Unique hobby!

[hotrod]

Hotrod

That's beautiful. I love this kind of work. I am amazed how we tear down our football stadiums after just 30 years (Pittsburgh Steeler's) and these works from the 1800's still stand. Can't put this work down.

yea, I know the feeling... that culvert dates from about 1871.
there are a few of them still in use and in nice condition..BUT you gotta know where to look or you will never find them! lolol
This ones history started as the northern pacific railway (now bnsf) then was once under minnesota constitutional route #2 then U.S.10N, now since about 1934 has been just a county road.. much history but overlooked.. several culverts like this still exist on the main rail line east of here that was not bypassed, still in use, still as nice as the day they were built..you dont see work like this anymore.. im suspecting our rock came from the twin cities area..

Can you get maps of the route and mark where they are located on the maps. That wold make for a good research book as I do.

Ive thought about it but that would make it work and i would probably lose interest..

[hotrod]

whats neat about ths stuff is that pretty much everyone has something old with some history in it close to home if they take the time to go look for it. I grew up close to a long ago town not far from that culvert where a spur line ran up to winnipeg manitoba., name of the town is/was winnipeg junction. It slowly faded away starting in 1912 when the post office shut down.. Now there is a few old houses, the locomotive roundhouse is gone.. Just some memories of the old timers telling me of the way things were....

[southpennrailroad]

Hotrod

That's beautiful. I love this kind of work. I am amazed how we tear down our football stadiums after just 30 years (Pittsburgh Steeler's) and these works from the 1800's still stand. Can't put this work down.

yea, I know the feeling... that culvert dates from about 1871.
there are a few of them still in use and in nice condition..BUT you gotta know where to look or you will never find them! lolol
This ones history started as the northern pacific railway (now bnsf) then was once under minnesota constitutional route #2 then U.S.10N, now since about 1934 has been just a county road.. much history but overlooked.. several culverts like this still exist on the main rail line east of here that was not bypassed, still in use, still as nice as the day they were built..you dont see work like this anymore.. im suspecting our rock came from the twin cities area..

Can you get maps of the route and mark where they are located on the maps. That wold make for a good research book as I do.

Ive thought about it but that would make it work and i would probably lose interest..

Your railroads older then mine and mine does real well. I think people would love to see what was done/left of that route. I met a guy today that paid me for up loading my research to his lap top. I mean I am not making lots but some to help. I think a hobby that gets a little return such as using the $ for fuel is good.

[hotrod]

Hotrod

That's beautiful. I love this kind of work. I am amazed how we tear down our football stadiums after just 30 years (Pittsburgh Steeler's) and these works from the 1800's still stand. Can't put this work down.

yea, I know the feeling... that culvert dates from about 1871.
there are a few of them still in use and in nice condition..BUT you gotta know where to look or you will never find them! lolol
This ones history started as the northern pacific railway (now bnsf) then was once under minnesota constitutional route #2 then U.S.10N, now since about 1934 has been just a county road.. much history but overlooked.. several culverts like this still exist on the main rail line east of here that was not bypassed, still in use, still as nice as the day they were built..you dont see work like this anymore.. im suspecting our rock came from the twin cities area..

Can you get maps of the route and mark where they are located on the maps. That wold make for a good research book as I do.

Ive thought about it but that would make it work and i would probably lose interest..

Your railroads older then mine and mine does real well. I think people would love to see what was done/left of that route. I met a guy today that paid me for up loading my research to his lap top. I mean I am not making lots but some to help. I think a hobby that gets a little return such as using the $ for fuel is good.

[hotrod]

this rail line was the main line across the northern U.S...was a pretty big deal..carried many settlers to the dakotas, northern minnesota, montana and points west..

[southpennrailroad]

I PM'ed you. My number is attached.

[southpennrailroad]

[southpennrailroad]

One thing about this hobby because it wasn't completed you have to rely on maps. You have to use your imagination as well. Here is a shot looking west across the Monongahela River showing a river cliff which runs for miles from McKeesport (right) to down river towards Pittsburgh left (north). Vanderbilt who actually was building the South Pennsylvania Railroad I am searching for owned the railroad along side this river where you might see the trains parked on the opposite side of the river. Half way up the side of that cliff is where his abandoned/never completed railroad was to push outward as it was making a final descent to eventually connect with his existing railroad that is still there today below the cliff.

Now it looks like it would be an impossible task to build along this cliff but you would also have to study the maps (Below) to realized that over half that hill would have been a cut down/through for his railroad. However what I don't get yet is that the B&O is still there as well taking up much space so he would need to be above them as well as it descended to meet up with his P&LE line.

