Hello,
As a young boy in grade school (McKinley School), from the play ground while waiting to go inside when classes started, there would always be a Pennsylvania mixed freight parked to the east in the distance, viewed through the trees of McKinley Park. With a cascading metallic clanking and booming sound, the train would start moving west (north) farther into the yard facilities at OD (Outer Depot) with a PRR N-5 caboose on the rear. This was the early 1960's, so sources to ask here are getting rarer by the passing day.
Years ago, a former PRR employee told me that the train was parked on the "Passenger Main", making for even more curiosity in me.
Can anyone direct me to where I can find train information and schedules from the PRR at this time period? If I am correct, the PRR coal & ore docks at the harbor were both closed by 1960 from the effects of the St. Lawrence Seaway's opening, so any originating traffic in Erie would have been light. The PRR's Erie & Pittsburg line southwest out of the harbor would have still been going as was the Philadelphia & Erie to the southeast. Along with that, the branch from Brocton, NY, still went through Corry, PA, crossing the "P&E" there with its Buffalo, NY and Pittsburgh, PA connections. (I asked about the PRR's "BeeZ'er freights (do pardon the spelling) between Buffalo, NY, thru Erie to points southwest earlier, which may have still been running then). The Pennsy's railroad line network was still operational, but in its last days before the Penn Central disaster hit.
Thank you for any help in putting more understanding to my PRR memories from early boyhood.
XC
As a young boy in grade school (McKinley School), from the play ground while waiting to go inside when classes started, there would always be a Pennsylvania mixed freight parked to the east in the distance, viewed through the trees of McKinley Park. With a cascading metallic clanking and booming sound, the train would start moving west (north) farther into the yard facilities at OD (Outer Depot) with a PRR N-5 caboose on the rear. This was the early 1960's, so sources to ask here are getting rarer by the passing day.
Years ago, a former PRR employee told me that the train was parked on the "Passenger Main", making for even more curiosity in me.
Can anyone direct me to where I can find train information and schedules from the PRR at this time period? If I am correct, the PRR coal & ore docks at the harbor were both closed by 1960 from the effects of the St. Lawrence Seaway's opening, so any originating traffic in Erie would have been light. The PRR's Erie & Pittsburg line southwest out of the harbor would have still been going as was the Philadelphia & Erie to the southeast. Along with that, the branch from Brocton, NY, still went through Corry, PA, crossing the "P&E" there with its Buffalo, NY and Pittsburgh, PA connections. (I asked about the PRR's "BeeZ'er freights (do pardon the spelling) between Buffalo, NY, thru Erie to points southwest earlier, which may have still been running then). The Pennsy's railroad line network was still operational, but in its last days before the Penn Central disaster hit.
Thank you for any help in putting more understanding to my PRR memories from early boyhood.
XC