bethlehem steel HQ was in bethlehem pennsylvania. they started closing down plants in the early 1990's stopping producing steel in november '95 they filed for bankruptcy in 2001. and was desolved in 2003. and any remaining assets were acquired by International Steel Group.
1919 my grandpa was a teenage bricklayer in steubenville Ohio. He was one strong man and lived to be 93 and his son, my dad lived to be 94. Great video
My granddad was a master mason here in Washington state and started to learn his trade around when yours would have been. He worked on several big dams.
Jp i worked for Conrail in the 70's and this track you are on was left there for the Dunmore Industrial Park. The plans were to ship garbage trains from Philadelphia to the landfill also all the new track under the bridges were part of the contract to replace all track under the 380 bridges. The industrial park had Trane, Rca, and other company's that made large components and needed rail service to ship them out. They would run them down the Dunmore Secondary to Pittston. Thank You.
Mr. Nole is 100% correct on the reason why those 🤣rails a😅nd ties before the landfill are in such good condition. The plan was to haul garbage into the landfill via train rails from the big cities. Why it never happened only some people within the landfill will have that answer. Can you imagine the amount of garbage that could have been moved on a daily basis should this have been approved? Project is probably dead in the water by now, but anything is possible. Love your dedication and passion exploring each and every area you wander into to explore. Thank you for the history lesson which brings back a lot of memories of all the left behind remains of what was here ,and what is remaining for us to still view and reminisce. Be safe!👍🏻
One reason why lines were single-tracked is because some states levied property taxes on the basis of track miles. Reducing a line to a single track coul reduce property taxes substantially.
My grandmother's dad worked for the Erie Railroad. I still remember all of my grandmother's stories about how she would travel, for free, to visit all of her relatives.
Seeing this and realizing that trains rolled through here in the early 80's makes me feel old xD. But then I also remember watching the little speeders roll by as a kid, growing up near tracks.
love the NE. Pa rail vids. My grandfather worked for DLW/EL for 46 years loved the stories he told also back in the day they made stuff to last. To bad no-one had the foresight to help the rail industry stay afloat we could use more freight and passenger service today.
JP, there were actually two rail services in the ROW you are exploring. The Jessup Branch of the Erie RXR from the Rock Junction across the 100 footer bridge, (being the track closest to Dunmore) went to Gypsy Grove, went west at Lincoln Junction and serviced the Pennsylvania Breakers (1&3) before heading north crossing Marshwood Road near the now J&J Pallet Co., towards Winton. The left spur of the Erie, near the interstate bridges, travelled through the housing area (between the tracksd and I-81) almost a 180 degree turn, to the Spencer Breaker, all under the I-81 now. The second line was the DL&W (Winton Branch) line that rose from the DL&W Main and then paralleled the Erie, ( at the end of the 100 footer bridge abutment) travelled across the now topographically changed dump and crossed just east of the Keystone Propane sales also on the Marshwood Road. These two distinct ROW's can be found on Hill St Jessup at Breaker St (DL&W) and Front St, (Erie) where the houses on Front St are in the former Erie Jessup Rail Yard. The newer trackage you see under the bridges was relaid to service Gould Battery, Dunmore plant which is now Warhorse and potentially the landfill with the Throop Industrial Park. When the new Rt 6 was finished the siding to Warhorse (former Gould Battery) was cut off. Some Dunmore historians will tell you about the big dispute to replace the two track crossing at Drinker St, while Erie was defunct and the DL&W was now Erie Lackawanna, which fought to only replace one track crossing. Because you research a lot of railroads, have you ever used Google Earth and Antracite RXR overlays?
I like abandoned tracks so much,i live in Holland,and when tracks not in use anymore,they gonna take them out of the ground and build something else in the same place,like buildings or what ever... keep up the good work!!!
About 10 years there was a plan to restore the tracks where they merge onto the Pocono main. The Jessup branch and winton Branch ran parallel just winton was owned by the Lackawanna . If u walk the tracks below Drinker street the rock wall is covered in steel mesh to stabilize it . I guess Denaples abandoned the idea . On the landfill property there is also a quarry too. It’s a shame the idea was given up
Good series. The Erie Railroad went thru my property in Decatur, IN. The rails are gone, but I continually find spikes & rail plates, along with pieces of coal.
I worked with LB Foster when they pulled up the line in the early '80s, from Huntington to Hammond, Indiana. I bought a lot of ROW stuff for my collection, including a couple whole semaphores and a lot of smaller stuff! L R Mobly was the superintendent of the job with his job office at the Huntington depot. He had Lou Gehrig's Disease, like that Steven Hawking guy, and he had a color catalogue of all the ROW stuff, and they were selling it to anyone in the public that wanted it! The semaphore signal at Wilder's crossing cost me all of $75.00!! A 3-arm interlock mast for the crossing of the Monon there at US 421!