On this map a white square is posted by the railroad as where a school was to be built. Represented by a square with black squares along its inside edge ( left side of the map). The school is in bad shape today and looks to be needing torn down but non the less it is a landmark. That school landmark marked I have marked in the above photo on the right.



On the photo to the right is a street name named after the property owner. You see the name in the map as well. I was just there today as I just took that picture. That street sign was taken by me as I stood just to the right of the name August Auberle looking south west.

Oh as for the Monongahela River, it would be drawn in the upper top left corner of the map as it runs directly north along the map meridian. Thus you see the curve as the railroad should bust out of the Auberly property.

[southpennrailroad]

You say this was suppose to be a railroad grade!!



That is a steep river bank immediately on the right.

Railroad crew at front of tunnel now a bike trail after it was a Pennsylvania Turnpike tunnel. Circa 1884.







Look at the crown of the hill above the tunnel All three are the same tunnel.

[southpennrailroad]

Our good friend Andrew Carnegie in front of his investment in Breezewood. Yes he lost money in this one.



Same tunnel in 1884


Below Then!



Now!



Cameras kind of does things to the back grounds.

Turnpike got built just to the left of this photos about 400 feet to the left. This is dated about 1700's

[southpennrailroad]

Inside one of the railroad tunnels just before it was to become a turnpike tunnel



This is Breezewood from atop the Lincoln Highway. I love the fog.

[southpennrailroad]

This ought to be fun.

How much do you think it cost to build this office for the railroad? If your the first person to guess I will send you a free copy of my work. And I will send the proof that you are correct

Honest.



This was their office and was built in a small Hamelet called West Dublin, Fulton County. If you know where that is I will likewise send out a free copy.

Seriously.

First person gets the correct answer gets a copy. That is for the two questions.

On week to reply.

That is if it OK for this forum. I am not selling just giving it away.

All must be done by e-mail link below/One guess per person. To be fair. Must be within $25.00. That is $25.00 above or below the actual cost.

No I will not sell any. These are give a ways.

[email protected]

[southpennrailroad]

So I go out on Saturday to get pictures and take this man who is highly interested in the South Penn on a tour. Well I took some photos but the sun was not good. But did manage to see a site that I now know to get a good picture needs snow on the fill of the railroad grade as it is loaded with evergreen trees. But the grade shows up well if snow is laying on it. However I figured that the sun was out this morning so I would drive up to the site some 55 miles up the mountain to get a better shot. Get on the turnpike just in time to look up and see a huge cloud cover coming up from the south. Guess which way I am headed? So instead I have to do some wire splicing to get the trailer to be pulled out of the son's in laws driveway as the house closes this Friday. Guess I am being told to get ready for that instead.

[southpennrailroad]

A year ago a guy from Baltimore wrote a book and it just came out this past year. here is what a man who reads my stuff said about this other mans book. he wrote :

Hi Russ

Hope all is well.



Here's my original message. Sorry so late getting back to you. Your message got caught in my spam folder and found it by chance.

Hope all is well.


Frank Mellott










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 and acquire his book and CD's.

Mr Harwood used a great amount of my research to do his book. He did say and I have to agree that he was leaving the route and the finds I have done for me to do a book.

I thought the book was good but then again I am mentioned quit often in it.

[southpennrailroad]

Well as previously said, I was suppose to go out yesterday but today turned out for the best. I got another fish on the hook. I hate fishing but this catch is great.

The problem. For years I wanted to show the high unfinished fill inside these evergreen trees/woods near Stony Creek in Somerset, Pa. Just as the name states evergreen so I could never get a good shot of the grade hidden inside of them. However on Saturday I was with a new curious interested hobbyist. I got to see the site with snow on it and realized that was the only way to capture the grade. So I went back up to the site and this is what I got. A panned view of the grade just about to exit the woods to a future crossing of the bridge site. However the bridge site was not to be for a back road, but for the railroad. The Railroad built the stone abutments and even changed the creek bed as mentioned by the accompanied letter.



South Pennsylvania Railroad survey letter about the bridge, the creek change as well as the division line just west of the bridge piers.



I just saw because the size has shrunk it isn't a good photo. It is suppose to show the grade inside the woods on the left and at the base the abandoned or cut creek bed and on the far right is the bridge with stone abutments made by the railroad and abandoned for 50 years and later used to make a road for vehicles. Let me know if you want the photo sent. It is a five photo stitched picture. Little over 3 megabits in size.

The farm was to remain but he railroad was to be built across the road from it.