Unofficially the picture is being photobombed in the background by a New York Central H-5 2-8-2 returning with a string of loaded coal hoppers on PRR tracks.
Ex-NYNH&H SS Opr
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Statkowski wrote: ↑Mon Nov 11, 2019 11:03 pm I'm told that a good crew could make the run from Cherry Tree to Williamsport and back in one day. Of course, that may have been when crews outlawed after 16 hours, not the current 12.So the same crew ran all the way from Cherry Tree to Newberry (Williamsport)? I would have thought one crew to Clearfield and another from there eastward. How many crews a day worked out of Cherry Tree?
BR&P wrote: ↑Tue Nov 12, 2019 10:22 amSo the same crew ran all the way from Cherry Tree to Newberry (Williamsport)? I would have thought one crew to Clearfield and another from there eastward. How many crews a day worked out of Cherry Tree?Back in the day, the track speeds were higher, 25 mph between Cherry Tree and Clearfield, with no 10 mph restrictions like today. The roughest part of the line between Cherry Tree and Clearfield is between Cherry Tree and Mahaffey due to the curves. In steam days they needed pushers to get downhill (not much downhill, but still downhill) due to the wheel resistance on the curves (lots and lots of wheels with 50-ton cars). Cherry Tree to Mahaffey on the former Pittsburg & Eastern, then former Beech Creek and Beech Creek Extension tracks to CB Junction, former B&O tracks to Clearfield, through the yard, West Branch Valley line to Keating, the PRR to the connection with Avis Yard just outside of Jersey Shore. From there it was on former Fall Brook District tracks to Newberry Jct. All of this was Pennsylvania Division trackage, so it was essentially one big crew district, maybe. A one-way, straight-through run from Cherry Tree to Newberry Jct. would have been no problem, time-wise. It was going out and back that was the trick.
Statkowski wrote: ↑Tue Nov 12, 2019 12:35 pm I'm told there were once up to five trains a day coming off the CT&D to the NYC yard just north of Cherry Tree (and all of this with nothing more than crossbucks at the Cherry Street crossing). Cars at Cherry Tree had to be sorted and weighed, so that was at least one yard crew per shift.Unreal! So sad to consider what used to be. But it's that way all over. In 1967, I list 24 regular NYC crews a day in greater Rochester NY - plus work trains, road relief, extras, etc. And THAT was a shadow of what it had been in the 40's. Today I think CSX has 2 - 2 man crews a day, maybe 3.