The alvanian crawl & other stories...let's see: EBT, Pa. Turnpike, other marvels...so far!!!

[rixflix]

I was watching Buster Keaton's "Our Hospitality" the other night. The locomotive is a near replica of Stephenson's Rocket with whisk brooms mounted to the pilot beam. These were used to clear the rails of obstructions.
In those early days engines would have only one or two driving axles and adhesion was a problem. Water, wet leaves and insects could be trouble.
Yes, insects. Whether they were migrating or in their 7-year locust mode, they
were "Open for Business, Jack". Biblical things could still happen back then. On
second thought, our age has HIV to deal with.
Well, this reminded me of THE CATERPILLARS.
A friend and I were exploring the East Broad Top during several visits a few years back. We traipsed over the whole property, the whole shebang from Mt. Union to Alvan plus the branches, all except the collapsed first tunnel at Kimmel. We would always camp near Cook's, about a half mile from the road,
where the line comes out of the second tunnel and crosses a deck girder bridge on it's way to Robertsdale. Right next to the musical babblings of Great Trough Creek on
pine needled ground. Beautiful spot. Reminded me of the old Atlantic gasoline billboards that featured white water running through dark green forests.

One day we left Robertsdale to locate the absolute end of track, above Alvan. The brush and mountain laurel were getting a little thick and we had to watch our footing when my buddy suddenly stopped ahead of me. "Uhhhh, check this OUT, Rick". I looked at one of the rails and saw them. CATERPILLARS were using Bethlehem Steel's finest rolled steel rail as a highway!!! Talk about your narrow gauge. It had to be better for them than dealing with rocks, twigs and leaves. They were going in both directions and we observed them for a quarter of a mile. After we detoured around a clump of briar we saw no more of them until we retraced our steps going back. The Eastie's rails disappeared altogether a few hundred feet later.
Strip mining in the area continued after the road' s demise and buried the true end of track. EBT originally came within a few feet of the Fulton County line. Fulton is the only county in Pennsylvania that never had rails. Would have had 'em if J.P.Morgan hadn't stopped NYC and RDG from building the South Penn to compete with the Pennsy over the Alleghenies.

See ya later
Blessed be Jean Shepard in all His works
Captain Video aka Rixflix


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[Modelcar]

....Are you saying the South Penn would have been placed near Robersdale...? I Know it should be near the Turnpike almost anywhere one looks....Just forgot it probably was surveyed and possibly partially completed through that area. Is it still visible there..?

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

In regard to the above posting, is it possible that the Turnpike uses the unused right-of-way for part of its route in this area?
This would not be unlike a situation further west where the Indiana Toll Road parallels the South Shore Line from Hammond to Gary using a right-of-way that was acquired by the South Shore in the Insull era for an East Chicago bypass but not used until the Toll Road was built.

[rixflix]

Yes indeed!!! The South Penn Extension's alignment and particularly the built and partially built tunnels were used by the turnpike as built in the '30's. Daylighting and alternate routing has eliminated almost all the tunnels. Alvan is about 7 miles as the crow flies from the pike at Hiram, which is halfway between the exits at Fort Littleton and
Breezewood. Humans can't travel like a crow in the local topography, however.
The closest EBT came to reaching the South Penn was when the Shade Gap branch was graded east to Neelyton and then south to Burnt Cabins at the western mouth of what is now Tuscarora Tunnel on the turnpike. A yard area was even graded there in anticipation of the Central's arrival. Only trestles and rails remained to be installed, when the whole deal fell through in 1885.
NYC&HR was building the line principally to spite PRR which had just snapped up the
West Shore from their own backyard. RDG (P&R back then) and it's president, Franklin Gowen saw trunk line status as it's "manifest destiny". J.P.Morgan saw wasteful competition and advocated "a community of interests" in which railroads should dominate in each of their natural regions. He got NYC prez Vanderbilt's representative Chauncey Depew and PRR prez Scott to take a short cruise outside New York harbor on "Corsair", his yacht. There he "made them an offer they couldn't refuse". They kicked and screamed and worked things out. NYC got West Shore and a couple of north-central PRR coal branches. PRR got to eliminate a competing line with a better alignment than their own through the mountains. P&R got the shaft and Gowen remained bitterly litigative until he committed suicide some years later.
Oh, EBT extended it's rails from Shade Gap to Neelyton in 1909 when rumors were about that Wabash and B&O were looking at the old South Penn grade!!! The only real business at Neelyton turned out to be in materials and equipment for the turnpike construction. EBT moved this by slipping narrow gauge trucks under standard gauge cars at Mt.Union.

