Interesting rail operations of the roads of the past in the Poconos into the Wyoming & Lackawanna Valleys up thru the start of Big Blue back then LV EL Penn Central trains were Interesting. In Bloomsburg where I live across the river was the former Pennsy then along rt. 11 was the former Delaware Lackawanna & Western that my late father rode in steam days to reach Wilkes Barre in the 30's & 40's he told me one time years ago as a young boy.
After seeing these videos I purchased all three volumes of the Kosin collection. Can’t tell you how many times I watched trains pass by at Bergers, White Haven, Rita, and Solomons gap. Miss all of those great Alcos, EMD’s and older GE’s. Still can see some nice diesels on the Reading and Northern. Scranton has nice Alco’s now.
Bridge 60 was the start of the Bloomsburg branch by the Erie Lackawanna heading down river thru the namesake river town of Bloomsburg passing past Shickshinny past Berwick then the Reading Rupert yard on down thru Danville. Yes I could remember the EL back in the day!
"It's a sad commentary on what pretty stupid railroading did to the east." Very well said Mike, instead of working with each other to compete with trucking the eastern RR were more than happy to fight over smaller and smaller amounts of traffic and let their infurstructure rot out from under them, PC of course being the worst ofender. This is fantastic footage and comentary thank you for making these shows.
D&H was gangster. Nobody wanted to run them north south lines between NY and Penn. They had ge in Schenectady nextdoor to Colonie shops, they were also the first railroad in the us to run a steam loco down a track. Back then it was the albany and Hudson railroad. Later the Albany and Boston railroad. My grandfather was an engineer on the d&h in the 40s-60's. And a ice cutter on the hudson out of Albany/Rensselaer. My great grandfather was an engineer on the nyc steam in the engine days. My dad was conrail in 76 out of selkirk then jumped off for Amtrak in 78 when I was born. I was goofing around in a switcher at 3-4 years old, running to ny city with dad as conductor by 8 out of albany. Good memeories. I still see d&h locos in albany to this day on the CN line that comes down the hudson river to fetch oil/fuel cars from the port of Albany and takes em back up to Quebec on the old D&H lines and the batenkill rr still operates today also with some old D&H pumkin orange rs3 locomotive. The selkirk yard is huge, which was nyc then conrail then csx yard. They only got 3 lines out of selkirk. But it's one of the busiest yards. All the autos for north east come to there and get off loaded, all the oil/fuel gets barged up the hudson to the port of Albany which has it's own little rr, then goes to selkirk for shipping or cn takes some north. The capital region is where all ge products come from, troy built lawn equipment used to be here, RCA, the albany felt paper mill took up 8 square city blocks which I did all the interior trim and doors when they turned it into luxury loft appartments. All your bricks that built Massachusetts, down state by, and Pennsylvania came from none other than my home city "brick city troy ny. Oldest city in the us probably. One of the selkirk lines goes east to boston over a very old long bridge, side by side the thruway bridge that connects the ny thruway to the mass turn pike. Then once on the east side it splits of and goes through historic Chatham ny and into western mass heading north into vt/nh, leaving albany selkirk yard south to ny city stays on west side of river and shoots off several west branches into nj and Penn, (Amtrak has the east side) of Hudson and no fright uses the line between albany and nyc. And one line goes north winding it's way along the west bank of hudson river to Canada. I used to see the conrail trains snaking their way up the champlain valley, head units appear on a curve with a cliff bout 80 feet straight to the water, and middle train on the previous curve and the tail end on the curve before that, it snakes it way thru tunnels and cuts, as I'm on the east side looking out Amtrak window going straight and fast, passing conrail in slow motion cuz were so far apart. The mohawk line was always shared between passenger and fright.
This was 50 plus years ago. Gen X People born 1970-1974 were children and boomers were coming of age when this scene took place. Greatest Generation and Silent Generation remembers this. The Greatest Generation remembers driving trains.
always blows my mind how bad the physical infrastructure was of these class 1s at the time. Absolute dump. Surprised there weren't supply chain shortages with some mainline freights forced to obey 15 mph speed restrictions
Well the railroads featured in this video are still or could be operating entities. Penn Central is actually the renamed PRR and is now known as American Premier Underwriters owned by American Financial Group. The LVRR is currently an inactive business entity also owned by American Financial Group and is placed under the PRR. The second Erie Lackawanna could still be an active business entity but Pa doesn’t keep track of foreign corporations such as the now previous version of the Eastern League baseball league. The first Erie Lackawanna is actually the renamed Erie Railroad which supposedly absorbed the DL&W, the first Erie Lackawanna which is the Erie Railroad was replaced by the N&W/Dereco backed second Erie Lackawanna in 1968. Now the DL&W name is registered as active in Pa as a miscellaneous corporation so I don’t know if it means it’s still an existing business entity. The D&H is now a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific cause a Canadian company can’t absorb an American company cause its foreign to the US.
![[4K] Reading & Northern Doubleheader Steam Special with Reading 2102 and 425](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/uNF89H1ETRE/mqdefault.jpg)
I could listen to this guy tell me train stories all day long.
And drink with him!
Paul Geiger of Clear block productions was really good to. Conrail's Beginning was a good DVD to watch.
But yes Mike is funny as heck...
Interesting rail operations of the roads of the past in the Poconos into the Wyoming & Lackawanna Valleys up thru the start of Big Blue back then LV EL Penn Central trains were Interesting. In Bloomsburg where I live across the river was the former Pennsy then along rt. 11 was the former Delaware Lackawanna & Western that my late father rode in steam days to reach Wilkes Barre in the 30's & 40's he told me one time years ago as a young boy.
Yallin Taormina!
