Last summer a trip to the Bethlehem/Allentown and the Altoona areas was contemplated, but never executed due to medical reasons at the last minute. The discussions on this forum were informative and educational.
Fast forward several months…and this past weekend my son was hired to help clean a basement, basically discarding the remains of an extensive model railroad layout. In addition there were boxes of old magazines including The Diamond (Erie Lackawanna Tech Society), Keystone (PRR Tech Society) and Flags, Diamonds and Statues (Anthracite Railroads Historical Society).
Reading the initial Anthracite RHS magazine was interesting. That entire area around Bethlehem, Allentown, and up the valley is intrigueing to me. The first two magazines dealt with the withdrawl of Central Railroad of New Jersey from Pennslyvania and the freight moving to the Lehigh Valley.
It appears the CRNJ mainline from Bethlehem to New Jersey was Conrails mainline and remains so for NS…correct? Does the Reading line from Harrisburg to Allentown extend the ex Conrail (NS) mainline to meet with the ex PRR mainline west to Pittsburgh? What is the status of Reading’s Rutherford Yard? Is that now intermodal?
Actually today’s NS line across NJ is the former LV main. NJT took title to the CNJ line which is out of service (out of track, too) from about a mile west of High Bridge, NJ to Phillipsburg; there is constant talk of relaying the track (and a lot more work to it, too). The RDG lines are used to Steelton/Harrisburg to the former PRR lines west. ’
Also note NS operates from Phillipsburg, NJ via the former CR, nee EL, nee DL&W, nee M&E (Morris and Essex) Phillipsburg Line to Dover (and maybe further East) with NJT operations east of Hackettstown, NJ and M&E (Morristown and Erie) holding down local freight operations to CHester Jct. and Dover Jct to access former CNJ lines and east to Denville and Morristown. West from Allentown, former LV/CNJ trackage used by Reading and Northern into the Wilkes Barre/Scranton area and west along the Susquehanna River to Mahoopany, PA. Check out NS to Portland, PA via the former L&HR to former DL&W Bangor and Portland branch with heavy coal trains to Portland and interchange at Slateford/Deleware Water Gap with the Delaware Lackawanna from Stroudsburg and Scranton. Don’t forget the Chestnut Ridge Ry. up at Palmerton, either. See the Delware Canal and museum at Easton; the Crayola factory in Easton, the Martin guitar factory at Northampton and the remains of the cement industry and it attendent railroad lines of the Lehigh and New England and the DL&W’s B&P, too. Do not hesitate to go to Jim Thorpe and see the town, the railroad station, and the history of the gravity railroads including a beautiful model layout of it in HO scale! Get up to Scranton and see Steamtown and the Trolley Museum, too.
CNJ Mauch Chunk& Switchback RR. This is a link to a partial history of the Incline in the Jim Thorpe, Pa area, now abandoned but still apparently stuff going on. Google Mauch Chunk RR for plenty more or Google Jim Thorpe, Pa+ RR for some more. This area of Eastern Pa has a rich railroad istory with lots for lines from fallen flags in the Anthricite Coal mining area. The W.K.&S RR operates on former Reading Tracks that went kinda NE to the former Slate MInes around Slatington,Pa. Also you will be within striking distance of the Par Service’s facility at Steamtown( North on I-81 to the Wilkes-Barre- Scranton Area…
As previously stated, Paul North will be an excelent resource on this area , as would anyone else living in this Eastern Pa Area.
Hi, Ed - Yes, it’s very much the ‘corner of the woods’ where I live, work, and occasionally play - and a few others on here, too.
henry6 answered most of your questions above, as correctly as possible in this space - I’m sure he knows and I’m not going to quibble over, oddball ownership changes of a couple hundred yards or a mile or so. Nevertheless, a few supplements:
NS - via Pennsylvania Lines LLC - also acquired from CR most of the former CRRNJ main line roadbed from Easton as far west as Freemansburg = east side of Bethlehem. I haven’t examined the title for every single parcel of that line, but I would not be surprised if the entire length is still owned by a railroad entity, even though it is almost all heavily overgrown. Why that continues to be the case, more than 30 years after the line was abandoned and torn up, is an interesting question, is it not ? I don’t have any deep insights into that, though.
Yes, Rutherford is intermodal, and on the ex-RDG route to the west that was assembled by CR and is now part of the NS. The Harrisburg area is still a bit of a ‘bowl of spaghetti’ even though there were only the PRR and the RDG there - the PRR had such an extensive network, and CR kept almost all of it and then restructured it in creative ways. In comparison, the Scranton - Wil
Thanks for the reports. I am not sure what it is, but that Anthracite region really intrigues me…and I have never been there. Perhaps it is the complete cycle of building the railroads, the vast anthracite coal holdings, which were played out and the downward spiral economically of the region’s railroads. Throw in some incredible scenery, rationalization of plant by Conrail and regionals/shortlines…and it is an interesting region.
The closing of Bethlehem Steel is also an interesting factor, we have a number of steel mills here in NW Indiana and that is a fascinating industry which is rail intensive.
Got quite a bit here to digest. As we discussed last summer, the area has found a niche as a distribution center/intermodal hub.
For some reason, the old canals in the northeast have always intrigued me. #1 is the Delaware & Hudson Canal, which went from the Hudson River in NY to the coalfields of PA. Google it! Much of it is still visible, especially the John Roebling-built suspension bridge over the Delaware river, Minisink Ford, NY-Lackawaxen, PA that carried the canal. It was a ‘practice run’ for the Brooklyn Bridge! After the canal closed, the bridge was converted for vehicular traffic. Privately-owned, I remember paying a 5-cent toll to cross it! The D&H, of course, built in to Scranton and the canal was abandoned. The workmanship, on the old canal beds, is astounding!
Just recently bought a copy of Wakefield’s Coal Boat to Tidewater…have travelled the entire length of the D&H canal from Honesdale to Rondout! Lots of bed (with water), locks, buidlings, walls, towpaths, aquaducts, etc. still intact. The Roebling at Lackawaxen is now toll free to boot!
I just ordered a used volume of Manville B. Wakefield’s book on the D&H Canal. Amazon, for $20. A new one goes for about $70, and I would spill spaghetti sauce on it instantly!
Speaking of canals, did’ja ever follow the Black River Canal (Utica-Watertown, NY vicinity)? Wow! The stonework, on that narrow little thingie, is amazing, and truly a work-of-art! There are actually parts of it preserved, along NY Route 12. A sight-to-behold forever, methinks, and worth a visit Of course, the RW&O put them out of business in a heart-beat!