Today I had some spare time, so I decided to head downriver a mile or two to Phillipston, PA, which used to be a yard on the PRR’s Pittsburgh to Oil City line. My maternal grandfather and two paternal great-uncles were firemen on the Pennsy who worked out of Phillipston, and I want to model the Phillipston coal wharf on my new layout. It’s a great old structure and one of the few Pennsy relics still standing around here. Conrail operated that section of line until it was abandoned in about 1980.
Anyway, here is a pic of the tower from when the line was still active (from the October '76 issue of Rails Northeast), and a few pics I took today.
Anyone interested in modeling it, the inside distance between the two main supports (over the double tracks) is exactly 33 feet. The width of the support columns are 32", and the width of the access doorway (in pic 3, to the right of the graffiti “Karlin”) is 68". I’m going to go back down after the leaves are off and get a few pics that are more revealing.
Ray
p.s., I also had another treat during the excursion…a bald eagle sighting. The eagle was trying (unsuccessfully, I might add) to catch a duck. The eagle would swoop, the duck would go under, and when the eagle was on the upswoop, the duck would resurface. After about ten tries, the eagle flew off. About ten minutes later, he flew by my boat VERY LOW, and it was the closest look at a bald eagle I’ve ever had.
That is sooo cool. It would make an interesting side scene on a modern era model railroad. It’s amazing how the vegetation just took over the whole area.
Thanks for sharing the pics with us! Those are GREAT!!! Those are the kinds of adventures that are fun. And that’s a VERY handsome coaling tower I might say. I especially like the second to the last pic- like a giant monolith jutting up from the forest floor. Ditto on Will’s request for post-foliage pics. [^]
About 10 minutes from my house, out near the highway, is the old NYC (now CSX) classification yard. When you cross over the tracks on the 152nd St. overpass, if you look to the left, you can see the old 4-chute, 500-ton, Fairbanks-Morse coaling tower still standing there after all these years. I guess the authorites looked into trying to raze the old structure. But they figured that, since the coaling tower was basically solid reinforced concrete, it woud take so much dynamite to bring the thing down that it would blow out all the windows in a several mile radius around it.
Personally, I don’t mind seeing it stay put. It reminds me of a bygone era and time when the steam iron horses ruled the earth. Here’s a picture of the old Collinwood coaling tower that I grabbed off the Web. It really hasn’t changed at all since this shot was taken in 1976.
Isn’t that neat? The sort of thing you might dream of finding.
On the UP former Chicago & North Western there are still some concrete coaling towers where active tracks still run under them – such as at Nelson Illinois and DeKalb Illinois. Makes for an interesting photo.
Dave Nelson
Thanks for the updated pics! That is just SO cool to see! [tup] I’ve already have a small FM Coaling station on my layout. BUT…that would be a fun project to try and do.
Ray, you mentioned in the original post that the coaling tower was down river at or near Phillipston, PA. I’m just curious. What river is that? Thanks! [:)]
The coaling tower is actually at Red Bank, a bit south of Phillipston on the Allegheny River. The Pennsy had two lines that met there. The Pittsburgh to Oil City line followed the Allegheny, and the Low Grade Line from Driftwood joined it at Red Bank. There isn’t really ANYTHING there anymore, and the best access is by boat from East Brady. Plus, you can catch a few smallmouth bass on the way. [:)]
The tower is situated just north of the mouth of Redbank Creek. The PRR bridge over Redbank Creek still stands as well, but time and vandalism have taken their toll.
Here’s a scan of an area map. Phillipston and Red Bank are circled in red. (My prototype, the Western Allegheny, is circled in blue [:D] )
The area between Phillipston and Redbank was the dividing line between the Pennsy’s Pittsburgh Region and Northern Region, as shown on the map.
