Eddystone/ Baldwin Locomotive Works

I just spent a few days at the Holiday Inn on Industrial Blvd. out by the Airport. A few questions maybe someone can answer:

Across the street from the Boeing Plant, is an older, railroad type building next to the PECO Generating Plant. Was this part of the Baldwin Plant?

Is the lines running along Industrial, an old Reading line?

There was also a building, across Industrial from the Holiday Inn, that looked like an old coal breaker. There is a water tower next to it. What was/is this?

Was there ever a yard directly across Industrial Blvd just south of the Holiday Inn? I saw some old cement retaining type walls there.

The older-looking, cruciform building is the old Baldwin office tower. The lines immediately south of Industrial Boulevard were both PRR and Reading, with the Reading on the north (abandoned) and the PRR on the south (currently operating line). To the south of the Holiday Inn is the old Wanamaker Yard, which appears to be still in use for storage. I don't remember the "old coal breaker" structure; is it adjacent to the tracks? Could it be an old sanding facility?

CHoess, you note that near Industrial Highway/Holiday Inn,
the Reading CHester Branch and a PRR branch ran parallel.
(NOT referring to the nearby modern PPR/AMtrak main line, of course).

I have some questions about the PRR branch

Going north/east from there, did the PRR line peel off to the east with the
Hog Island Branch going to the east side of the airport, or did it continue alongside the Reading on the
west/north side of the airport?

Going south/west, how far did this PRR branch go? Past the
Baldwin site into Eddystone? Note the modern dip in the tracks
near the Baldwin site is where I think a PRR connection from the mainline
came down over/under the Reading and then looped to the north/east along
this branch. I would have though this connection was the south-west
end of the PRR branch, but on maps.google.com
there is an abandoned bridge just to the north-west of the existing line
crossing RIdley Creek, south-west of this point. (just as there are at Crum Creek and Darby to the north). So I guess these are all abandoned Reading bridges and the PRR was going down to cross Ridley Creek
too? Is this right?

What was the PRR branch called down in these parts? Probably not
Hog Island??? I can't find any maps of these PRR tracks on-line

THanks, JS

There is a good map at Old Chester, PA for the western parts of these lines. Look down to "Chester, PA, Industrial Map, 1941". Unfortunately the color or shape used to distinguish PRR and RDG hasn't survived the scanning process very well.

Tackling the line to the east, the PRR line passing through Wanamaker Yard *was* the "Hog Island" line. To clarify, the Reading line has been abandoned west of where the RDG and PRR converge, through the yard, across Darby Creek, etc.; the old RDG truss bridge over Ridley Creek is still clearly visible from the NEC. East of the convergence, the former RDG line (officially Chester Branch?) is intact and seems to form the "main stem" into this area. PRR runs east around the airport, onto Hog Island, past Ft. Mifflin, swings north and ducks under the Penrose Ave. Bridge, crosses Mingo Creek, and the main line forms a tail track for a spur into an oil refinery. It is abandoned north of here and the ROW used to store a really phenomenal number of junked autos. It curves westward to reach the abandoned crossing of the RDG line; this is where the R1 Airport Line swings off the PRR alignment and onto the RDG. Remainder of the PRR line is intact as the Airport Line, although former wye at BRILL has been heavily reconfigured, replaced with flying junction and PHIL interlocking.

Returning to the Eddystone Loop, it's much more visible in aerial photgraphs than from the NEC, where the remains are concealed by a contractor's parking lot. Not only did RDG (now abd.), running strictly parallel with Industrial Hwy., duck under the loop and cross Ridley Creek, the PRR (still operational) diverged from the side of the loop and crossed Ridley Creek parallel with the RDG. The two lines converged at about Avenue of the States, the PRR terminating with a switch into the RDG, which crossed Chester Creek with a single track. The PRR diverged again some distance to the west; again, RDG is now abandoned, PRR operational. RDG originally reached as far west as Thurlow. Official PRR designations were: 60th St. Branch, first 4.5 mi. of Hog Island line from connection at BRILL. (to vicinity of Fort Mifflin). West of that point to connection with RDG, Chester & Philadelphia Branch, connected to mainline at Eddystone by Eddystone Loop. From RDG connection west of Chester Creek to Marcus Hook, South Chester Branch, connected to main line at Lamokin by Lamokin Run Branch and at Trainer by Linwood Branch. (Claymont Branch extended W end of Linwood Branch to some more refineries; Sunoco plant railroad, Delaware River & Union RR, also connected in this area.)

