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RE: (erielack) RE: Reminder: Weekly Newsletter For <wsmith5957_@_hotmail.com>

Wonderful story and certainly a further reason to expect a train anywhere,
anytime.  Wonder how that same cut of cars would have done had the journals
been roller bearing.

Joshua
http://www.joshuakblay.com

- -------------------------------------------------


- -----Original Message-----
From: Walter Smith [mailto:wsmith5957_@_hotmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 7:52 PM
To: bvolkmer; Chuck Yungkurth; Danny Wilkin; EL List; jackkluge; Mary
Portelli; lackawanna1_@_juno.com; pemchugh@aol.com; railwriter@comcast.net;
s2choochoo_@_bellsouth.net; snopercod@citcom.net;
terryes_tropical_photos_@_yahoo.com
Subject: (erielack) RE: Reminder: Weekly Newsletter For
<wsmith5957_@_hotmail.com>


Hot times & hotboxes in the old town  (1950s)
   
        In this bygone time (how short a time it seems - 58 years or so
ago), the ERIE railroad still had
a large presence in the anthracite mining area of the Lackawanna & Wyoming
valleys of northeast Pennsylvania. The Company had a yard in Avoca, Pa. from
which they dispatched crews to gather the hopper cars full of the black
diamonds. After enough of them were assembled in Avoca yard, a train would
be dispatched up the Jefferson Division through Carbondale and over Ararat
summit to connect with the ERIE mainline at Starucca or Susquehanna. These
were heavy trains & starred in many photo books showing 3 (or more) 2-10-2s
and maybe a 2-8-4 or 2 working their hearts out on the uphill climb. See -
STEAM ON THE ANTHRACITE ROADS. 
        One of the branch lines that fed Avoca yard was a single-track that
wound thru backyards of Pittston, Pa. & paralleled the Laurel Line
interurban to the south side of Pittston. It was here the mishap occurred. I
remember being in high school (1953 or 54) and hearing my parents discussing
it because I was dating a girl whose backyard in Pittston had the ERIE
branch as a boundary. SOMEBODY had failed to tie down the handbrakes on a
loaded cut of coalcars in Avoca yard and since it was higher than Pittston,
the cars started rumbling that way. How nobody got killed at the crossings
amazes me since it was a lightly built, mostly unprotected branchline.
Gathering speed in the dark, the cars descended upon the edges of Pittston,
crossing unprotected streets and gaining speed past the amazed inhabitants
who didn't hear any engine whistle for the many crossings in town. The cut
of 20 or 30 cars went completely through the city and far to the south where
they stopped on the up!
 grade..........then started back. What a sight (not that much could be seen
ion the total darkness) BUT - no headlight, bell, or whistle. Just a growing
rumble then a roar as the cars hurtled by to Avoca where they sloowwed, then
started back south. By the third trip, there were a few hotboxes, and the
passage was marked by flames & sparks. It must have been pretty scary to
have THAT in your backyard. 
        Finally some men got trackside with blocks of wood & as the runaways
slowed, they chocked the cars. I'll bet there was a great hearing for
somebody at Avoca yard in a day or 2. After my military service when I was
hired on the ERIE, I often thought of this incident, but even though I asked
around, nobody wanted to talk about it. Some things are best left forgotten.
      I went home & visited the area where this took place, but there's
hardly anything left. The branch served a few local industries in upper
Pittston and Hughestown during the EL era, but by 2000, the only traces were
a few crossings where the town fathers had left the rails in place and a
rock cut at the top of Broad St. in Pittston, Pa. People probably wonder
what it is for, but it was an exciting place 50 or so years ago.
 
Regards to all
 
Walter E. Smith


To: wsmith5957_@_hotmail.comSubject: Reminder: Weekly Newsletter For
<wsmith5957_@_hotmail.com>From: wsmith5957@hotmail.comDate: Mon, 28 Jan 2008
14:04:46 -0800








 

January 29, 2008



















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