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From: JG at graytrainpix graytrainpix AT hotmail DOT com
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:22:40 -0500
Subject: Rock Jct: Wye Not
"switchback_051639.jpg" - image/jpeg, 1807x2121 (256c)


I recently exchanged e-mails with Dennis Beeghly about the Wyoming Division and he pointed out that the track grade diagram on page 10 of the Wyoming Div article in the 25-3 Diamond indicates there was a wye at Rock Jct., PA, where the Jessup Branch went off from the Wyoming "main". However, the 1938 Erie RR Chief Engineers map of the coal fields from Bill Sheppard does not indicate a wye track at Rock Jct. I decided to dig a little further by checking out the Penn Pilot website with its rich collection of aerial views of Pennsylvania from the late 1930s and late 50s. And dang, wouldn't you know it, both the 1939 and 1960 views of Rock Jct. show where the wye once was. It was very tight in radius and had been replaced by young foliage by 1938. I'd have to guess that it had been gone for perhaps 10 years by then.

That made me recall the dotted line on the Chief Engineer's map just north of Rock Jct on the Jessup line, showing a curved loop track that was probably replaced by the switchback. And sure enough, the 1939 aerial view over the Jessup switchback east of Dunmore shows what appears to be a recently abandoned loop track between the two prongs from the switchback dead-end. Then, the 1960 view shows a foliage path following the old loop, but also shows how the curve on the lower switchback line had been "unkinked" by the Erie sometime following 1938 (I Photoshopped the future alignment of that track on the 1938 switchback photo), stepping over the far end (towards Jessup) of the former loop.

Just a small but interesting example of the evolution of roadway as locomotives and hopper cars grew larger. I recall reading that in the later part of the 1910's, the Erie rebuilt the Wyoming to accommodate 2-10-2s and 2-8-2s, in lieu of the camelback 2-8-0s; this helped to doom the WB&E as a route for Wyoming Coal to the Hudson River. Those 2-8-0's based out of Avoca could probably once take a train of hoppers up the hill to Rock Jct, then round the wye north on the Jessup, then make the tight loop down the mountain back into the Lackawanna River valley up to Jessup Yard and the breakers there (Pompey, Underwood, Sterrick Creek, etc.). But with the coming of bigger power and bigger steel hopper cars, this layout probably became increasingly dangerous.

Thus, the Rock Jct wye was gone by 1932, according to the map on page 20 of the Diamond article. Both the Tail Track switchback and the loop were still shown in service then. But the 1939 photo and the 1938 Chief Engineers map both indicate that the loop had just been taken out of service. Derailments, runaways -- the switchback was slower but safer, no doubt. Some years later the Erie made it safer still by smoothing out the curving lower approach.

Not much trace of the parallel DLW Winton Branch in these shots -- not that I can see, anyway. FYI.

Jim Gerofsky




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