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Re: (erielack) Scranton "Bridge 60"

Mike,

    I don't know where it got started, but I came to Scranton after the 
merger, and all the oldheads called it Bridge 60 and when I left in 1971, it 
was still bridge 60. The nomenclature lasted quite a while. I STILL call it 
bridge 60 and I'm glad it exists. I felt terrible when I saw BY tower come 
down. I think one of u guys ought to buy Nicholson tower and rehab it as a 
rental...........it's not too far from Steamtown and u'd have the fun of 
seeing trains go by - maybe give them a highball. Of course they wouldn't be 
2-8-2s and 4-8-4s...........not even GMY diesels, but u'd be able to walk 
the old wye that was there and explore the remains of the pumphouse at the 
little pond across the tracks. I mean after all, the tower will last forever 
(unless the CN bulldozes it).

Walt Smith


>From: MDelvec952_@_aol.com
>Reply-To: "EL Mail List" <erielack_@_lists.elhts.org>
>To: erielack_@_lists.elhts.org
>Subject: Re: (erielack) Scranton "Bridge 60"
>Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 23:02:40 EDT
>
>
>In a message dated 8/6/2007 7:54:25 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>raildata_@_comcast.net writes:
>
>I no  longer have any DL&W or EL employee's timetables. Can anyone tell me 
>if
>  anywhere in DL&W or El official operating documents there is any 
>reference
>to "Bridge 60"?
>
>Everyone (including Tabor refers to it by that  nomenclature. Also says it
>was so called becaseu it was 60 miles from the  Delaware River (which isn't
>correct).
>
>The only engineering reference I  can find calls it "Bridge 133.82", which 
>is
>the normal way of railroads  identifying bridges.
>
>Any comments?
>
>
>
>Hi Chuck,
>
>     Having never heard a real answer to that question,  I researched this
>years ago and found that the Bridge 60 moniker dates  to DL&W's biblical 
>times
>(1853) when the mileposts started at  Great Bend. DL&W got to Binghamton 
>over
>the Erie.  After Sam Sloan  joined the DL&W late in the Civil War years and 
>had
>risen to president late  in 1867, completing his own line to Binghamton 
>(ca.
>1869-1870), the  mileposts began at the Susquehanna River which is almost
>exactly 60 miles  from the Lackawanna River (before the Nicholson Cut-off 
>was
>built). A year  or two after the Civil War the Lackawanna River bridge in  
>Scranton
>was being upgraded from wooden trestle to stone arch; it is likely  during
>this project that it got the name Bridge 60.
>
>     In Taber the 1857 timetable shows Scranton 48  miles from Great Bend, 
>and
>the 1878 issue shows Scranton station to be 62 miles  from Binghamton
>station, confirming the mileage. In both timetables and the  others of 
>similar
>vintage at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania the  mileposts begin at the 
>north end.
>
>     I've never seen Bridge 60 in a modern employee  timetable and don't
>recall seeing it in a bulletin order.  So, Chuck, since  you grew up in 
>Scranton,
>do you remember calling it Bridge 60, or  hearing trainmen call it that, in 
>the
>1940s and '50s?  If not, could  it be possible that Taber-the-father had
>heard the term from the early  railroaders he knew and TTTIII used it in 
>his book
>enough to make it stick  today?
>
>Mike Del Vecchio
>veni - vidi - vici
>
>
>
>
>
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