Hello JP at 12.39 the concrete block with the screwed on cap was used near under ground storage to check if the tanks was leaking into the ground water.
Lackawanna is the former Bethlehem Steel plant in Lackawanna, NY. They were who made the most rail at that time. They completely shut down in the 80's. They had coke ovens, two blast furnaces, a huge area. Almost everything is demolished now. The only remains that are in use are a part that is now Republic Steel.
That was so informative and really interesting and such great history! I like when you use the maps. What an awesome adventure! Beautiful day too! That would make for a nice rail trail for walking and biking and so forth. #NaturesCornDog 😂Love it and Squiddy 😂confirms that it is definitely abandoned, so funny! Looking forward to seeing more on your new photography channel! Great video JP, thank you!
shoot! I missed the live :( Oh well! will watch it now and come back comment afterwards! #corndog is funny! I also used to always think cat tails look like hot dogs. Well I do not know much about trains (learnt a lot here) but I do love abandoned stuff. This was a treat! Thanks JP Ps the announcement is perfect!!! Photography is also my first passion (before video) so I’m definitely subscribing!!
Rail was manufactured at Bethlehem Steel Lackawanna New York near Buffalo. Bethlehem Steel had several mills producing rail. In the mid to late 70's all rail production was consolidated to Steelton. In the early 80's a continuous bloom caster was installed at Steelton. Blooms are the rough shape of Steel that rail is rolled from. In the 90's rail head hardening technology was installed at Steelton. In the late 2000s a walking beam furnace was installed. Steelton is still producing rail today with the mill now being owned by Cleveland-Cliffs.
The section under the highway isn’t original. Mr DeNaples install that section in the early nineties to mid nineties as the Casey Hwy was being constructed and the 81/84/380 was being redesigned. The original bridge for the highway over the tracks was going to be removed since the tracks were abandoned. Mr DeNaples stopped them and rebuild the tracks into the landfill so PennDOT had to incorporate the track’s rights of way into the project. The tracks never got used and now a parking lot has been build over the right of way at Drinker for a law office. I doubt the line will ever be reused. As for the date on the rail, Mr DeNaples owns so much, he recycled the track but used new ties.
I'm in Fort Erie Ontario we have a lot of old lines around town and a few still in use, we also have the International train bridge between Fort Erie Ontario and Buffalo New York the bridge was built in 1873 over the Niagara River and is still currently in use, on the American side a part of the bridge swings but I believe that hasn't been used in many many years, Fort Erie also had a huge train yard, switch house and locomotive shop (locomotive shop is currently a train museum) in the 40's to 80's over 100 trains a day crossed the bridge now only a few a day.
Quote I found years ago about the Keystone industrial park about Louis DeNaples. Possible access to the industrial park via the Erie died when Hurricane Gloria wiped out a lot of the old Erie tracks in 1985. Louis DeNaples was talking about restoring the old DL&W Winton branch a few years ago to serve trash trains, but that idea was abandoned. It'd be the only way, and it would involve a switchback and a perimeter track around the dump. Not likely to ever happen.
I agree with you JP, my thoughts are it's probably to expensive in 1984 to remove them. I love your rail road history videos, conrail always fascinated me
Another informative video, liked how you used the maps pointing where you were, love these old abandoned railroads . Wish you can make a video on the abandon northern Indiana joilet cutoff line, well part of it is a walking trail in Illinois that I know of , most of the 44 miles of trackage has been pulled up, but some rements still remain.
The Joliet cutoff, I think, is the one that departed the old NYC in Lake Station Indian and went through Gary and Griffith on its way to Joliet. It hosted 2 trains a day in the '60s when I was a kid. West, and then back east. That was the Michigan central line, the first railroad through the area I believe. Installed in about 1854. Joy's Run was a nickname for a portion of the main line through Porter Indiana. I think it referred to the Superintendent who had to make a run down the track, practically for his life, during a payroll hang-up in the early history of the MC!
Great production man, you have a good eye to see and record the details I wanted to see. Also I really like how you put things into context with overlays, etc. Keep it up, you'll get to a million subs!
This has been an amazing walk in history. They leave some rails in odd places here in Aussie as well. Something i have always wondered as well seems a waste to me.
