Hill hearing he did not commit the crime, saying he'd been set up by a mysterious man called "Raoul."
Aug. 17:
In 1863, federal batteries and ships began bombarding Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor during the Civil War, but the Confederates managed to hold on despite several days of shelling.
In 1945, the George Orwell novel "Animal Farm," an allegorical satire of Soviet Communism, was first published in London by Martin Secker & Warburg.
In 1959, trumpeter Miles Davis released "Kind of Blue," regarded as one of the most influential jazz albums of all time.
In 1978, the first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight ended as Maxie Anderson, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman landed their Double Eagle II outside Paris.
-- The Associated Press