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  • Reading's Lehigh Tower, Saucon Yard

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in Pennsylvania
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in Pennsylvania

Moderator: bwparker1

 #375163  by frankgaron2
 
Hi There:

Does anybody know the exact location where Lehigh Tower stood in Reading's Saucon Yard? I never did manage to get a picture of this one - I understand it's been leveled.

Would love to see a picture of it - if anybody has one here that they can post?

Thanks in advance!

Frank
 #375165  by amtrakhogger
 
I think it was a one floor building.

 #375271  by Franklin Gowen
 
There will be a couple of photos taken at and near that tower in my eventual, very-delayed Bethlehem Branch website ( mentioned on the SEPTA Forum in this thread ).

Photos of that structure are extremely hard to come by. The archives of the RCT&HS likely have a few engineering photos of the tower itself, but as that group has now morphed into a motive power & rolling-stock collectors' club, outside access to its archives is apparently no longer possible. The photos in my own personal archive (gleaned from other sources) are of scenes with the main object of interest being something other than the tower, but showing at least part of it somewhere in the image.

 #379477  by Schuylkill Valley
 
Here is a picture I found on some ones web site of the yard from 2005. showing a small red brick building. this might be the tower you speek of.
Len.

Image

 #379511  by Franklin Gowen
 
Thanks for digging up that image, Len. It's interesting. What you've found is a picture of the PB&NE's tower at the west end of their Iron Hill yard. All of the trackage in that shot is PB&NE's. The RDG Saucon Yard trackage was formerly on the right half of the image. All of it was torn up approx. 8-10 years ago.

The RDG tower which the original poster asked about once stood far off the right side of this image, around the curve of the hill where Saucon Yard went from facing west to facing south. That would have been close to a third of a mile from where this photo was taken. What's sad is that even this no-longer-used tower of the PB&NE has also since been destroyed since that photo was taken. "Progress" has no pity.

 #379613  by Schuylkill Valley
 
Here another view from that website of that yard but looking at the Steel company. If you look to the right of that picture, you can see in the brush to be a small building hiden by the trees. I have a book here that has pictures of the Allentown area. it's called Rails around allentown. perty good book.

Len.

Image

 #379614  by Schuylkill Valley
 
Heres on of the yard in the Conrail days.

Image

 #379615  by Schuylkill Valley
 
I think this might be the tower?

Image

 #379620  by Schuylkill Valley
 
Heres a map from 1874 showing the railroads.


Image

 #379787  by nrkrupp
 
I like that map. I'm descended from those Eisenharts in Bingen.

Russ