Ah, but the time wasn't wasted. I'm getting the impression that the KV line along with Hampton yard were built to handle coal traffic after the DL&W was formed. If so, where was the original terminus of the Lackawanna & Western, downtown where the station was? Paul B Cobb's Gap is where the Raoring Brook entered the Lackawanna Valey and the Winton Branch left the main. Nay Aug was in Cobb's Gap. Loaded anthracite was sorted and coal trains made up at Hampton Yard. Taylor Yard served mainly as the distribution point for empty hoppers going to the mines. I was in Scranton last week and there is still tracks and crossing warning signals at about Luzerne St. The DL&W Scranton Yard msut ahve been an operating disaster. Hot Shot freights going west had their caboose end clear up past the passenger station, clogging one of the 4 main tracks. East bound freights often had to wait west of the yard for hours. To alleviate this congestion Tayler and Hampton were built. Coal trains were amde up at Hampton and went up through Cuyuga Jct going west. I beleive that coal trains did not leave Hamton unless there was a clear path over bridge 60 and through Scranton Yard, where they came through without stopping. The had to cross from one side of bridge 60 to the othere, thereby screwing up switching operations. And then there were passenger trains that ahd to also get through the bottleneck. Eastbound freights with cars for the CNJ at Taylor and bound for the RDG and other points down the Bloomsburg Branch went to hampton Yard. There was a running track that went directly from Scranton Yard to Hampton called Dodge's Cutoff, bybassing Taylor Yard by a couple of hundred feet to the north. The Hampton Yard enginehouse was almost as large as the Scranton one. Pusher and helper engines for coal trains were based at Hampton and Kingston. Hope this helps. Wasted most of my junior and senior high school years watching this aprade out the classroom windows! Chuck Y Boulder CO The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org To Unsubscribe: http://lists.elhts.org/erielackunsub.html ------------------------------
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