Correction, Scranton and Wilkesbarre summer was 1050, 1949 was Maine.
Basically. Lots of electric shots, though I am still looking for Scranton area ones. But I'm also interested in the steam ones because I've had spots pointed out to me of old commuter rail stations outside Scranton. And while I like trolleys, I like steam even better!
I took black & whites with a Leica, but I am not certain I still have the negs or what condition they are in. If and when I find them and if they are usable I will let you know on this Forum. I believe you are looking for the D&H stuff. The interurban and streetcar photos are plentifull on the web. Dave's trolleys (another Dave) is one website.
Do you happen to have any photos of any of this? I haven't seen any, even at Steamtown.
Yes: In the summer of 1949 I rode the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley, (The Laural Line) third rail except tracks in Wilkesbarre (but PRW, no street trackage); the four remaining streetcar line (South Scranton, Green Ridge Peoples, Green Ridge Suburban, Nay Aug Park); and the D&H commuter train to Carbondale. The latter was powered by an elephant-eared 2-8-0 and had three open-platform, roller-bearing, arch-roof steel coaches.
Didn't Scranton PA have intra city trolleys, inter city trolleys, and also steam trains just covering the area?
cbq9911a Milwaukee had commuter service on the Milwaukee Road west of town until 1972. Plus the North Shore Line until January 1963.
Milwaukee had commuter service on the Milwaukee Road west of town until 1972. Plus the North Shore Line until January 1963.
The Milwaukee Road continued the service at it's own expense past Amtrak formation in the hope that Milwaukee County would take it over. It was Watertown to Milwaukee in the morning and Milwaukee back to Watertown in the evening on their Twin Cities Mainline and was a holdover from a train created way back when the railroad was first built.
Milwaukee had much more than that. Some were interurban lines that do not count as commuter rail lines but the lines from the public service building to Mequon and Brown Deer had frequent rush hour service. The Waukesha line could be considered commuter rail and the line from Hales corners could also be considered commuter.
Randy
Illinois Central operated commuter service out of Chicago on its line west to Broadview and Alsip early last century.
I suspect many more towns big and small had commuter service. Even the small city of Petoskey, Mich which only has a few thousand population had seasonal commuter service on 3 GR&I lines at the turn of the century (1900).
http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/Stations/CountyStations/EmmetStations/PetoskeyCommuterMI.htm
The Ann Arbor also had a seasonal "dinky" service out of Frankfort along Crystal Lake to Beulah, with some trains continuing on to meet C&O trains at Thompsonville.
San Fransisco Southern Pacific Commuter Train- (before Cal Train)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2151_1196125200_-_Flickr_-_drewj1946.jpg
Pittsburgh- PRR had commuter trains in all directions until the mid-60's. The PATrain (port Authority Transit) ran until the mid 80's from the downtown Grant St B&O station to McKeesport. There were several "test" runs on the Montour around the southern loop before the line was ripped out.
P&LE ran commuters from Beaver Falls to the main P&LE station on the south side until about 1986 or so.
I remember! The four-track line, the Dumont station with it's pedestrian underpass and park fronting Madison Avenue, and Lowden Pit (the coach/locomotive storage facility north of New Milford Avenue). The trains went south, through the tunnel under North Bergen to West Shore Terminal and ferries in Weehawken.
Not sure if interuban should count. if it does, there are many places that had something akin to commuter lines once and it would be great if they were still in place. To name a few: Oregon Electric in Eugene, OR; AE&FR up and down the Fox valley in the far western Chicago suburbs; IT from Danville to Springfield , IL and beyond.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
CSSHEGEWISCH:
New commuter rail lines in the last 30 years:
Denver and Orlando are about to, Austin, TX (DMUs), Stockton to San Jose ACE trains, Washington DC VRE trains.
Cities that used to have commuter service which now do not:
ST Louis had MOPAC, WABASH, Illinois Terminal (interurbans) and a couple of other short lines that at one time provided Commuter Service to STL.
Milwaukee had service as well.
One city that both gained and lost commuter rail in the last 30 years; Syracuse NY.
Nashville also started a commuter line recently.
What's even more interesting is the list of metro areas that acquired suburban/commuter service since about 1980: Miami, Los Angeles, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Dallas/Fort Worth, Seattle. Are there any others?
54light15 I recall riding the Metro-North line from Poughkeepsie to NYC in the 80s on their newly acquired South East Michigan Transit Authority coaches after Detroit service shut down. Those were some nice looking and riding coaches, in beautiful condition. I wonder what happened to them?
I recall riding the Metro-North line from Poughkeepsie to NYC in the 80s on their newly acquired South East Michigan Transit Authority coaches after Detroit service shut down. Those were some nice looking and riding coaches, in beautiful condition. I wonder what happened to them?
Those SEMTA cars ran on the GTW between Pontiac and Detroit. IIRC the service ended about the end of 1983. It had to be one of the last cities to loose commuter service, although they are now talking about starting up an Ann Arbor -Detroit service.
Freight trains still use the line at night. The RiverLine stops about 11 pm and freight trains have it untl the RiverLine resumes. RiverLine is light rail so it cannot run when heavy rail freight trains run but with scheduling both use it.
New Jersey Transit actually owns the line now. However, part of the argeement provided hours the line is available for freight trains.
There used to be a lot of freight traffic on that line also. During the Penn-Central era, there was a nightly through job in each direction between Camden and Trenton. They also ran a turnaround job out of Pavonia (Camden) and Burlington (I think) six days a week. Road switchers were based out of East Burlington and I think at least one switcher worked out of Bordentown. As a misguided youth, back in the mid '70s I did some poking around East Burlington yard and made friends with the crew on the evening job, the A35. That job worked Hooker chemical, US Pipe and a host of smaller industries. A couple of customers were on the remaining stub of the Burlington-Mt. Holly branch which had been torn up in the late '20s. The guys on that job were all WW2 era men. They had no radios, as was typical for jobs in south Jersey at the time, but boy could they switch some cars! They normally had an RS11 or SW7 on the job (ARS18m or ES12m). I did a lot of running under the capable instruction of Mr. Potts. My, how things have changed!
rfpjohnPRR Trenton-Camden service ended in 1963 with a gas electric, 4666 I'm pretty sure.
This is one of the oldest rail lines in the country and began as the Camden and Amboy in the 1830's. In 2004 New Jersey Transit resumed service calling it the RiverLine. It still runs between Trenton and Camden with a transfer to Philadelphia available. In Trenton it connects with Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and SEPTA trains as well as some Trenton bus routes.
Have you tried snooping around the RIP yard at Croton-Harmon?
In the "modern" era Burlington VT had a Charlotte-Burlington train over the Vermont Railway from 2000 to 2003.
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