Willksbarre Railway

[daveklepper]

December 1949 photos

The Hanover shuttle car has to use the inbound track  outbound between the facing-point crssover and the single switch to the Hanover branch.

[Flintlock76]

Nice shots David, thank you!

I like the trolleys in the snow look, it's more nostalgic, if Christmas isn't coming then it's not far behind. 

[daveklepper]

Summer 1950, some posted previously in answering a question, repeated here for completeness:

 

 

[daveklepper]

 

More:

[MidlandMike]

Did the Wilkes-Barre Railway share any tracks with the Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley/Laural Line?  Also did the Laural Line share any tracks with the Scranton Railway?

[daveklepper]

Willksbarre was Pennsylvania trolley gauge (5'-2" or 5'-2-1/2") and had no direct connection with the Laural Line.

I did not aee any connection between Scanton's streetcar system and the Laural line, nor any track map showing such a connection, but there are places where a connection could have existed and been logical.

[daveklepper]

I need help with this winter 1949-1950 scene at the end of the Hanover line.  Some object blurred or a photo blemish?   Any idea?

[Flintlock76]

David, if what you're speaking of is that grayish thing in the center of the photo behind the pole it looks to me like a building of some kind.  

Maybe a colliery, considering the part of the country it's in?

[daveklepper]

From Richard Allman:

David-I am assuming that you rode to the end of the line at Hanover and were photographing a car that had just reversed poles-and maybe were waiting to jump back on after you got your photo on a cold, raw day. If so, and if the railroad parallel to the trolley line on the right of the photo, the colliery is (was) Truesdale Colliery. I have another similar view from Ed Miller that showed it an Ed was always meticulous in captioning his negatives and prints-including the exact minute he shot the photo (always EST-NEVER EDT!)-his rationale was that if the photo was a dud, he knew the time of day to return to repeat the photo for the correct lighting.

I will further venture one more guess if you jumped off to get the photo and motorman waited for you: the motorman was almost certainly Felix Nowakowski, a fan favorite for his unending kindnesses to fans and photographers- stopping the cars to pose the perfect photo, allowing fans to jump on and off to catch a photo. At the end of trolley service in October 1950, he was #1 in seniority. He lived until the mid-1980’s.

[Overmod]

Flintlock76

David, if what you're speaking of is that grayish thing in the center of the photo behind the pole it looks to me like a building of some kind. 

I thought he was describing the patch between the nose of the trolley and the right lower edge of the image.  That looks like scanning distortion of some kind, although I can't think of a way that a typical flatbed scanner could produce it (as it's horizontal bars, but not all the way up the image).  As well as I could enlarge it on screen, it appears to involve a very small edge of the trolley car itself, so I am reasonably sure it's digital.

[daveklepper]

Richard and I are referring to what is to the right of the leanuing pole in the center of the picture.

[Overmod]

The item in the middle is a building, and I think the ID as a breaker makes some sense.  If someone has a plat map of this area I suspect the ID could be made pretty easily.

 

[MidlandMike]

some of the ROW has been converted into trail.  Photos of present day ROW:

https://www.traillink.com/trail/hanover-trolley-trail/

EDIT: Whoops... there is more than one Hanover in PA, and they both had trolley terminals.  The link above is the wrong one near York.  I got suspicious about a colliery in that part of PA.  Here is a photo of the colliery mentioned in Dave's photo:

https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1990_267_010#page/1/mode/2up

 

 

[daveklepper]

Thanks!  I'll use that photo to make mine less weird.

[daveklepper]

Excerpt from Email received from Richard Allman:

Charlie-attached are the photos that David Lloyd Klepper generous donated to Electric City Trolley Museum Association. All are interesting and some are clearly future calendar candidates-the view of Electromobile t

760, winter,  at Hanover-end of line with Truesdale Colliery visible on the right

"HA" 760 Wilkes Barre Railway, summer, people boading,  S. Main Street, Wilkes Barre-Motorman in Window of 760 is Felix Nowakowski (sp?), #1 in seniority with WBRwy, and a fan favorite-would stop revenue cars for photo stops and allow fans to jump on and off car to get their best photo

"N" 706 outbound  to Nanticoke

Two with Dodge sign,  end of Nanticoke Line at Market & Hill Streets

 

[daveklepper]

More Wilkesbarre Railways photos.  First three at the downtown Wilkesbarre terminal.  One of the other two might be in Nanicoke.  Perhaps RC can give definite locations.  All December 1949.

 

[daveklepper]

Go to the Model Rilriader General Forum bforv Richard Allman's discussion of thiws Willksbarre streetcar madel.