(erielack) Erie Jeff Division

[RAILDATA_@_aol.com]

As a kid in Scranton we lived about 4 city blocks from the D&H in South 
Scranton.

As I recall there were about four Erie trains a day each way on the D&H. 
These were always powered by the USRA 2-10-2s.  With one on the front and a pusher 
on the back. I think the pushers ran all the way to Susquehanna since I don't 
recalle ver seeing light pushers returning, unlike the D&H which had a 
constant flow of pushers going south from Carbondale. Never saw any 2-8-4s until the 
main line started to dieselize.

D&H trains outnumbered Erie by about 4 to 1.

I could see these trains go by while I was in Junior High (with significant 
impact on my grades). As has been said, the Erie was almost all coal traffic, 
but they had trackage rights over the CNJ to Ashley and had a mixed traffic 
train that originated there.

It seems that west bound traffic went up the Jeffereson from Avoca to 
Susquehanna and then on west.  Eastbound coal went up the Erie & Wyoming to 
Lackawaxen and on to Port Jervis.  Recall very few trains on the E&W, but probably 
because most were coal trains that ran at night. My diesel memories are very 
sketchy since I had left Scranton by then, but it seems that standard power was a 
pair of GPs.

Chuck Yungkurth
Boulder CO

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