Re: (erielack) Scranton Area Railroad Map

["Chuck Yungkurth" <raildata_@_comcast.net>]

There is an excellent description of the anthracite operations in Scranton 
in one of Tabot's volumes. It is a reprint from Railway Age or some other 
trade jouranl from the 1920's.

Cobb's Gap is where the Raoring Brook entered the Lackawanna Valey and the 
Winton Branch left the main. Nay Aug was in Cobb's Gap.

Loaded anthracite was sorted and coal trains made up at Hampton Yard. Taylor 
Yard served mainly as the distribution point for empty hoppers going to the 
mines.

I was in Scranton last week and there is still tracks and crossing warning 
signals at about Luzerne St.

The DL&W Scranton Yard msut ahve been an operating disaster.  Hot Shot 
freights going west had their caboose end clear up past the passenger 
station, clogging one of the 4 main tracks. East bound freights often had to 
wait west of the yard for hours. To alleviate this congestion Tayler and 
Hampton were built. Coal trains were amde up at Hampton and went up through 
Cuyuga Jct going west. I beleive that coal trains did not leave Hamton 
unless there was a clear path over bridge 60 and through Scranton Yard, 
where they came through without stopping. The had to cross from one side of 
bridge 60 to the othere, thereby screwing up switching operations. And then 
there were passenger trains that ahd to also get through the bottleneck.

Eastbound freights with cars for the CNJ at Taylor and bound for the RDG and 
other points down the Bloomsburg Branch went to hampton Yard. There was a 
running track that went directly from Scranton Yard to Hampton called 
Dodge's Cutoff, bybassing Taylor Yard by a couple of hundred feet to the 
north.

The Hampton Yard enginehouse was almost as large as the Scranton one. Pusher 
and helper engines for coal trains were based at Hampton and Kingston.

Hope this helps. Wasted most of my junior and senior high school years 
watching this aprade out the classroom windows!

Chuck Y
Boulder CO





- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Brezicki" <doctorpb_@_bellsouth.net>
To: "EL Mailing List" <erielack_@_lists.elhts.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 4:44 AM
Subject: Re: (erielack) Scranton Area Railroad Map


> Nice job on the map, Frank. It reminded me of my longstanding curiosity 
> about the Keyser Valley branch and its origins. Is it the original east 
> end alignment of the broad gauge Lackawanna & Western (originally the 
> Liggett's Gap RR)? I've read that locally it was called the "KV main". If 
> so, then presumably the eventual mainline was built south from Cayuga to 
> connect with the Delaware & Cobb's Gap RR (having no idea where Cobb's Gap 
> is) to form the DL&W. I'm further speculating that Hampton yard on the KV 
> line was the original anthracite classification facility, and was more or 
> leass replaced by Taylor yard for this purpose when the flow of anthracite 
> changed from predominantly northbound to southbound. I know someone on the 
> List can tell me if I'm on the right track.
>
> The branch could be used as a detour route around derailments between 
> Bridge 60 and Cayuga. When my SPV map was published it indicate that the 
> branch was in service for the RBM&N. Is this still the case?
>
> Paul B
>
> From: "Adams, Frank P" <frank.p.adams_@_verizonbusiness.com>
> Subject: (erielack) Scranton Area Railroad Map
>
> I've been working on a little map project ever since I discovered my old
> GPS topo software listed a lot of old railroads and a lot of coal
> breakers.  After some work, here's the Scranton area.
>
> I took great care mapping out the DL&W Pancoast Branch based on the
> value maps Pat McKnight showed me at Steamtown last month.  Naturally
> that branch wasn't on the topo software.   Also extended the DL&W into
> Jessup (Winton) again based on the value maps.
>
>
>
>
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