Gotta go

Blessed be Jean Shepard in all His works

Captain Video aka Rixflix

Over and Out

[Modelcar]

....Rixflix: Wow...I can tell you have been into this subject deeply to say the least. I too have had interest in the South Penn for years and have traced the alignment placement across Somerset County and up and over [and through], Laural Hill mountain. Allegheny Mountain S P tunnel wasn't used by the turnpike because it had some problems, etc...The whole story is fascinating and thanks for your run down in your post.
A suggestion if you haven't thought of it....Teraserver.com a web site that photographed for the most part by satellite...our complete nation is an interesting tool to use in finding and looking at the ROW of the S P...It is still visible for the most part in many areas. The S P ROW passed within 8 miles of my home in Somerset County and I become interested in it many years ago as a younster. Thanks for your input on the subject.

[Modelcar]

....To answer to the above post whether the Turnpike used the unused right of way of the old South Penn for at least part of the Turnpike....Short answer is yes. The original 160 miles of east / west Turnpike opened in Oct. 1940 does occupy in certain locations the same route as the South Penn...but in most locations it is near by and not on the exact same ROW. From design print copies and various data I've looked at over many years...it indicates the Turnpike challanged the grades to overcome the mountain elevations with a max. of 3%...The South Penn was designed to use a max gradient of 2%. So this caused the R R to travel a more circutious route as it assended up the mountain ranges it had to cross. The Turnpike used 6 of the original tunnel bores from the 9 of the original route of the S P....If I remember correctly, none of the bores from the RR had been holed through and of course that had to be completed by the Turnpike constructors and of course enlarge them to fit the high way needs. When traveling along the Turnpike presently one can identify some of the S P route near by at some locations if you know where to look and what to look for...100 plus years have hid it quite well but railroad fans can identify the landmarks if one knows where to look.

[rixflix]

Thanks Modelcar for the tip on terraserver.com. I know I'm going to have fun there, if it doesn't make me blind first. Dig my updated profile if you get the chance.
My buddy on the EBT explorations was Kellam Press, who hailed from Virginia's eastern shore near Cape Charles. Agriculture was the main industry down there and his family was engaged in "truck farming". I'll have to check with him on the origin of the term, but for now I'll say it was about loading your crop on a truck and taking it to market. Now, if local prices from co-ops and brokers were low, you would be tempted to truck your product to another market to get a higher price. That's just what they did with the white potatoes one year, and the then young Kellam got to take his first trip out of the flatlands, Pittsburgh bound. On an open bed truck. On top of the dag-gone potatoes!!!
He watched all new scenery and towns and cities go by and then they got onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike and life in the fast lane.
With it's TUNNELS. While I remember these as twin tube single lane affairs, he remembers going through a single bore with a traffic light where you'd wait for a string of eastbound vehicles to clear before the green light allowed the westbounds to proceed. Could have been, but possibly the second tunnel could have been under repair. And was he terrified? Of course he was, with the top of the tunnel just inches above his frightened young head. Though other adventures happened on that trip, the way he related the tunnel chapter in his faded country accent put me right in his place on top of those potatoes. I'm chuckling now like I did then.

And now I'm thinking of his late parents. Oliver was of american indian descent and Mary african american. One of my regrets in this life is only staying at their place once (they didn't travel well) but that event will always remain in memory. We pulled up to their
house just ahead of the dust we'd raised and Mary leaned out of the second floor window to shout Hi Rick! Hi Kellam! On his many trips home my friend would bring tools and materials for whatever projects they needed done, and this special (for me)
weekend was no exception. We did some work and puttered around and ate fresh from the field food. "Rick, you're too skinny, we gotta work on you dear!' I positively basked in their warmth and hospitality. Kellam old pal, this last part is In Memoriam.

What have you got on the sailing ship tourist attraction or motel built on the side of a mountain? At Bedford, according to my informant.

Must go now...Shalom
Blessed be Jean Shepard in all His works
Captain Video aka Rixflix

[Modelcar]

....Rick, yes I know what the term "truck farming" is...and I can appreciate the situation riding through the Turnpike tunnels on the back of an open truck...Not the best way to do it....and yes, 1939 did have at least 2 great movies...and on the Turnpike tunnels used from the South Penn railroad....There were originally 7 of them and they were ALL single lane in each direction. One bore at each location. Twin bore feature came much later and then that gave each direction 2 lanes, etc....Now some are daylighted.
I remember my first ride through Laurel Hill...The first week after the road opened.

On the ship on the mountain....That would be "Grand View Ship Hotel" on the Lincoln Highway at Allegheny mountain, elevation 2464 ft. Location: 17 miles west of Bedford, Pennsylvania. It was a nationally known spot built in 1932 and had it's heyday in the 30's and 40's....It fell in disrepair later and in Oct. 2001....someone burnt it to the ground.....End of Ship Hotel and it's history. Go to Google and type in it's info and you can bring up data and photos of it...