What a fab video part 5 documenting this old railroad, if those rails could talk! Good luck with your new channel. I dont know what to watch next im spoilt for choicè! Take care JT. ❤😊
ConRail may have abandon a lot of railways in the mid 1980s. I live on the east side of Indianapolis next to the abandon Pensilvania RR Columbus - Indianapolis via Bradford line, about 186 miles long. ConRail abandon the line around 1985 and started selling off the real estate. I was able to find that Amtrak used the line for running the "National" which they stopped in 1979. After Amtrak stopped using the line that appears to be its reason for abandonment. I was working on a project on that railroad bed around Gem Indiana April 2023 and the ballast was lacking any sharp edges resembling rounded river stones with much of it turned to course grindings. The sub ballast was totally worn out and would have moved under load. A Mr. Johnson I talked to around 2008 at the railroad's crossing of Sugar Creek in Philadelphia Indiana said when Amtrak came across the bridge there the tracks gave so much he could clearly see the couplers of the passenger cars would be out of vertical alignment so far there would be vertical space between the bottom of one coupler and the top of the other coupler. There was nothing holding the cars together at that point. A few feet later the couplers would be messed together again. That's how bad the rail bed was and digging into that old sub ballast a few weeks ago I can understand why the rail bed gave so much. I've never seen railroad ballast with every edge rounded over like river stone before. That ballast could have dated back to WW2 or even possibly when they doubled tracked the line in 1916. I found remnants of foundry slag ballast in someplaces along the line. That foundry slag ballast appears to have been removed after the line was abandon. It is considered a high quality railroad ballast. There are large sections of the railroad bed that appear missing in some areas. Selling of the foundry slag ballast would be an explanation for those missing rail bed sections. It was a huge mistake to not keep the railway corridor in tacked because today people are trying to reconstitute the railway corridor for a cycle path with a lot of out of corridor routing taking place. The direction to do this comes from the Indianapolis Metropolitan area cycle Greenway network for rapid bicycle transit from the early 1990s so it was just little over five years before the RR corridor was targeted for a rail-to-trail conversion. Putting some water on rusted or rock textures frequently brings out the detail. If you have drinking water along it is good to bring some extra for that purpose. Puddles of water can also be used if available.
My guess is that when the railway was at their highest, they were able to remove the unused section. But as time went on and budgets got tighter and smaller, that is when the last remaining tracks were left behind
Looks like it could be a fun speeder run. While some weeds could need clearing, the rails are still properly in place, and the bridges look sound. Most likely the track was still a legal right-of-way when the highway was built, even though it was inactive by that time. That's why the highway bridged over it instead of simply putting the abutment over the old line.
Here in Wisconsin abandoned rails *usually* don't last long because the state buys them and converts them to rail trails as a means of preserving the right-of-way while generating tourism. Milwaukee is a bit of an exception because it's an old industrial city and it wouldn't make sense to convert everything into a trail. Also, Nature's corn dogs are edible! Just not the way you found them and they taste nothing like corn dogs. (Or so I've heard.)
I’m glad you took poor little Squidward home, he looked lonely!! Very proud of you for standing still on that sketchy little bridge and you kept turning back and forth!! Thanks for taking us along!! 💖🛤️💙💖🛤️💙
The rails might be still there because, they don't own the right of way, it's entirely possible, that, Conrail's successes, probably Norfolk Southern, still owns the railroad track right of way yet, so, that's always a possibility too.
Who owns that right of way? Your idea of a speeder club using that is great because the buried rails can be revealed with a little work. Maybe a lot of work.
I have found that even though the rails are concidered abandoned , many times the railroad still owns and has the rights to the property. Easy example would be the Cumberland Valley Railroad bridge that crosses the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg to Lemoyne. The bridge hasn't had tracks in decades. Lemoyne wanted to make a railtrail. They found out that both Norfolk Southern and Amtrak both co-own the bridge and NEITHER have any interest in giving it up.
Put an old electric school bus on the rails and traverse the area. Vice president Harris could visit and exclaim how she loves electric school buses so much. Even more so when full of homeless living together in peace and unity.
I would love to see old abandoned sections of rail line repurposed for speeder use. That would be so awesome! My momma used to call old speeder cars putt putts 😊. The nice looking rails under the bridge would be a mighty fine start to speeder car railway...lol. I used to live behind progress rail and for 3 long years I heard the rail breaker 24/7 🤦🤦🤦 it really got old. I will definitely check out your new channel because I love photography tips. Please don't eat natural corn dogs. ✌
In California, the minute a rail is abandoned, a salvage company is hot to remove the tracks. Hundreds of miles of secondary mains of the Santa Fe and some of the SP lines were removed back in the early 80's to the mid 1990's. The rest of the lines of the "Minkler Southern" division of the Santa Fe was removed in 2012
Erie merged with Lackawanna in 1960 so I would think that rail was lackawanna rail possibly I have seen rail road line names on the rail before ..love your railroad history videos thanks
That Eichalberger? Monitoring medallion in the concrete that had the triangle with the center round area I believe was to periodically Survey the site, the surveyor would set the tripod on that center area (or use as point of reference) to survey using same coordinates.
