Lehigh & New England Alco FA-1s parked at the Hainesburg, NJ depot. While pretty snappy when new, the paint was pretty scruffy by this point, and since this was taken in '61, they weren't going to get a repaint. The viaduct in the background is the Paulinskill Viaduct, also know as the Hainesburg Viaduct, which was part of the DL&W Lackawanna Cutoff.
Lehigh & New England #504 displays it's obvious Pennsy heritage with a local freight at Stillwater, NJ. The only motive power ever owned by the L&NE that had a trailing truck, these four L1s Mikados were purchased secondhand from the Pennsy in 1941. The L1s was an impressive machine in terms of performance, even serving as the blueprint for the USRA Heavy Mikado, and was representative of PRR's "Standard Of The World" mindset, which referred to standardization of parts across steam locomotives. The 574 L1s used the same boiler package, firebox, trailing truck and other appliances as the 425 PRR K4s Pacifics. But the L1s also rapidly became PRR's red-headed stepchild of the steam era, when just two years after it's introduction, the I1s 2-10-0 stole all the heavy drag freight assignments, and just nine years after introduction it was bumped off fast merchandise by the arrival of the M1 Mountains. Finally, in the 1930s, the electrification of freight traffic between New York and Potomac Yard and later, Enola, combined with the tremendous loss of business during the Depression period placed hundreds of these 2-8-2s into storage. PRR sold some off to ATSF and L&NE during the early days of WWII, where they performed well.
Here’s a railroad disaster I'd not heard about before. On July 19, 1974 an N&W a boxcar, while being switched into a cut of cars, had its coupler run over the coupler of a tank car containing isobutane, puncturing the tank car & causing an explosion that killed 7 & injured another 349 people.
A trusty old 2-8-0 Camelback belonging to the L&NE crosses Union Boulevard in Bethlehem, PA. The L&NE actually ordered the final new Camelback locomotives, a batch of 0-8-0s, in 1927. The left side of the forward cab being occupied is a rare sight. There wasn't much up there, other than a jump seat, and the fireman typically only went up there when they weren't going anyplace, sitting around in a yard or siding. The front brakeman would often ride there though, and look back, functioning much the same as a doghouse on the tender.
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
I'm surprised Facebook let some of those photos be posted. I also could have done without seeing a couple of them.
Want to join NARCOA? Someone in West Monroe, NY has a running ex-Rutland speeder for $4k
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More on the Decatur explosion. No graphic pictures I have seen yet, luckily.
The fireman aboard L&NE 2-8-0 #304 must be hard at work at Branchville, NJ, with the black cloud pouring out that stack and the safety valve lifted. It's funny how motive power for a lot of the anthracite roads gravitated towards a similar design: absolutely massive 2-8-0s with a huge firebox and headlight mounted above the center of the smokebox. The L&HR 90s, the L&NE E-14s, the Reading I-10sa, the D&H E6s, all markedly similar in appearance and purpose.
L&NE E-14 #305 at Mount Bethel, PA with thirty-six cars. The way the smoke plume is going straight up tells you that the engineer must have the throttle opened right up, giving the exhaust blasts velocity.
L&NE camelback 2-8-0 headed east out of Bethlehem, PA on April 20th, 1946, again with someone riding in the lefthand side of the front cab.
L&NE Camelback 0-8-0 #120 at Bath, PA facilities. These three 0-8-0s, #120-#122, constructed in 1927 by Baldwin, were the last Camelback locomotives constructed. Again, there was never actually a ban on the construction or operation of Camelback locomotives, as is so commonly reported, it was just that a number of factors mades the design fall out of favor. That being said, the ICC and unions had made enough rumblings about their displeasure over the Camelback design that, perhaps if it had remained popular, they would have stepped in and taken action.
One of the L&NE's monster F-1 Decapods grinds its way out of Tamaqua, PA. While smaller and less powerful than the PRR's I1sas and the Western Maryland's I-2s, the L&NE's four 2-10-0s were still serious tonnage-maulers. Capable of 90,295lbs of tractive effort from the engine alone, they could also add another 16,200lbs from the Bethlehem booster on the rear tender truck, which you can just see the side connecting rods for. The F-1s were used on the line between Bath and Summit, Pa, which had a ruling grade of 2.74%.