Between those industrial maps and a PRR CT 1000, you can get a very good idea of what was what in this area.

Another map view circa 1944

http://historical.maptech.com/getImage. ... g&state=NJ

Choess, fantastic!

When was the Reading ripped out? Conrail era?

Also, a few months ago, in some forum (this one?), there was
a question about trains and new welded (IIRC) rail on the Hog Island branch
I think east of the airport. Is the only place this goes the
refinery you mentioned (looks like it from aerial photos).
Why would they (conrail?) be bothering with welded rail here???

thanks, JS

That's the only place, as far as I know; the spur to the refinery south of the airport looks removed, and the spur to the water treatment plant was ripped out in 1994 due to the runway extension and relocation. The topo maps show a lot of track in the Fort Mifflin area, which is now gone. Poking around a bit, it seems there's a plan to ship dredge spoil, which the Corps of Engineers apparently stores in that area NE of Fort Mifflin, upstate for strip mine reclamation, and that it might be moved by rail. Other than that, I'm still as puzzled as in the thread you mentioned.

I guess the Reading's Darby Creek yard was directly across from the Holiday Inn on Industrial Blvd.... correct? When was the Reading's yard pulled up?

pumpers wrote:CHoess, you note that near Industrial Highway/Holiday Inn,
the Reading CHester Branch and a PRR branch ran parallel.
(NOT referring to the nearby modern PPR/AMtrak main line, of course).

I have some questions about the PRR branch

Going north/east from there, did the PRR line peel off to the east with the
Hog Island Branch going to the east side of the airport, or did it continue alongside the Reading on the
west/north side of the airport?

...

THanks, JS

The ex-Reading line goes through the old Westinghouse property and continues East/North through Lester, paralleling Powhaten Avenue, then once east of Lester, it ducks under the Industrial Highway (rt 291) and joins up with the SEPTA R1 Airport line.

Behind the Westinghouse property (where 2nd Avenue runs the length of Essington and Lester), a rail line exits from the Westinghouse property, crosses over 2nd Avenue, and disappears into the tall marsh grass, heading in the direction of the Delaware River. Maybe this is the Hog Island Branch?

Yes that is the Hog Island Branch that comes off and heads towards the Delaware. It runs along Hog Island Road and skirts the airport property. That track is still used to service a refinery near the General Platt bridge and coincedentailly it is being used more now because they built a spur which branchs off that line near the Platt bridge and curves shaply to the Skuykill River where sludge it looks like is being loaded into Gondalas. I stumbled on it while driving over the bridge and was like WTF so I went onto google satelitte and found it.

If I can ever get my scanner to work again , I'll scan the Reading Company blue prints I own on the whole Baldwin locomotive works the real prints are from 1928.

Len.

Where was the Eddystone Arsenal located? I looked at the maps of Chester, Pa. and see no mention of the arsenal in the business listings but I do see an Eddystone loop near the Balwin works. I have a pattern 1917 rifle (pattern 1914 British) that was made at Eddystone.

Here this might help.
During World War I, Remington Arms opened the Eddystone Rifle Plant on Baldwin land with Baldwin management. Here it produced the Pattern 1914 rifle and M1917 Enfield rifle. Almost two-thirds of the rifles used by American soldiers in France in WWI were made at Eddystone In January 1918 Remington Arms was absorbed by Midvale Steel and Ordnance Company, which took over the rifle plant.

Baldwin also formed a subsidiary company (Eddystone Ammunition Corporation) in 1915 to build artillery shells (Russian-model on British order).

On 10 April 1917, 133 people were killed in an explosion at the artillery shell plant. A monument near the Edgmont Avenue side of the Chester Rural Cemetery marks the final resting place for the remains of the unidentified victims, mostly women and young girls.

In 1917 the U.S. government also placed artillery shell orders, and bought out some of the assets of the Eddystone Ammunition Corporation. A new Corporation, the similarly named Eddystone Munitions Company, was formed by Baldwin to make the shrapnel for the shells.

Eddystone Historical Web-site

Len.

Thank you Len!