JP my guess if you do read some history, the old Scranton ironworks moved to Lackawanna New York outside of Buffalo and I believe the steel company eventually became part of Bethlehem Steel. I think that’s where the connection is but I could be wrong.
19:54 This means that this section likely wasn't for the Erie. It was most likely for the Lackawanna railroad, Erie's top competitor (if you dont count lines feeding into Chicago.)
That thing at the 12 minutes mark seems to be a survey marker, even though i couldn't find anything about 'Eichelberger' , the triangle with the dot in it is a rather dead giveaway of what it is!
There were plans for it to be used more recently, but I believe the mid/late 80s is last time it was used. So it may have been operational at the same time for a period of time.
I know exactly where you were. My hair salon I go to; Kathy's Hair Care is right next to them and I have been looking at them for years. Thanks for the informative video about them.
Very interesting! Believe it or not this line was constructed by the Lackawanna Railroad as their Winton branch and the Erie had trackage rights over the line and that’s how the Erie and the Lackawanna railroads had interchange within the Dunmore area. It’s so weird how all these different railroads interchanged at once and all the super weird connections required great video Like always I look forward to more.
Great vid, thank you. Love the old vs new map comparisons. Your question about why the rails are still there.., man, I too would love know the answer to that. Any chance they were used to build the highway.., I do not know the timelines.
If you like Abandoned Railroads, then you're definitely going to enjoy this one! This one has modern day meeting back in the day.
Why are we not living together yet???😬😬😬
bethlehem steel HQ was in bethlehem pennsylvania. they started closing down plants in the early 1990's stopping producing steel in november '95 they filed for bankruptcy in 2001. and was desolved in 2003. and any remaining assets were acquired by International Steel Group.
1919 my grandpa was a teenage bricklayer in steubenville Ohio. He was one strong man and lived to be 93 and his son, my dad lived to be 94. Great video
My granddad was a master mason here in Washington state and started to learn his trade around when yours would have been. He worked on several big dams.
Jp i worked for Conrail in the 70's and this track you are on was left there for the Dunmore Industrial Park. The plans were to ship garbage trains from Philadelphia to the landfill also all the new track under the bridges were part of the contract to replace all track under the 380 bridges. The industrial park had Trane, Rca, and other company's that made large components and needed rail service to ship them out. They would run them down the Dunmore Secondary to Pittston. Thank You.
Mr. Nole is 100% correct on the reason why those 🤣rails a😅nd ties before the landfill are in such good condition. The plan was to haul garbage into the landfill via train rails from the big cities. Why it never happened only some people within the landfill will have that answer. Can you imagine the amount of garbage that could have been moved on a daily basis should this have been approved? Project is probably dead in the water by now, but anything is possible. Love your dedication and passion exploring each and every area you wander into to explore. Thank you for the history lesson which brings back a lot of memories of all the left behind remains of what was here ,and what is remaining for us to still view and reminisce. Be safe!👍🏻
One reason why lines were single-tracked is because some states levied property taxes on the basis of track miles. Reducing a line to a single track coul reduce property taxes substantially.
My grandmother's dad worked for the Erie Railroad. I still remember all of my grandmother's stories about how she would travel, for free, to visit all of her relatives.
Seeing this and realizing that trains rolled through here in the early 80's makes me feel old xD. But then I also remember watching the little speeders roll by as a kid, growing up near tracks.
love the NE. Pa rail vids. My grandfather worked for DLW/EL for 46 years loved the stories he told also back in the day they made stuff to last. To bad no-one had the foresight to help the rail industry stay afloat we could use more freight and passenger service today.
