Eastern Railroad Discussion > Hazleton, PA

I was in Hazleton, PA on Sunday morning to see my son play in a fall college baseball game for Penn State-Hazleton, and afterward stopped by NS's yard to see if anything interesting was around. Hazleton is about 75 miles northeast of Harrisburg on I-81, about 20 miles south of Wilkes-Barre and 45 miles south of Scranton; a great location for my son to be attending college and for me to spend a bit more time exploring the rail lines here. I've passed by on I-81 literally hundreds of times in the past 29 years since I moved to Harrisburg, but have probably only stopped by for brief railfanning treks maybe a half-dozen or so times in that period.

Anyway, there was a set of power sitting near the yard office in this former Lehigh Valley locale which I'm assuming was for the H69 turn to Lehighton, which consisted of NS ES44AC 8049 and CP AC4400CW 9540. The H69 job meets the H67 turn out of Allentown I believe 5 or 6 nights a week in Lehighton and the crews swap trains there.

While there I heard some talk on NS channel 1 on the scanner from a crew working down in the yard, so I waited a bit and the H99 crew pulled up to the crossing at Broad St., and then got out for a while and went to the yard office, I'm presuming for paper work.

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The wait, which was a good half-hour plus, allowed me to do some recon of the area to check on a couple photo locations. When the H99 finally looked like it was getting ready to move, I opted to set up for a shot of it coming out of the yard limits and across Broad St (PA Rt 93.) I was happy to see a pair of ex-Conrail GP38-2s leading (followed by SD60I 6750), but was disappointed to only see a 9-car train of gondolas. I was expecting a bit more as I believe this is the job that works several customers in the Valmont Industrial Park (which is roughly across from the PSU-Haz campus).

I was able to get ahead of him (10 MPH running) at the Vine St. crossing for another shot, the train slowed then stopped right after here, I'm presuming to throw switches, as a short distance from here the tracks divert to either serve some customers on the south side of Hazleton and also the lead to the Humbolt Industrial Park, or to bear to the right to go to the Valmont Industrial Park. (I'm pretty sure all this trackage is considered Industrial trackage by NS, I need to learn the names though). I headed out to Rt 924, where the trackage to the Valmont IP crosses under, but I heard a lot of talk on the scanner which indicated to me that they were spotting the gons somewhere prior to that overpass. So I opted to get back on I81 and head back home, as I was already running more than a couple hours late and there will hopefully be many other opportunities to explore here while my son is in college.

Back in Harrisburg, I settled in for a while to do some things around the house and watch a bit of football. But I also had the scanner on and heard an empty Z5Z oil train on the Harrisburg fuel pad, and also the Enola-Allentown 33A job about ready to depart Enola. (Hazleton hook - 33A often shuttles local units back to Allentown - some of which make their way up to Hazleton - none this day though!) With just a few weeks to go before the sun stops creeping over to the up-river side of Rockville Bridge in late afternoon, I figured I should head over to the Marysville Side of the bridge to see about grabbing a couple shots of these two on the Bridge.

The timing worked out fairly well, as 33A got permission to head out from Enola as Z5Z (extra 65Z) got permission to head west from the fueld pad. First shot is of 33A coming off the ought track onto the Bridge at CP-MARY.

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Then the two trains met just a bit more than halfway across the bridge at the western limits of CP-ROCKVILLE.

Next view is of the Z5Z nearing the west end of the bridge ready to turn northwest into Marysville.

In addition to a couple fisherman sharing the Marysville boat launch area with me, I also noticed this other railfan taking in the action; like myself, he (or she) left shortly after the empty oil cans cleared the bridge!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/14 20:06 by sscannella.

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Great Egret. Migrating south (or will be soon) along the Susquehanna River Valley.

I like Pics 4 and 5!!

birdman Wrote:
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> Great Egret. Migrating south (or will be soon)
> along the Susquehanna River Valley.


I know you would not miss this shot Dick.
John

I liked the shots from Hazelton. I was born and raised in Pottsville. Do you know how busy that yard is?
John

jmbreitigan Wrote:
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> I liked the shots from Hazelton. I was born and
> raised in Pottsville. Do you know how busy that
> yard is?
> John

As far as I know, two locals to serve the industries in the area, the turn job to Lehighton to swap trains with the turn from Allentown, and occasional coal trains operated by the Reading and Northern.

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