Re: (erielack) Trains Screws up Again -- Anthracite RR Map

[Dlw1el2_@_aol.com]

Jim and list
 
The word Anthracite is a catch all phrase  that can be interpreted by  many 
individuals many different ways.
In this particular instance it's involving the railroads that served the  
Anthracite coal fields, but there stating its depicting a 1954 time frame 
thus  there telling you the NYS&W, WB&E are not in it, so don't look for them.  
Sure the PRR was there to a smaller extent, but was probably left off 
because  you couldn't show a detailed map going all the way to Chicago. They were 
never  thought of as a Anthracite Road and it would have mucked up the map 
even  more.  A map gets to the point were sometimes you just can't fit  
anything else in without hindering it.  I'm sure the  decision to not show the 
PRR was made somewhere between day one and day  two.  As a perfectionist in 
the area Jim you have to weigh what one can do  in 21 or 22 working days 
every month.  There are some pretty knowledgeable  names mentioned as assistance 
providers to that map. I suspect Bill Metzger  continues to make changes 
right up to deadline and then that's it.  It goes  to print, and they live 
with the few discrepancies that local perfectionists  bring out.
 
Would we be discussing  ANY ERRORS if it was the monthly map of De  Monies, 
IA or San Antonio, TX?
 
I have to agree with Ron Dukarm that your term "Screwed up again' is a bit  
harsh and that's coming from one who doesn't like errors and thinks that 
when  something goes to print it better be correct.  ALA Morning Sun Books,   
which isn't on a time deadline, involves text and not a few additional lines 
on  a map and has no reasons to NOT get it right but seems to never be 
mentioned on  this list.
 
I give Trains a 99 for there presentation of What Ever Happened to the  
Anthracite Roads.  In any school I know of that's an A +.   
 
Bob Bahrs
 
 
 
In a message dated 4/30/2009 8:17:00 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
jguthrie_@_pipeline.com writes:

The new  Trains magazine popped into my mailbox today, with its map of the  
"Anthracite Railroads Today."

The first howler is the omission of  the NYS&W/WB&E -- which carried more 
anthracite than the O&W  (though the Erie buried the numbers for 
competitive 
reasons. Also omitted  is the DS&S, although not lasting very long, also 
carried more  anthracite than the O&W. I suppose one could also be 
nit-picky 
and  note that the L&NE's route to the Port of NY is not showm although 
that  
was a pretty busy route too.

The NYS&W's Edgewater Terminal was  one of the busiest anthracite tidewater 
terminals of all -- yet is omitted  as well, but the Erie at Weehawken(!!!) 
**is** shown. If Weehawken is  "important" for the Erie, then the DS&S and 
L&NE should have been  shown; And considering that most of the Erie's 
anthracite was dumped at  Edgewater -- and not Weehawken  after 1906 -- 
makes 
it even more  annoying in its omission.

I wonder if there'd be any interest in a map  that shows the railroads that 
actually shipped anthracite and where the  anthracite was consigned over 
the 
years?

Take that map -- and then  re-do this map to show what happened to those 
routes might be a  revelation.

In any case, I am again irritated by railfan mythology  overtaking railroad 
history here: the Northern Field Map last year had a  few nitpicky errors; 
the NY Harbor Map had a bunch of real howlers, and  this one is delightful 
as 
far as it goes, but doesn;t thell the story that  **is**anthracite.

Cheers,
Jim Guthrie
ELHS #1296  


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