Thanks for checking out the video
JP, there were actually two rail services in the ROW you are exploring. The Jessup Branch of the Erie RXR from the Rock Junction across the 100 footer bridge, (being the track closest to Dunmore) went to Gypsy Grove, went west at Lincoln Junction and serviced the Pennsylvania Breakers (1&3) before heading north crossing Marshwood Road near the now J&J Pallet Co., towards Winton. The left spur of the Erie, near the interstate bridges, travelled through the housing area (between the tracksd and I-81) almost a 180 degree turn, to the Spencer Breaker, all under the I-81 now. The second line was the DL&W (Winton Branch) line that rose from the DL&W Main and then paralleled the Erie, ( at the end of the 100 footer bridge abutment) travelled across the now topographically changed dump and crossed just east of the Keystone Propane sales also on the Marshwood Road. These two distinct ROW's can be found on Hill St Jessup at Breaker St (DL&W) and Front St, (Erie) where the houses on Front St are in the former Erie Jessup Rail Yard. The newer trackage you see under the bridges was relaid to service Gould Battery, Dunmore plant which is now Warhorse and potentially the landfill with the Throop Industrial Park. When the new Rt 6 was finished the siding to Warhorse (former Gould Battery) was cut off. Some Dunmore historians will tell you about the big dispute to replace the two track crossing at Drinker St, while Erie was defunct and the DL&W was now Erie Lackawanna, which fought to only replace one track crossing. Because you research a lot of railroads, have you ever used Google Earth and Antracite RXR overlays?
I use goggle earth fairly often. Thanks for providing all that info.
The holding yard in jessup was right where front street runs off of hill street.
Thanks for sharing this video and information. Enjoyed seeing the old abandoned rails and your discussion about the Erie RR
Thanks for watching
I like abandoned tracks so much,i live in Holland,and when tracks not in use anymore,they gonna take them out of the ground and build something else in the same place,like buildings or what ever... keep up the good work!!!
That rail was made at the Lackawanna steel plant , which is just outside of Buffalo NY . Like the Erie rail road the steel plant is long gone .
I have found the plates that the rail is spiked to sometimes have a date stamped on them also.
About 10 years there was a plan to restore the tracks where they merge onto the Pocono main. The Jessup branch and winton Branch ran parallel just winton was owned by the Lackawanna . If u walk the tracks below Drinker street the rock wall is covered in steel mesh to stabilize it . I guess Denaples abandoned the idea . On the landfill property there is also a quarry too. It’s a shame the idea was given up
Good series. The Erie Railroad went thru my property in Decatur, IN. The rails are gone, but I continually find spikes & rail plates, along with pieces of coal.
I worked with LB Foster when they pulled up the line in the early '80s, from Huntington to Hammond, Indiana. I bought a lot of ROW stuff for my collection, including a couple whole semaphores and a lot of smaller stuff! L R Mobly was the superintendent of the job with his job office at the Huntington depot. He had Lou Gehrig's Disease, like that Steven Hawking guy, and he had a color catalogue of all the ROW stuff, and they were selling it to anyone in the public that wanted it! The semaphore signal at Wilder's crossing cost me all of $75.00!! A 3-arm interlock mast for the crossing of the Monon there at US 421!
I really liked this. Your use of the maps was great. And the montage.. good music match with your shots.
Hello JP at 12.39 the concrete block with the screwed on cap was used near under ground storage to check if the tanks was leaking into the ground water.
Bethlehem Steel used to have a plant in Lackawanna NY just south of Buffalo
Great video! Love listening to you tell the history of the old tracks! Keep up the wonderful job you do!!
💙
I love seeing old railroads, I don't have any near my house. Loved seeing all the pictures! Thank you for sharing
My pleasure
Lackawanna is the former Bethlehem Steel plant in Lackawanna, NY. They were who made the most rail at that time. They completely shut down in the 80's.
They had coke ovens, two blast furnaces, a huge area. Almost everything is demolished now. The only remains that are in use are a part that is now Republic Steel.
That was so informative and really interesting and such great history! I like when you use the maps. What an awesome adventure! Beautiful day too! That would make for a nice rail trail for walking and biking and so forth. #NaturesCornDog 😂Love it and Squiddy 😂confirms that it is definitely abandoned, so funny! Looking forward to seeing more on your new photography channel! Great video JP, thank you!
😁
Around WW1 the tracks had to be monumented for tax purposes - maybe that disc in the concrete was for the measurements.
shoot! I missed the live :( Oh well! will watch it now and come back comment afterwards!
#corndog is funny! I also used to always think cat tails look like hot dogs.
Well I do not know much about trains (learnt a lot here) but I do love abandoned stuff. This was a treat! Thanks JP
Ps the announcement is perfect!!! Photography is also my first passion (before video) so I’m definitely subscribing!!
