PRR branch in Pottsville (photos)

carajul wrote:Why did CR never buy these lines that go north??? Were they abandoned before C-day or with the coal mines closed did they just not want them?

The line was too costly to operate with little or no business north of Pottsville. It also didn't help that the RDG Frackville Branch was a 3.3% grade between Saint Clair & Frackville.

M.T.

the frackville branch was gone way before conrail.

I thought I read on these boards that the line to Frackville was in place until 1978, but CR didn't want it, so RDG kept ownership of it before selling it themselves in 1978-79?

In any case did this line just connect with the line in Frackville that runs E-W that's still there today? Where did it connect? I bet it was one heck of a busy jct at one time. Does the R&N use the line in Frackville anymore?

Looking at the arials from the 30s to the 60s these lines all around Pottsville are choked with strings of literally hundreds of coal gondolas.

The tracks in Frackville are completely torn out for years. Conrail ripped them out back in the late 1970's early 1980's. around the same time they ripped out the St. Clair yard.

R&N placed the track back in from Mill Creek Jct. to Yuengling's new plant on the edge of the old St. Clair yard. A few years back.

Hope that helps,
Len.

It appears from the 1950s arial that there were 4 tracks thru Frackville. The city streets either had truss bridges over the row or had underpasses. Right down the center of town. Looks like a pretty decent sized operation. I can't see where they connected with the line in the north though.

It appears as though the I-81 interchange obliterated a lot of ex-RR row.

Looking closer at the live maps it seems that the row is now just grass and parking lots. Unreal. Did CR want to run a RR or sell scrap metal?

CR did what it had to do to run a class 1 with thousands and thousands of excess miles of track. Yes, mistakes were made, but unless you would have like seeing empty roadbed over Horseshoe Curve, along the Hudson river, and every other place a former CR main is alive and well, the fringes had to go. The big money was then and is now in intermodal, autoracks, unit trains and the like. The anthracite business was mostly short haul, just to Pier 124 in Philadelphia, and the hoppers couldn't be mixed with those used for bituminous loading, as the anthracite customers didn't want cross-contaminated shipments, neither would the other coal customers..

Micah

above post is so true,cr did and ns continues the same style business. we were taught in cqi (conrail continous quality classes) that small locals and yard work is not what makes money. it is the long hauls. but,i really think Rdg took out most of what were talking about here. i would say by the mid 1960's frackville grade was abandoned and torn out. would love to hear from someone who knows the dates.

I was told this by a friend who worked for Conrail The late Dan Calvaresi , He told me that Frackville and St. clair yard was torn out in the late 1970's . Dan hired on with the Reading in 1972 and then went on with Conrail in 1976 He worked with Conrail until Norfolk Southern bought out them in 1990's Dan past away March 2004.

Len.

i know the yard made it into early conrail,went there in 72 but never found any track to the north from st clair,up the big hill. i know the name of the person you mentioned len,as i worked T&E service in his area,believe he was a maintainer or track dept man.

He was a M&W Track Forman . He was also on the job taking out Locus Summit yard , because he brought one of the old RDG style switch stands home and had it mounted in his front yard for years.

Len.

Hi all ,

Here is the Reading Company blue print from March 1926, that I have on Frackville showing all the track that once was there in cluding the PRR Schuylkill Division
These photos are in order as they were scanned.
Len.

The 1971 aerials show the ROW still intact with the bridges and underpasses. However, the track is gone and the row is all vegetation. So the line through Frackville was gone by 1971 but based on the vegetation was probably gone way before that. So that means the RDG removed it.

And I found where the Frackville branch connected to the line in the north... it wye'd just before the throat to St. Nick yard.

This blue print shows where St. Clair yard connects to the Frackville track. The Wye you speek of is at the lower end of the yard. the wye is located at Mill Creek Jct. on the Schuylkill Valley line to Tamqua.



Len.

This is the 1940 picture looking south on Route 61 of "darkwater gap" named for the gap in the broad mountain range between St Clair and Frackville. I always just knew it as Darkwater. It is right where 61 and East Darkwater road intersect.

My grandfather could not have been standing on that bridge to have taken this picture as it was much farther north towards Frackville. I may have some pictures of the remaining track that lasted till the late 70's or early 80's and will post them.





http://s1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa3 ... e04001.jpg

If you're familiar with that portion of Route 61...

At the two sharpest S turns at the bottom (coming south from Wetherill JCT), that is where you'll find the RR bridge remains. The Reading grade has a short concrete span still standing, and there are concrete pillar bases sticking out of the creek beside 61. If you look up from there (light snow in the winter will make this much more visible) you can see the abutment for the Darkwater Bridge.

Also, just down 61 a little further at the Walmart/Coal Creek Plaza, you'll see two concrete bridges that don't carry traffic much. One will be at the far north end of CCP (beside where the ROW returns, which is gated off) and the other is off to the right of the entrance road to Walmart. You could say the latter is or isn't part of 2nd Street. These carried tracks to/from St. Clair yards if I'm not mistaken.

Len: One business comprised of two older red brick buildings/warehouses in the Industrial Park, located directly adjacent to Eagle Hill Road strike a resemblance to the Reading Shops in Reading. These would be the former Reading St. Clair car shops, no?