Re: (erielack) Erie Lackawanna-track abandonment question at Slateford.

[Dlw1el2_@_aol.com]

I have been away for a week. I see many of the three hundred emails I came  
home to this evening have this Slateford Jct area topic in their  heading.  
I have deleted most so I'm sorry if I'm duplicated some one  else's 
posting. Here is what I can contribute.
 
When the Cut Off was single tracked, starting in 1958 from west to east,  
one of the passing tracks that was kept was at Slateford. ( old track one  )  
The east switch was in NJ, west of Paulins kill  Viaduct.    The west end 
was well over a half a mile west of  where Slateford tower still stands. The 
east end was controlled from Port Morris  and the west end from E. 
Stroudsburg via CTC machines. The Old road switch was  still at the location of where 
Slateford Tower stands today, but was a hand  throw switch from the time 
the tower closed in 1951.   
 
In the early 1960s   61 or 62??  the EL removed Slateford  siding by 
ripping up everything from the east end to the Old Road Switch.   At that location 
the Old Road connection  simply became  an extension of the siding   all 
the way up to the west switch of the  siding.  From that point on in time, and 
into the Conrail era,  Slateford Jct switch was actually a LONG half mile 
west of the Old  Slateford Interlocking plant. From the old Interlocking 
tower up to the new  junction gave the impression of  double track, but the 
track closest to the  river was the Old Road Connection Track. 
 
Note: There was a long passing siding on the Old Road extending towards  
Portland, but that came off the Old Road Main right with in the old  
interlocking and had nothing to do with either main line tracks.
 
My track map in Vol 16 No 2 of the Diamond may be slightly inaccurate. The  
cross over at the old tower does not show on my track diagrams, but some  
employees I have talked to, implied it existed.
 
 
 
Bob Bahrs
 
 
 
In a message dated 10/15/2012 5:47:06 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
paultup_@_comcast.net writes:

> I  have wondered about this myself. While the cut off was single tracked  
in
> 1958, I have seen pictures online of SD45 led trains going through  the
water
> gap area and there are 2 tracks. I have also seen many  more pics where
there
> is only 1 track and, there is no sign of a  second, No ties, ballast etc.
The
> weeds and brush are grown right  up to the single track. Was there some
kind
> of siding here at some  point? Did the track from the old road join the
main in
> the same  place it does today, or did they run next to each other for a
bit.  This
> would explain the double track.

The junction switch at  Slateford Junction actually was west of the tower by
quite a distance. At  this point, it would have appeared as a double-track
main, when in reality  it was the Old Road at that point. The Green Frog EL
video has a nice  sequence of an EL freight backing down the old road at 
this
point to make  way for the NKP 765 heading east at this location.

- -  Paul



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