Woo hoo! Thanks 💙
@@JPVideos81 ❤️
Rail was manufactured at Bethlehem Steel Lackawanna New York near Buffalo. Bethlehem Steel had several mills producing rail. In the mid to late 70's all rail production was consolidated to Steelton. In the early 80's a continuous bloom caster was installed at Steelton. Blooms are the rough shape of Steel that rail is rolled from. In the 90's rail head hardening technology was installed at Steelton. In the late 2000s a walking beam furnace was installed. Steelton is still producing rail today with the mill now being owned by Cleveland-Cliffs.
The section under the highway isn’t original. Mr DeNaples install that section in the early nineties to mid nineties as the Casey Hwy was being constructed and the 81/84/380 was being redesigned. The original bridge for the highway over the tracks was going to be removed since the tracks were abandoned. Mr DeNaples stopped them and rebuild the tracks into the landfill so PennDOT had to incorporate the track’s rights of way into the project. The tracks never got used and now a parking lot has been build over the right of way at Drinker for a law office. I doubt the line will ever be reused. As for the date on the rail, Mr DeNaples owns so much, he recycled the track but used new ties.
I'm in Fort Erie Ontario we have a lot of old lines around town and a few still in use, we also have the International train bridge between Fort Erie Ontario and Buffalo New York the bridge was built in 1873 over the Niagara River and is still currently in use, on the American side a part of the bridge swings but I believe that hasn't been used in many many years, Fort Erie also had a huge train yard, switch house and locomotive shop (locomotive shop is currently a train museum) in the 40's to 80's over 100 trains a day crossed the bridge now only a few a day.
The swing bridge is still in operation and manned when the canal is open
Great video with a lot of great history. The cattail can be used as a fire starter. Thanks for sharing.
Congratulations! Can't wait to check it out! Thanks JP!
Hope you enjoyed it
@@JPVideos81 Yes very much. Can't wait for more! Very informative (5 Stars)
I'm always fascinated by these old rails
corn dogs lol....nice hike good infos.
😁
Quite possibly they left rails there maybe for future reactivation because some times when you remove rails you lose trackage rights
Quote I found years ago about the Keystone industrial park about Louis DeNaples. Possible access to the industrial park via the Erie died when Hurricane Gloria wiped out a lot of the old Erie tracks in 1985. Louis DeNaples was talking about restoring the old DL&W Winton branch a few years ago to serve trash trains, but that idea was abandoned. It'd be the only way, and it would involve a switchback and a perimeter track around the dump. Not likely to ever happen.
Fanatic video thanks JP
I agree with you JP, my thoughts are it's probably to expensive in 1984 to remove them. I love your rail road history videos, conrail always fascinated me
Another informative video, liked how you used the maps pointing where you were, love these old abandoned railroads . Wish you can make a video on the abandon northern Indiana joilet cutoff line, well part of it is a walking trail in Illinois that I know of , most of the 44 miles of trackage has been pulled up, but some rements still remain.
The Joliet cutoff, I think, is the one that departed the old NYC in Lake Station Indian and went through Gary and Griffith on its way to Joliet. It hosted 2 trains a day in the '60s when I was a kid. West, and then back east. That was the Michigan central line, the first railroad through the area I believe. Installed in about 1854. Joy's Run was a nickname for a portion of the main line through Porter Indiana. I think it referred to the Superintendent who had to make a run down the track, practically for his life, during a payroll hang-up in the early history of the MC!
What a fascinating video. Thank you !
Great production man, you have a good eye to see and record the details I wanted to see. Also I really like how you put things into context with overlays, etc. Keep it up, you'll get to a million subs!
Thanks!
This has been an amazing walk in history. They leave some rails in odd places here in Aussie as well. Something i have always wondered as well seems a waste to me.
Yes they do. There's alot of stuff here that actually makes zero sense if you start looking into it 🤷♂️
What a fab video part 5 documenting this old railroad, if those rails could talk! Good luck with your new channel. I dont know what to watch next im spoilt for choicè! Take care JT. ❤😊
Outstanding video!!!!! Love the history lesson.
Thanks for checking it out
ConRail may have abandon a lot of railways in the mid 1980s. I live on the east side of Indianapolis next to the abandon Pensilvania RR Columbus - Indianapolis via Bradford line, about 186 miles long. ConRail abandon the line around 1985 and started selling off the real estate. I was able to find that Amtrak used the line for running the "National" which they stopped in 1979. After Amtrak stopped using the line that appears to be its reason for abandonment. I was working on a project on that railroad bed around Gem Indiana April 2023 and the ballast was lacking any sharp edges resembling rounded river stones with much of it turned to course grindings. The sub ballast was totally worn out and would have moved under load.
