Nostalgia & History > At least they went down fighting

Using a paddle to stop a sinking canoe will only work so long. In the early 70s, the Northeast railroads tried many paddles but they were trying to keep a ship from sinking. Sad to say there were too many roads for a declining traffic base; over regulation; outdated union rules; trucks on subsidized highways; for many, commuter operations; and lastly, some major weather disasters. Lehigh Valley ran its Apollo pig trains, Reading had its Bee Line Service, Penn Central had its mail trains and an extensive intermodal fleet, Erie Lackawanna had its hot 99s...the Croxtons, and its hot New Yorkers, the 100s. And then there was Jersey Central. The Central had pulled out of Pennsylvania physically in the very early 70s, but still competed for east-west traffic through an arrangement with EL. There was a dedicated pair of Elizabethport NJ to Scranton freights that handled CNJ traffic. The westbound train, ES99 on the EL, went to Taylor yard in Scranton and was reworked there, and continued west on EL trackage as Scranton 99. Its eastbound counterpart, SE98 orignated at Taylor. The two roads pooled power between Scranton and Eport. Shown in the photo is eastbound SE98 blasting out of Scranton to get a run at the stiff eastbound grade out of town. 1973



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/18 07:05 by Roadjob.

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Your post is timely at least for me it is. I just road the Columbia Trail here in N.J. which is on the former CNJ High Bridge branch. All I could think of as we(my wife and I) were pedaling uphill out of High Bridge was these trains with EL SD45’s and CNJ SD40/35’s blasting up this narrow twisting and steep grade with those heavy SE/ES trains. Thanks for the image to go along with my imagination.

Posted from iPhone

My last summer at home ('73) was spent heading over to Lake Jct, NJ in the early evening and waiting for ES-99. Sometimes, SE-98 would get there about the same time.
It was incredible (and not without the occasional derailment) that these huge freights negotiated the "backwoods" High Bridge Branch which prior to the CNJ pull-out from Pennsylvania had only hosted the daily turn from Allentown.

TJY

Thanks for the write-up, Roadjob.  Great photo, good memories.

Tim Costello

First time I've seen photos of CNJ power in this part of Scranton.  Neat photo.  Thanks for the post.

Great photo and info by all. 

Bob Jordan

Another great photograph! In the relatively short time you've been on board TO you have certainly 'raised the bar' for composition excellence...

Lance/199

The CNJ freight house in Scranton, and the large CNJ station in Wilkes-Barre still stand.

The Jim Thorpe station, too.

Posted from Android

Great compositions and lighting. Thanks for joining the board.
Certainly fits the 'f8 and be there' mantra.
t4p.

Those empty pig flats on the head end make me shudder:)