Always a nice surprise to get a visit from John and Mike. Loved the Mustang Mach 1 giving the D&H GE's a run for the money!
Manual gear! Not that automatic crap!
After seeing these videos I purchased all three volumes of the Kosin collection. Can’t tell you how many times I watched trains pass by at Bergers, White Haven, Rita, and Solomons gap. Miss all of those great Alcos, EMD’s and older GE’s. Still can see some nice diesels on the Reading and Northern. Scranton has nice Alco’s now.
Saw a D&H covered hopper the other night on a local freight here in Ohio.
Excellent collection. Omg I remember seeing the boxcars rock like that
Mike reminds me of my grandfather telling his RR stories. These are the greatest collections of the old days. Thank you, JP media for releasing these!
Bridge 60 was the start of the Bloomsburg branch by the Erie Lackawanna heading down river thru the namesake river town of Bloomsburg passing past Shickshinny past Berwick then the Reading Rupert yard on down thru Danville. Yes I could remember the EL back in the day!
7:23 I was driving that very same model '71 silver fastback BOSS 429 back in '73,
but never raced a train with it!! LOL
It's either a 1971 or 1972 Mustang.
I remember these btw.
Nice drive by too.
Another amazing video!! I really like this old footage.
"It's a sad commentary on what pretty stupid railroading did to the east." Very well said Mike, instead of working with each other to compete with trucking the eastern RR were more than happy to fight over smaller and smaller amounts of traffic and let their infurstructure rot out from under them, PC of course being the worst ofender. This is fantastic footage and comentary thank you for making these shows.
Loved every second of this. What great venues to watch trains out in the woods.
Mike is the best great story's lover it
That bridge shot is money
Fantastic preview!
I just found this channel. It's awesome.
D&H was gangster. Nobody wanted to run them north south lines between NY and Penn. They had ge in Schenectady nextdoor to Colonie shops, they were also the first railroad in the us to run a steam loco down a track. Back then it was the albany and Hudson railroad. Later the Albany and Boston railroad. My grandfather was an engineer on the d&h in the 40s-60's. And a ice cutter on the hudson out of Albany/Rensselaer. My great grandfather was an engineer on the nyc steam in the engine days. My dad was conrail in 76 out of selkirk then jumped off for Amtrak in 78 when I was born. I was goofing around in a switcher at 3-4 years old, running to ny city with dad as conductor by 8 out of albany. Good memeories. I still see d&h locos in albany to this day on the CN line that comes down the hudson river to fetch oil/fuel cars from the port of Albany and takes em back up to Quebec on the old D&H lines and the batenkill rr still operates today also with some old D&H pumkin orange rs3 locomotive. The selkirk yard is huge, which was nyc then conrail then csx yard. They only got 3 lines out of selkirk. But it's one of the busiest yards. All the autos for north east come to there and get off loaded, all the oil/fuel gets barged up the hudson to the port of Albany which has it's own little rr, then goes to selkirk for shipping or cn takes some north. The capital region is where all ge products come from, troy built lawn equipment used to be here, RCA, the albany felt paper mill took up 8 square city blocks which I did all the interior trim and doors when they turned it into luxury loft appartments. All your bricks that built Massachusetts, down state by, and Pennsylvania came from none other than my home city "brick city troy ny. Oldest city in the us probably. One of the selkirk lines goes east to boston over a very old long bridge, side by side the thruway bridge that connects the ny thruway to the mass turn pike. Then once on the east side it splits of and goes through historic Chatham ny and into western mass heading north into vt/nh, leaving albany selkirk yard south to ny city stays on west side of river and shoots off several west branches into nj and Penn, (Amtrak has the east side) of Hudson and no fright uses the line between albany and nyc. And one line goes north winding it's way along the west bank of hudson river to Canada. I used to see the conrail trains snaking their way up the champlain valley, head units appear on a curve with a cliff bout 80 feet straight to the water, and middle train on the previous curve and the tail end on the curve before that, it snakes it way thru tunnels and cuts, as I'm on the east side looking out Amtrak window going straight and fast, passing conrail in slow motion cuz were so far apart. The mohawk line was always shared between passenger and fright.
This was 50 plus years ago. Gen X People born 1970-1974 were children and boomers were coming of age when this scene took place. Greatest Generation and Silent Generation remembers this. The Greatest Generation remembers driving trains.
always blows my mind how bad the physical infrastructure was of these class 1s at the time. Absolute dump. Surprised there weren't supply chain shortages with some mainline freights forced to obey 15 mph speed restrictions
Nice Mustang
Same! Big Mike is the best! 🙌🏻
7:21: Ultimate Moment!
Comment number 2! Love these videos!!
50 years ago today
John should do a new version of reading rainbow 🌈 😀
I like early train's
You turn on the t.v and it's a death & destruction fest.. Nice to come here and relax.
I don't think the D&H ever washed or cleaned their engines, EVER!!!!!!
Well the railroads featured in this video are still or could be operating entities. Penn Central is actually the renamed PRR and is now known as American Premier Underwriters owned by American Financial Group. The LVRR is currently an inactive business entity also owned by American Financial Group and is placed under the PRR. The second Erie Lackawanna could still be an active business entity but Pa doesn’t keep track of foreign corporations such as the now previous version of the Eastern League baseball league. The first Erie Lackawanna is actually the renamed Erie Railroad which supposedly absorbed the DL&W, the first Erie Lackawanna which is the Erie Railroad was replaced by the N&W/Dereco backed second Erie Lackawanna in 1968. Now the DL&W name is registered as active in Pa as a miscellaneous corporation so I don’t know if it means it’s still an existing business entity. The D&H is now a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific cause a Canadian company can’t absorb an American company cause its foreign to the US.
This is what baby boomers and Gen X remembers.
EL GE U33C's