(rshsdepot) New video features Pennsylvania Train Stations

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From The Pocono Record.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
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Palmerton Train Station Featured in New Video
 
 
By AL ZAGOFSKY
For the Pocono Record
November 24, 2007 
Pennsylvania train buffs have something to celebrate. 
A new video, "Pennsylvania Train Stations — Restored and  Revitalized," 
showcases train stations that have been preserved, restored and  are being used in 
sometimes unique and innovative ways. Included is a station in  nearby 
Palmerton. 
The video was released this week by Inecom Entertainment  Company and is 
available through its Web site, www.trainstationsfilm.com and  select Internet and 
railroad memorabilia outlets. 
The video takes viewers on an unconventional journey to  uncover the richness 
of these often-beautiful memorials to railroading, while  telling the story 
of the people who saved them. The 56-minute video visits 16  stations, split 
equally between Eastern and Western Pennsylvania. 
The film explores how the owners of these properties saw  charm and nostalgic 
beauty in often-rundown buildings that in the early 1900s  were the heart of 
each community and their doorway to the world. As America's  heart was won 
over by the automobile, the train stations closed. Now, they are  being brought 
back to life as homes, restaurants and businesses. 
The 16 segments are from: DiSalvo's Station Restaurant:  Latrobe, 
Westmoreland County; the Frame Station & Gallery: Berwyn, Chester  County; the Public 
Library: California, Washington County; Shoeyville:  Shoemakersville, Berks 
County; Chestnut Ridge Station: Palmerton; Carbon County;  East Mahanoy Junction: 
Barnesville, Schuylkill County; the Station Restaurant:  Tarentum, Allegheny 
County; Union Street Station: Pottsville, Schuylkill County;  Youghiogheny 
Glass: Connellsville, Fayette County; Stoneboro Station: Clarks  Mills, Mercer 
County; Historical Museum: Beaver, Beaver County; Seiple Station:  Sunbury, 
Northumberland County; Woodring Station: Sunbury, Northumberland  County; Columbia 
Station: Phoenixville, Chester County; Tourist & Promotion  Agency: Washington, 
Washington County; Pennsylvanian Apartments: Pittsburgh. 
The Palmerton station is the closest featured station in  northeastern 
Pennsylvania. The video describes it as the Chestnut Ridge Station  and tells the 
story of how it was purchased by John and Ella Ondria and  transformed into a 
private research laboratory. 
The station is gorgeous from the outside. It is a stone  building. It was 
unusual for train stations to be constructed of stone. 
The video provides a visit to the interior of the building,  which has been 
restored and is set up as offices and labs. 
Several calls were made to the Ondrias and at press time,  no response was 
received. 
A visit to the station found it to be closed and the  grounds fenced off to 
potential visitors. 
According to Palmerton historian George Ashman and railroad  historian Pete 
Terp, the building was a Jersey Central passenger station, not a  Chestnut 
Ridge station. 
The Chestnut Ridge Railroad was primarily a freight  railroad used by the New 
Jersey Zinc Company. The only passengers it carried  were its employees at a 
time before workers had cars. It picked them up at a  passenger station on 
Delaware Avenue just above the railroad trestle where it  crosses. Employees got 
off the west plant and east plant and it went to  Kunkletown. 
The Jersey Central originally had a passenger station at  the Lehigh Gap and 
a freight station that no longer exists used as the receiving  point for 
materials to build the NJZ West Plant. 
"There was agitation in Palmerton to have a railroad  station in the 
community," Ashman said. "That's when the Central of New Jersey  built the stone 
station around 1915. I have no idea why it was stone. It may  have been subsidized 
by NJZ." The station made connections to Mauch Chunk,  Allentown, Jersey City, 
and by ferry to New York City. 
Passenger service stopped in mid-century and the building  was sold to a real 
estate entrepreneur before the Ondrias bought it. 
The producer of Pennsylvania Train Stations identified 50  stations that 
looked promising, contacted their owners and narrowed the list to  30 based on 
structure, condition, restoration, unique features and history. The  final 16 
were selected as the "best of the  best."



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