Stranded flat cars in Allentown!

[carajul]

Following the old Barber Branch (LV) that RJ Cormon sold a few yrs ago to the City of A'town and torn up, just after 10th St the mainline track is still in place. There is an abandoned factory with a network of spurs going into it. There are around a dozen flat cars on the main and on some of the spurs. Stuck there now forever!

If you continue west the track is gone but the wodden raised track is in the park just past the Lehigh Pkwy. I have a video of an LV local right here in the park in the late 1960s. Doing around 5mph and the conductor was standing on the head end loco pushing up the willow trees.

This branch during WWII had 30+ industrial customers. Still a few potential customers but as usual why bother serve rail customers that exist when you can just sell the land.

[CarterB]

Is this the location you are speaking about? N 40.59476 W 75.47900

[ecm4]

That line looks like it's been abandoned for a long time -- anyone know the last time it was used?

The factory happens to be the original Mack Truck plant, and is currently used by a steel company (Allentown Metal Works). In fact, President Obama visited there the other day as part of his new 'job creation' tour.
Too bad they can't create some more business for the railroads there....

[carajul]

Probably the 70s is when it last saw some good use. It was called the "Barber Branch" as it dead ended at a stone quarry owned by the Barber Brothers. That's why if you follow the row it kinda just disappears in the rocks. The line was still in place in 1995 but burried under the earth. In the late '90s RJ Corman sold the line to the city of A'town and they tore the tracks up. The crossbucks were also still in.

I can't believe all those flat cars on stranged there now at Mac.

[sd80mac]

There are around a dozen flat cars on the main and on some of the spurs. Stuck there now forever!

It seems to be that the plant own these cars.

I looked at Google map and bling, include bird eyes. they appears to be shuffled around. I dont see trackmobile, but somehow they have been moved around.

there's even a tents for homeless between river and tracks...

[RDGTRANSMUSEUM]

is the trackmobile under the tent? lol

[sd80mac]

is the trackmobile under the tent? lol

LOL! Do you want to volunteer to go to there and check under the tent?? LOL

[railroadcarmover]

There are around a dozen flat cars on the main and on some of the spurs. Stuck there now forever!

It seems to be that the plant own these cars.

I looked at Google map and bling, include bird eyes. they appears to be shuffled around. I dont see trackmobile, but somehow they have been moved around.

there's even a tents for homeless between river and tracks...

There is still a yellow center cab locomotive on site that was used in mid Dec 2010 to move the flats around.

[litz]

You gotta admit, if you own the plant, and there is a locomotive and flat cars available, there is no more efficient way to move a bunch o' crap from point A to point B ...

[jebradley]

The Allentown Economic Development Authority confirmed to me in December that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has reserved over $1 million to restore the Barber Quarry Branch from its mainline connection about 1.5 miles to the vicinity of 15th Street and Little Lehigh Creek in Allentown. However, construction is dependent on the state issuing bonds to cover construction, and earth moving permits must be obtained, so no trains will move for some time. Grade crossings at South 6th and South 10th Sts. would have to be restored, among other things, and it would be quite a project, as the old right of way has been partly obliterated. As editor of Lehigh Valley Chapter N.R.H.S. newsletter, "Lehigh Lines", I published this report in our Winter 2011 edition, mailed to our members last week.

Now the press reports that our new governor, Tom Corbett, is reviewing all of the proposed state spending projects not yet under contract, with an eye to cutting out those not necessary; the state faces a $4 billion deficit. We will see if this project survives that review; the AEDC stated that at least two customers at South 10th St. would be using the rail line once restored. Presumably this would 'rescue' the stranded cars, if indeed they are rail-worthy after several years of decaying.

James E. Bradley

[railroadcarmover]

I understand that those cars were just for intraplant moves and would not be suitable for interchange service. They were just used for storing steel plates and the ease of being able to move and reposition material at the plant. They were cut down gondolas.

[Sir Ray]

There is a nice Allentown branchline map c. 1960 on a thread on Railfan.net about Allentown Branchelines (and they mention the West End branch thread that is active on here, railroad.net, so I figured it's fair game to link to their thread (I don't remember seeing a link in the West End branch thread - maybe I missed it).
If service restoration was to go forward, it seems like a blend of the Reading and the LV routes would make the most sense - both bridges of the Reading and the LV across Leigh Creek (by Jordan Creek) are still there (in what structural shape, I don't know), or where at least when Bing and Google imaged them - however, the LV branch then crosses Lehigh Creek two more times as it heads westward - one bridge remains (off Martin Luther King Dr as it curves between S. Penn and S. 4th), but the other one (apparently where Lehigh St. crosses Lehigh Creek) seems long gone - and between those two spots is both Fountain Park and a sizable townhouse community. It would be impractical (and silly) to restablish that ROW, so I wonder if when ConRail took over this line did it consolidate the Reading and LV routings? Generally the less bridges to maintain, the better.
The railran.net map does help clear up some things, but a surprizing amount of the Barber branch west of the Mack plant is clear (with a decent size bridge across a creek still standing), although once it turns north around the former quarry it's a bit tougher as it looks as if that park on Union St. was re-landscaped over the ROW (and the two 'industrial' structures a the end of the branch off Hamilton do NOT seem like they could have been big freight generators - but apparently they were, as there are images to prove it).
The profusion of routes and different carriers to handle freight from a single area is still a little offputting to me after decades of living on Long Island, NY where rail freight users had a choice of routing via the LIRR, or else via the LIRR, or even via the LIRR - (nowadays its the NY&A, or the NY&A, or else the NY&A) - of course, when ConRail came around and changed the routings from EL, or Reading, or LV to - ConRail, ConRail, or ConRail - well, then that just seemed the normal way of business...

[Schuylkill Valley]

This is copied from my real Reading Company Blue print of East Penn Junction , This might help clear some question.
Len.

[pumpers]

If you look on pages 18 and 19 of that thread on the other site, there is a discussion that the LV Barber quarry branch was realigned around 1970 to stay south of the Little Lehigh creek -- because the area it used to go through on the north side by the townhomes was redeveloped as was noted by Sir Ray. The new alignment stayed on the south side of Little Lehigh creek, squeezing between it and the Reading Mack branch (the purple branch going through the Mack Truck site in the map on page 1 of that site linked above). There was only one bridge after realignment to get to the Traylor/Fuller/Mack area just west of S Lehigh St -- the bridge was just after the Barber quarry branch came off of the LV passenger main, just before it crossed the (now gone) Reading/CNJ passenger tracks, and that bridge is still in. If you look at maps.google.com in map mode, they show the property lines, and you can make it all out pretty well.
Anyway, this new alignment (still all LV), which was the last to go out of service is the one people are assuming will be resurrected. JS

[Alloy]

That's a good use of resources, to shuttle those cars around in an "intramural" game, so to speak.

My sister taught at Lehigh University for many years, and I'd go visit her and my brother-in-law in Bethlehem. I never had much time to check out railroads there, but I could see that the area was somewhat like Xenia, Ohio (another thread on here), where five railroads were reduced to none.

ecm4 wrote:
[The factory happens to be the original Mack Truck plant, and is currently used by a steel company (Allentown Metal Works).]

My first job after coming to California was working in a small factory that produced Mack Truck products. I'd lay out 30ft sheets of nagahyde on a table, stack them 10 high, and then sabersaw patterns out of them. They'd be sewn into tunnel covers and sleeper curtains by the seamstresses. Then we'd drive them down to the Mack plant 15 miles away, or else have them shipped to the plant in Allentown.

The factory where I worked was turned into a community center years ago. At least the Mack plant is still used for industry.