A Mr. Johnson I talked to around 2008 at the railroad's crossing of Sugar Creek in Philadelphia Indiana said when Amtrak came across the bridge there the tracks gave so much he could clearly see the couplers of the passenger cars would be out of vertical alignment so far there would be vertical space between the bottom of one coupler and the top of the other coupler. There was nothing holding the cars together at that point. A few feet later the couplers would be messed together again. That's how bad the rail bed was and digging into that old sub ballast a few weeks ago I can understand why the rail bed gave so much.
I've never seen railroad ballast with every edge rounded over like river stone before. That ballast could have dated back to WW2 or even possibly when they doubled tracked the line in 1916. I found remnants of foundry slag ballast in someplaces along the line. That foundry slag ballast appears to have been removed after the line was abandon. It is considered a high quality railroad ballast. There are large sections of the railroad bed that appear missing in some areas. Selling of the foundry slag ballast would be an explanation for those missing rail bed sections.
It was a huge mistake to not keep the railway corridor in tacked because today people are trying to reconstitute the railway corridor for a cycle path with a lot of out of corridor routing taking place. The direction to do this comes from the Indianapolis Metropolitan area cycle Greenway network for rapid bicycle transit from the early 1990s so it was just little over five years before the RR corridor was targeted for a rail-to-trail conversion.
Putting some water on rusted or rock textures frequently brings out the detail. If you have drinking water along it is good to bring some extra for that purpose. Puddles of water can also be used if available.
I really appreciate and enjoy your videos. This one was great. Looking forward to more on this line.
Thank you
My guess is that when the railway was at their highest, they were able to remove the unused section. But as time went on and budgets got tighter and smaller, that is when the last remaining tracks were left behind
🎉❤😊 can’t wait to watch it
Great video. I think that rail was produced by Bethlehem Steel in Lackawanna NY, a suburb of Buffalo.
This was, in terms of history forgotten, a FANTASTIC video!!!! Thank you, very much!!!
My pleasure
Looks like it could be a fun speeder run. While some weeds could need clearing, the rails are still properly in place, and the bridges look sound. Most likely the track was still a legal right-of-way when the highway was built, even though it was inactive by that time. That's why the highway bridged over it instead of simply putting the abutment over the old line.
Thank You for Sharing this 😊 Incredible Journey 💕
The rails for Left for storage for the extra cars that they have leftover and that way they can put them on there
Great video as always JP!
Here in Wisconsin abandoned rails *usually* don't last long because the state buys them and converts them to rail trails as a means of preserving the right-of-way while generating tourism. Milwaukee is a bit of an exception because it's an old industrial city and it wouldn't make sense to convert everything into a trail.
Also, Nature's corn dogs are edible! Just not the way you found them and they taste nothing like corn dogs. (Or so I've heard.)
Don’t walk in the gauge as my conductor would tell me 😂
😁
Unlike rail fans railroad executives will abandon a line in a heartbeat if it’s not turning a profit they are not sentimental
Great video be careful out there
GReat video Jp thanks for sharing this with us keep up the great work :D
I’m glad you took poor little Squidward home, he looked lonely!! Very proud of you for standing still on that sketchy little bridge and you kept turning back and forth!! Thanks for taking us along!! 💖🛤️💙💖🛤️💙
Squiddy is happy now
Very good keep them coming
Lol, Spring flower. Takes me back to FAV Movie, October Sky 😊
Metal marker set in concrete resembles USGS survey benchmark and triangulation station.
Maybe they are preserving the right a way by leaving the rail there
The rails might be still there because, they don't own the right of way, it's entirely possible, that, Conrail's successes, probably Norfolk Southern, still owns the railroad track right of way yet, so, that's always a possibility too.
Pocono Northeast Railroad was the last to use that portion of the railroad you described in your video.
Impressive photo montage at the end!
Thanks
Great video. Thank you!
Who owns that right of way? Your idea of a speeder club using that is great because the buried rails can be revealed with a little work. Maybe a lot of work.
I have found that even though the rails are concidered abandoned , many times the railroad still owns and has the rights to the property.
Easy example would be the Cumberland Valley Railroad bridge that crosses the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg to Lemoyne.
The bridge hasn't had tracks in decades. Lemoyne wanted to make a railtrail. They found out that both Norfolk Southern and Amtrak both co-own the bridge and NEITHER have any interest in giving it up.
Put an old electric school bus on the rails and traverse the area. Vice president Harris could visit and exclaim how she loves electric school buses so much. Even more so when full of homeless living together in peace and unity.
@@halaheleu7013 ...... could be even more lucky and the electric bus will burn to the ground just like in Detroit.