L&NE F-1 Decapod #403 with a freight headed from Arlington to Pen Argyl, PA at Berlinsville, PA. That's the Delaware Water Gap in the back ground and you can just see the impressive Lehigh Gap bridge, which crossed the gap and the Lehigh Valley and Central Railroad of New Jersey.
L&NE 2-10-0 #404, with 2-8-0 #304 shoving at the back, crossing the 1076ft bridge at Lehigh Gap. That's the double-tracked Lehigh Valley mainline on the far bank and the CNJ mainline on the near bank. There's also a road crammed in between the CNJ line and the embankment.
L&NE Consolidation #303 and Decapod #403 darken the skies on the steep grade leading to the aptly-named Summit, Pennsylvania
An excellent rods-down roster shot of L&NE F-1 Decapod #404 at Pen Argyl, PA, which was the L&NE's major homebase of operations. From this angle you can see the side rods on the rear tender truck, which are part of the Bethlehem tender booster. While the F-1 by itself was less powerful than the PRR I1sa and WM I-2, that tender booster did actually bump them up to more powerful than both when it was cut in.
I'm curious what the story is behind one of L&NE's big Decapods leading just a single hopper car and a caboose at Bath, PA. Seems like overkill.
Another one of the L&NE's ex-PRR L1s Mikados leading a freight from the massive Maybrook Yard facility, shared by six railroads, to Pen Argyl
One of the ex-Pennsy Mikados alongside brand-new Alco FA-1s at Pen Argyl. Similar to how the Anthracite Roads all preferred big, wide-fireboxed Consolidations, there seemed to be a strong preference for Alco diesels with many of them. The D&H was pure Alco motive power until they purchased EMD SD45s, the Lehigh Valley owned some Baldwins and EMDs but the vast majority were Alcos, the Lehigh & Hudson River only owned Alco RS-3s and Alco C420s for diesels, and the Lehigh & New England owned Alco S-2s, RS-2s and FA-1s, with just two Whitcomb 65-tonners being the odd outliers.
A L&NE Alco FA-1 set sits alongside an ex-Erie, now Erie-Lackawanna, F3A at Maybrook Yard. The massive Maybrook Yard served six different railroads at one point: the New Haven, the Erie, the L&HR, the NYO&W, the L&NE, and the New York Central. Of course, the New Haven and New York Central became part of Penn Central, the NYO&W was abandoned in '57, the L&NE followed it in '61, and the L&HR lost most of it's traffic, which was interchanged from the New Haven, to the Penn Central merger.
Taken at Pen Argyl in spring of 1961, with less than a year of operation left, Alco #709 wears the later simplified livery that L&NE adopted on some of the FAs. Rather than paint the three separate stripes, they just made them one broad white stripe. After King Coal had lost his crown, the Black Diamond had lost it's luster, and Phoebe White no longer traveled the Road of Anthracite, most of the eastern PA roads had pivoted to cement haulage as their main source of income. The ICC-set rate for haulage by truck, combined with Pennsylvania highway weight restrictions, made it more economical to haul by rail, and there wasn't a truck trailer that could properly haul cement either. But in 1959, the ICC deregulated the rates for hauling cement by truck, but not by rail, and shortly afterwards Pennsylvania pulled back their weight restrictions, and shortly afterwards the first bulk cement trailers came out. This immediately took a huge chunk out of the L&NE, L&HR, CNJ and Lehigh Valley, and while the L&NE was still profitable in 1961, watching the cement traffic vanishing rapidly, likely was a factor in L&NE's decision to file for abandonment.
One of the L&NE's dapper Alco RS-2's getting turned on the Tamaqua turntable.
A clean A-B-A set of FA-1s arriving at Maybrook Yard. L&NE reportedly ran their Alco FA-1s into the ground over the years, probably due to the FA-1 churning out 5000lbs more tractive effort at lower speeds than an EMD F3, despite being rated at the same horsepower as the EMD F3. A lot of FA-1s, RS-2s and RS-3s were absolutely beat to death in heavy drag service due to their low-speed pulling power.. Its why some railroads were willing to put up with the idiosyncrasies of early Alco products.
From L&NE to L&N. When the L&NE ended operations, the Louisville & Nashville grabbed up some of their Alco FAs and gave them this weird repaint and pressed them into service. Around this time, the Ol' Reliable was on a bit of a secondhand power buying spree, ending up with RS-3s from the recently-abandoned Rutland as well as the Central Vermont and the Great Northern and GP7s from Chicago & Eastern Illinois.
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