Railfanning Harrisburg, PA

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is a hub of railroad activity being the junction of the following Norfolk Southern railroad lines: Harrisburg Line, Shippensburg Secondary, Buffalo Line, Pittsburgh Line, Port Road, and Royalton Branch. This past Columbus Day weekend my dad and I made our way out to Harrisburg for a weekend of railfanning. 

Saturday morning we made our way to Harris (HG) Switch Tower. The tower was built in 1929 by the Pennsylvania Railroad and remained in service until it was closed 1991. Shortly after the closer, the tower was purchased by the National Railway Historical Society (HRHS). The organization was able to preserve the building and the 24-foot tower’s interlocking machine. There are over 100 levers which were used to control all of the signals and switches in the Harris territory. My dad and I were in there for about 2 hours. The volunteers were so friendly explaining how everything works, they even opened a window so we could take photos of trains passing the switch tower. I would strongly recommend visiting the switch tower. – Learn more about the Harris Tower

The Harrisburg train station is a pretty cool looking station from the outside but the inside is a different story. This station isn’t railfan friendly with restricted access to its platforms and really nowhere to take photos. 

Over the weekend we spent a lot of time along the Pittsburgh Line in Cove and Maryville. One of the most photographed locations in the Harrisburg area is the Rockville Bridge crossing the Susquehanna River. If traveling through the area I would strongly recommend railfanning around Harrisburg, PA.