For many years, the Lehigh Valley maintained some offices in downtown Philadelphia, even though this was an off-line point. In the mid-1940’s, the Valley relocated the offices to its building just west of the Bethlehem (Pa.) Union Station. The LV cushioned the hardship of the move by having a special chartered train run each working […]
Section: Railfan
ACL No. 1 Falters
Many years ago, when the Atlantic Coast Line was almost all double track from Richmond to Jacksonville and the passenger-train speed limit was 100 mph, a calamity nearly occurred in an obscure south Georgia swamp. ACL’s raceway occasionally would narrow to single track when encountering a drawbridge over a river, or a wide marsh associated […]
Outfits I Have Known
One of the most memorable aspects of my career in railroad maintenance of way is the “outfit.” An outfit was usually a collection of old revenue cars — both passenger and freight — converted to sleeping, cooking, shower, supply, tool, storage, and machinery transport use. An outfit could be one lone car for a signal […]
Some Water on the Cheap
Water was a problem for both the Clinchfield Railroad and for local residents at Elkhorn City, Ky. The town is in far eastern Kentucky, at the north end of the Clinchfield where it met the south end of Chesapeake & Ohio’s Big Sandy Division, forming a through route for merchandise as well as the region’s […]
Talking to the Man in the Hat
Like many a now-mature railfan, my passion for railroading began at an early age as I haunted the local depot. Many of us also met someone, usually a friendly clerk or an engineer, who inspired us to pursue our passions. For me, Wayne Junction, Pa., in the heart of Reading’s Philadelphia commuter network, was the […]
