Nostalgia & History > Lehigh Valley's last hurrah.

It is still painfull talking about the deaths of so many railroads in the mid seventies. What really hurts that so many of these roads struggled against an ending that had to happen. The dedicated people who worked for them, in many cases loved the railroad that employed them, and loved the jobs they did. As in any business, there were grumblings, but that was to be expected. What was also expected was loyalty, and that was always there in great measure. One road that was interesting to watch in that period was the Lehigh Valley. How they made it as far as Conrail was a story in itself. By all rights it should have packed up its tent in the era of NYO&W's demise. Its survival was due to its people. They hustled for new business in a way that makes the Class 1s of today look pathetic. Their Mercury and Apollo trains were innovations in conjunction with N&W, that actually got traffic away from Penn Central.  The deck was stacked though. PC,  and EL were in the Buffalo/NYC area market as well, and there was just not enough business to go around. In 1974, Valley was able to add muscle to its locomotive fleet with the purchase of 12 U23Bs. Sorely needed to augment the GP38-2s that were purchased a couple of years earlier, they worked continually from one end of the road to the other. A for effort for the Valley, the little road with the big people, that made it go. I didn't give them enough time, because time is what we didn't have back then.

top and middle...Sayre Pa. 1976

bottom...A westbound Mercury leaving Sayre, 1975

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

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top...Westbound leaving Allentown, 1974

middle...eastbound coming into Sayre, 1975

bottom...westbound leaving Sayre 1975

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

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top...Lehigh River Gorge 1975

middle...Sayre 1975

bottom...Sayre 1974

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

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top...westbound Sayre 1976

middle...Sayre, 1975

bottom...no info on this one, marked 1975

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

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Excellent, excellent, excellent!!! Thank you for sharing!

These are some great photos to go with your nice story. What a pleasure to view photos and read the stories on this board. I thank you all.
John Breitigan
Washington, PA.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/19 04:55 by jmbreitigan.

The Lehigh Valley's management seemed to be smart, but were fighting a losing battle.  The LV wisely bought no streamlined passenger equipment (save for two RDCs for connecting branch service) and was able to rid itself of passenger trains in 1961.  They also had an aggressive traffic and real estate department that located new business along the line - the Proctor & Gamble plant in Mehoopany, PA being a great example.

First-rate images. The two night photos at the beginning are excellent.
Bob

You continue to teach me about railroads I know very little about.  Thank you,

Bill    A great selection of photos. In shot number three that location today is so treed in you can't even see the railroad from that location. The last photo looks like it is coming up the Waverly Branch crossing  the new bridge over Route 17. Wonder if this might be a detour heading over the EL to Buffalo?

If I remember correctly, the U Boats were financed by USRA, essentially the first new power for Conrail, which was still 18 months away.

I remember the first time seeing these at Oak Island, probably because I also remember getting back in my father's car with a good amount of oil and grease on my shoes (and his floor mats).

Great stuff! Since I left the Lehigh Valley area in May 1973, I missed most of the "new power" era.

TJY

Roadjob Wrote:
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> bottom...no info on this one, marked 1975

Possibly at westbound at Van Etten Jct?  Great stuff as always Bill!

Super series of photos yet again Bill. Couple things- I think I was with you for those night shots at Sayre. It was very, very cold that night. And in the one photo I see the 508 with C420 #415. The LV always tried to keep like power together, so if that duo was a working set that would have been something to see running. And the cars in that shot too- Masonite Corporation all door box and a CNJ red 2 bay covered hopper, goodies in their own right.

Roger Durfee
Akron, OH

My guess is your last photo is of a westbound pig train (Apollo?) heading across the recently opened stretch of the Southern Tier Expressway (ie, rte 17) on LV's connecting track from Sayre yard to the Erie Lackawanna at Waverly. If this is the case, for some reason, the LV westbound was being detoured off its own upstate NY mainline onto the EL mainline likely headed to Bison Yard Buffalo and ultimately LV's Tifft st yard. Just speculating....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/19 04:53 by JPB.

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rrartist Wrote:
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> Excellent, excellent, excellent!!! Thank you for
> sharing!

Seconded, just brilliant.