Thanks for the history
" Modern day meets back in the day " .........love it !Great history lesson ..💙👍 # Nature's Corndog LOL....
Sometimes my thoughts make sense 😊
Wow! Looking forward to photography channel!😃 this video was awesome ty
Thanks!
Great video
I grew up in Dunmore very close to the Erie yard near Wheeler avenue…would be nice to see a video on that 😊
I would love to see old abandoned sections of rail line repurposed for speeder use. That would be so awesome! My momma used to call old speeder cars putt putts 😊. The nice looking rails under the bridge would be a mighty fine start to speeder car railway...lol. I used to live behind progress rail and for 3 long years I heard the rail breaker 24/7 🤦🤦🤦 it really got old. I will definitely check out your new channel because I love photography tips. Please don't eat natural corn dogs. ✌
Those 🌽 🐕 look full of fiber haha
Well damn, I-81 runs right thru there. I travel that area twice yearly.
In California, the minute a rail is abandoned, a salvage company is hot to remove the tracks. Hundreds of miles of secondary mains of the Santa Fe and some of the SP lines were removed back in the early 80's to the mid 1990's. The rest of the lines of the "Minkler Southern" division of the Santa Fe was removed in 2012
I always enjoy the rail road videos they ate so different to our rail system here in the UK.
That was funny nature's hot dog🤣 they really do look like it
Great job on UA-cam videos and 👍😎🙏 good health
Let’s have a weenie roast with nature’s corn dogs; yummy! 😉 thanks for the hike, JP….🌝
😁
great yet also sad video 👍😢happy Earth day 🌎
#Nature's Corn Dogs! Love it! Thank you for sharing this amazing history! 💙💙💙
Erie merged with Lackawanna in 1960 so I would think that rail was lackawanna rail possibly I have seen rail road line names on the rail before ..love your railroad history videos thanks
This is so cool...
You are just a big kid...lol...playing with the shovel 😅
That Eichalberger? Monitoring medallion in the concrete that had the triangle with the center round area I believe was to periodically Survey the site, the surveyor would set the tripod on that center area (or use as point of reference) to survey using same coordinates.
Thanks for the info
JP my guess if you do read some history, the old Scranton ironworks moved to Lackawanna New York outside of Buffalo and I believe the steel company eventually became part of Bethlehem Steel. I think that’s where the connection is but I could be wrong.
Bethlehem Steel was located in Lackawanna NY and made rails
There is always a date and the company that made the rail on them. There are a lot of miles of abandoned rail here in Nebraska too.
19:54 This means that this section likely wasn't for the Erie. It was most likely for the Lackawanna railroad, Erie's top competitor (if you dont count lines feeding into Chicago.)
That thing at the 12 minutes mark seems to be a survey marker, even though i couldn't find anything about 'Eichelberger' , the triangle with the dot in it is a rather dead giveaway of what it is!
It's a cap for a monitoring well. Says so right on it.
@@ostrich67 Oh, i have never stumbled upon one of these before, thanks for clarifying!
@@ianmp1416 You'll likely find one at any gas station.
Pretty neat J. I old-new fusion you ought to get an atv and ride the trails.
Was the railway active after the highway was constructed?
There were plans for it to be used more recently, but I believe the mid/late 80s is last time it was used. So it may have been operational at the same time for a period of time.
You should do a segment on the abandoned goast trains up here in Maine
I know exactly where you were. My hair salon I go to; Kathy's Hair Care is right next to them and I have been looking at them for years. Thanks for the informative video about them.
My pleasure
love watching.
Very interesting! Believe it or not this line was constructed by the Lackawanna Railroad as their Winton branch and the Erie had trackage rights over the line and that’s how the Erie and the Lackawanna railroads had interchange within the Dunmore area. It’s so weird how all these different railroads interchanged at once and all the super weird connections required great video Like always I look forward to more.
Thanks for sharing
@ of course
hope get start n thumbs up
Maybe that second line was going to be for a walk / bike trail. At that time they would be ripping up and placing material in for that project.
The second main line you are constantly mentioning was the Lackawanna's Winton Branch .
Is the line heading toward Steam Town?
This is about 15 minutes from Steamtown
Time to build a railcart!
I remember that.. there was a trail around there..
Excellent
Up in Maine they took the rails up in the early 90’s
Great vid, thank you. Love the old vs new map comparisons. Your question about why the rails are still there.., man, I too would love know the answer to that. Any chance they were used to build the highway.., I do not know the timelines.
Rumor is there was plans to have the landfill serviced by rail at one point, but the plan was scrapped.