Photos: Railroad remains and equipment at Wilkes Barre, PA

[frank754]

Here are a few pics of the Wilkes-Barre Connecting Railway bridge, and the Laurel Line bridge adjacent to it, just taken this week (9/10/10)

http://viewoftheblue.com/photography/nwb.html

I will have to come back with my better camera, but this was inspired by this page,
which has a few views of the same structures:

http://laurellines.org/llrelics.htm

Through downtown Wilkes-Barre, there is only one track, but the CNJ station is still standing,
and there are some old cars there, they hope to make it into a tourist site one day:

http://viewoftheblue.com/photography/w-b.html

This map shows the trackage in Wilkes-Barre as of 1933 or prior, with the still-extant Wilkes-Barre & Hazleton:

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/wbh_term.jpg

Here's an aerial view of the area, taken in May, 1959, zoomed and cropped from
the Penn Pilots site (they also have a view from 1939).

http://viewoftheblue.com/photography/lw ... ls_w-b.jpg

You can search and zoom in on all their images here:
http://www.pennpilot.psu.edu/

[lvrr325]

Is that an Erie modernized coach I see in the first pic of the station area? The black car with the roof that comes down a bit at the end. It's even the same color as one I saw in Utica NY (that came about 4th hand to the NYS&W from the Detroit & Mackinnac). I can't tell if that's the same car with the obs platfom a few pics down, though.

[njmidland]

Yes that is an Erie modernized coach. Not sure if it's still there - I thought all the remaining cars had been scrapped.

[lvrr325]

The ELDP&HS know about that car? My bad, shots date to April of this year. Most of that stuff doesn't look that bad, and there's at least one wood car visible in one shot, would be a shame to scrap them all. That stainless car even has roller trucks, unless it's one of the ones with the carbon steel inner structure I don't know why it couldn't be put back in service somewhere.

[frank754]

The cars as I had posted them on my site from last spring are all still there, and I did receive a local confirmation that the one you mentioned is indeed an Erie car, and one on the site is also a D&H car. There's no way to really get them out of there, as that location is physically disconnected from the one main track which still runs through town, operated by the Luzerne Susquehanna Railway.

[lvrr325]

Truck them out. Would probably have to be anyways, given how long they've sat and who knows what bearings, etc. are on them.

[JasW]

I just ran across the video below, which was taken last October at the Market Street crossing of the Luzerne & Susquehanna in Wilkes Barre. It's intrinsically fascinating because it shows how today's motorists have no clue what a crossbuck requires them to do when a train is approaching (and it's currently the subject of an "Idiots in Cars" subforum thread on Reddit).

But aside from that, I note the Citizens Bank building in the video looks like a former RR station. The CNJ station previously discussed here is behind it, in between the bank and the apartment building in the background. Anyone have any info on what if anything the bank building used to be? The old Lehigh station, perhaps?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAPppkTUOjQ

.

[pumpers]

Poking around on old maps and historicaerials.com, way back when "Wilkes Barre Paper & Supply" had a building along the tracks roughly where the bank and strip-mall type building behind are. The Citizens bank, and the strip mall building behind along the RR track, are both new construction actually, with a historic railroad themed design. Between 1969 and 1981 for the bank, and between 1981 and 1992 for the strip mall. It also looks like the dormers and cupola on the strip mall were put in in 2016-17, comparing Google Streetview from Market St and Wilkes-Barre Blvd (both 2017) and from Pennsylvania Ave (2015).

I think the LV passenger station (shared with the PRR and maybe the D&H) was between the remaining track and Pennsylvania Ave, south-west of Market St, where the big parking lot now is. EDIT: Gone by 1965 according to https://www.west2k.com/pastations/luzerne.shtml

PS. Any signs of life at the old CNJ station?

[frank754]

The railroad cars are all gone now and they did some grading of the land, they may be working on the station but no visible signs of change can be seen from the road.

[JasW]

Interesting that the bank (or whoever the architect was) would acknowledge the importance of rail to the area by designing a RR-station themed bank building. I note from looking at the older map below that the LV station was actually directly across the track from where the bank and strip mall are now. As the photo shows, it was a much larger and fussier affair than the CNJ station.

Wilkes Barre 1904.jpg (146.45 KiB) Viewed 3669 times

Wilkes Barre LVRR station.jpg (38.1 KiB) Viewed 3669 times

[lvrr325]

LV station came down around 1962

[TB Diamond]

Have a Kodak 35mm color slide which depicts the Lehigh Valley RR Wilkes Barre, PA passenger station being demolished. The date of the photo is December 29, 1965.