Started writing a book

[southpennrailroad]

Well kinda. I actually do write books on my own to sell of course but recently a writer wrote a book using a lot of my material and though he tried to stay away from my subject which relates to his topic, I decided that I need to get my side out and make some money on it. He wrote about the financial side of the abandoned South Pennsylvania Railroad a railroad that the Pennsylvania Turnpike purchased 50 years after the railroad was abandoned and not completed and later the turnpike bought and "FOLLOWED" but seemed to also abandoned many if not almost all of it which leaves most of the unfinished alignment still sitting in our Pennsylvania Countryside. He actually said that chapter 15 would not exist if it wasn't for my footwork that I have done showing the work and comparing it to where the turnpike is. My subject is on what is left of this work showing the actual railroad maps as well as the work and even the letters written by the surveyors and I even acquired the aerial photos showing the work. I have been wanting to do this for some time and now I think I will officially get it out. This winter will be the time to do this. Wish me luck.


Here is an e-mail by one man who bought the new book on the turnpike wrote and includes my work.

"Good morning,

Sorry, ignore last message. Bumped send before I was ready.

Anyhow, here is a mini review of Herb Harwood's The Railroad That Never Was Vanderbilt, Morgan and the South Pennsylvania Railroad, Indiana University Press 2010.


The Railroad That Never Was arrived yesterday. I wasn't expecting much, and wasn't disappointed. It's tough to write a marketable book about a railroad that basically never existed. What was I expecting? A Russ Love like detailed tour of the railroad, lots of excerpts from the Barnes report and a Charles Roberts like analysis of whether it was feasible or not.

A good bonus would have been finding someone's diary of the Andrew Carnegie visit to Rays Hill describing the arrangements of getting his party there.

Why did I order it? It was a Herb Harwood book about the South Penn.

What arrived? A Herb Harwood book printed in the US for a change from Indiana University Press. 165 pages, hardbound with dust jacket. The first six chapters provide the background and organization of the syndicate. Chapter 7 discusses the plan and chapter 8 the construction. Chapter 9 brings in the Beech Creek and chapters 10 and 11 the Morgan negotiations to stop the war. The remainder of the book concerns the B&O efforts in the early 1900's to finish it and
the origins of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Chapter 7 includes a brief discussion of motive power (The South Penn never ordered locomotives) and on page 62 has a nice grade profile of the SPR vs PRR. It would be nice if the B&O, Erie, NYC and WM profiles could have been included for comparison as well.


It's possible this material doesn't exist, but I thought the Barnes report included planned station sites and possibly coal and water stops. A list of both would have been nice. I doubt if anyone got around to drawing plans for facilities, but if they did, it would have been nice if a few samples could have been included.


As far as feasibility goes, chapter 7 says it all without meaning too. It went from now where to no where with nothing in between. With all the branches going up hill to the main. I'd like to think as steam engines got bigger the situation would have improved, but trains would have gotten bigger as well. I'd like to think if it could have survived until the diesel appeared it would have been a great land bridge route and (double stacks coast to coast on SP/SPR in 1979/80?)
but I am not sure, even taking in to account that if the South Penn was built the WM have never built from Cumberland to Pittsburgh and the W&LE wouldn't have been built east of Pittsburgh if at all, that it could have survived past World War 1.

All in all, if you want a good single volume history of the South Penn, this is the best there is. If you really want to track down the remnants, visit Russ Love's website (southpennrailroad.com) and acquire his book and CD's.



Frank Mellott"