How many railroads did Hurricane Agnes kill in 1972?

The rising water on the Susquehanna River did a major number on Penn Central's Shocks Mills Bridge (ex-PRR). Took out the center of the bridge!

Charlie

narig01 wrote:Name a railroad in the Northeast at the time. If it didn't kill it mortally wounded.
Rgds IGN

Did it affect the Boston & Maine any? Or PC's New Haven trackage?

Hurricane Agnes also led to the demise of the PRR's/PC's Quarryville Branch in Lancaster County, PA.

When the flooding started to subside, seven sections of the Shock's Mill bridge over the Susquehanna River [also PRR/PC trackage] were washed away. An emergency injunction of money from the government rebuilt the sections destroyed by HA.

I don't recall the former New Haven being affected in any major way by this one. We got it in 1955, here is a link, 55 years ago today.

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 91&t=74606

Noel Weaver

GP30 5513 wrote:Hurricane Agnes also led to the demise of the PRR's/PC's Quarryville Branch in Lancaster County, PA.

A new connection was made to the Atglen & Susquehanna branch so that some service at the end of the Quarryville line could be preserved for a few years.

Mcoov wrote:Did it affect the Boston & Maine any? Or PC's New Haven trackage?

At the risk of straying off topic, this page from NOAA (National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration) shows the top five states affected by Hurricane Agnes as Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey. None of the New England states are mentioned as having suffered from damages (Check the table at the bottom of the page.) so I believe it's a safe assumption that no New England railroads were affected.

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/marfc/Flood/agnes.html

TB Diamond wrote:The PRR (Penn Central) Elmira branch between Elmira, NY and Williamsport, PA and between Horseheads and Montour Falls, NY.

The Penn Central between Horseheads and Montour Falls was reapired and used for a while after the flood. There is a picture of a James E Strates Show train on the that line n 1974 and I can recall seeing a few trains there in the mid to late '70s. I don't think it was embargoed permanently until some time in the CR era.

Everyone: Does anyone remember a special issue of the Penn Central Post about the 1972 Agnes flooding? I have a copy stored away of this special issue showing how hard Penn Central was hit by the flooding basically in Pennsylvania and Upstate New York...it mentioned problems like the Shocks Mills bridge collapse and the widespread flooding throughout the Susquehanna River valley...I remember taking my first Broadway Limited trip to Chicago as a young teenage boy in 1973 and a conductor mentioned something interesting concerning the Steelton Beth Steel facility...he pointed out that paint used in the manufacture of different products had gotten into the flood waters and that a line of sorts was noticeable on some building walls noting how deep the floodwaters were...and cities like Harrisburg was hit quite hard with major flooding between the former PRR main line and the Susquehanna River...I remember hearing that up to three feet (36 inches) of rain was recorded in places in that region...thoughts and memories from MACTRAXX

MACTRAXX wrote:Does anyone remember a special issue of the Penn Central Post about the 1972 Agnes flooding?

Here's a PDF of that issue from http://www.unlikelypcrr.com/

http://www.unlikelypcrr.com/page3/Welco ... 972-08.pdf

M.T.

MST: Thanks alot,Buddy! This PC Post issue will be a history lesson of sorts to many...I was just barely 13 years old then and my father worked for PC...I saved and never forgot that special issue on The Flood...

The problem here is Agnes pre-dates Conrail by four years almost exactly and this topic should have been in the Penn Central section or perhaps under Pennsylvania Railfan...but even though the Agnes storm damage in PA was severe there were other areas hit hard in surrounding states...

There must have been significant damage to other railroad lines in the hard-hit areas...it would be interesting to see for example how the Erie Lackawanna fared during that period...

MACTRAXX

I don't think New York State was nearly as badly hit as Pennsylvania was. I was in the hospital during this period but it seems
to be they had to detour the Broadway through New York State as the former PRR was damaged from flood waters. I am not
sure exactly how long this took place.
I also have a copy of that issue of Penn Central Post as well as all of the rest of them but I don't remember what was written
about this event.
Noel Weaver

I agree most of ,if not all, the damage was on the southern tier. The EL was under water at Corning, Elmira,and Waverly areas.The LV bridge at Athens Pa was out of service.
The only east west route open was the ex NYC. A crossover was installed{ think it's still called the hurricane switch) at syracuse and about 20 trains a day,both EL and LV, ran the old DL&W between Syracuse and Binghamton.
At Syracuse they joined about 24 trains off the PRR some more El and couple from the D&H and Amtrak and you had over 100 trains a day from Syracuse to Buffalo.
The EL detours lasted about 3 weeks until they got the southern tier mainline open again but most of the trains from the PRR,LV,D&H were back on home rails after about a week.

Charles

I was 8 years old when the flood hit ,pc put a bunch of coal loads on the chemung river in corning-it got wased away ,e-l had just put new sinals on the southern tier line that was ruined the wayland branch was wiped out . my grandparents got out by a boat-we didnt know if thay were alive or dead for a cuople of days! my uncle bill collins was on the corning ambiance service at the time they worked non stop for 4 days-my daddy worked at ingersoll rand in painted post they had 2 boxcars inside what was left of shop 7 the rand and all the rr tracks(e-l) were ruined there was rr cars from the foundery in p.p almst to rt 17- baker st yd in corning was under water -i hope to never live thru another flood again!!!!