The Lehigh Valley
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An early Conrail repaint, SD40 6317, leads a Jersey Central GP9 and a patched Erie-Lackawanna SD45 westbound out of Allentown yard. This location is now known as CP Ham.
By the late 1970’s, 50-ton hoppers were not uncommon, but their ranks were quickly dwindling. Here a Reading survivor visits Allentown Yard in its final years.
A run past the yard in Allentown, Pennsylvania turned up a Baltimore & Ohio GP9, partially obscured by a Conrail N8 caboose.
A rainy April day finds a Jersey Central RS3 visiting one of its old haunts, pausing at the west end of Allentown Yard.
A pair of former SP SD45s (rebuilt as SD40M-2s) works an Allentown Yard trimmer job near CP HAM. The units still wore the attractive blue, gold and white colors applied by Motive Power Industries in the early 90s.
HLCX 9004 SD40M-2 (ex-SP 9015 SD45, MPI 9004)
As soon as a Reading-bound train departed the yard in Allentown, Pennsylvania, it had to cross the Lehigh River on the former Allentown Terminal bridge. Here a Conrail manifest gets under way on a brisk January morning.
During the years that EMD switchers were still in force on the Conrail roster, Allentown yard was predominated by ex-Lehigh Valley pups, and the former Reading SW900’s were largely assigned to Reading. Here one of the Reading units had made a short=term visit to Allentown.
The reconstruction of Conrail’s Allentown yard is underway in this December, 1978 view. The string of cars with the two Railbox cars is on or adjacent to the former main line which bisected the yard. The near tracks are the former Light Side (westbound) tracks, and the bare area on the far side of the main was the Heavy Side (eastbound) yard, where tracks will be added to the Light Side hump. Closest to the Lehigh River is the Allentown Runner, as the relocated main is known. The former LV main, locally known as the “hole”, is across the river.
While I am fully in support of the Snowplow Sunday movement, there are many of us who can't participate due to lack of material. I believe others have started the idea of Switcher Sunday, and this is my offering fot this week.
After the sun has dropped below the horizon, a Lehigh Valley SW8 works one of the hump receiving tracks at Allentown Yard.
Looking at the image I posted last night, I realized that I didn't upload the final version. Here is the better image.
As soon as a Reading-bound train departed the yard in Allentown, Pennsylvania, it had to cross the Lehigh River on the former Allentown Terminal bridge. Here a Conrail manifest gets under way on a brisk January morning.
Other than continuing to operate subsidiary Lehigh & New England Railway, the Jersey Central ceased operations in Pennsylvania on 1972, and competitor Lehigh Valley took over operations of all remaining CNJ assets in the Keystone State. This was before I started railroad photography, and I have very few CNJ images. During Conrail’s first year of operation, a very unexpected surprise was a train headed by four first generation CNJ units returning to the light side receiving tracks in Allentown.
Class units of Conrail’s C32-8 and C30-7A classes, joined by another C32-8, have dropped their westbound train on a hump lead, and are now proceeding to the west end of Allentown yard. All three units are now in South America.
A Penn Central U33C leads an early Conrail freight across the Lehigh River at Allentown, Pennsylvania. This unit was in the first order of U33C’s delivered by GE, between February and April of 1968.
An early SD35/GP35/RS11 power set has pulled clear of the yard throat at Allentown, Pennsylvania. As soon as the operator at R Tower lines things up, the signal on the distant signal bridge will display a clear indication, and the power can back to its train.
A Conrail Allentown yard job works the west end of the yard as morning fog lingers in the Lehigh River Valley. With Penn Central roots, Conrail’s fleet of nineteen U23C’s seemed to keep their assignments in former PC yards. Eventually, one found its way to Allentown, renumbered and in fresh paint.
There are no GP30's in my queue right now, so here's Delaware & Hudson U30C 708 waiting for its turn to lead a train out of the yard in Allentown, Pennsylvania. This may have been the big GE’s last visit to the Lehigh Valley, as it would soon be headed to Mexico with the D&H C628’s and PA’s.
A Harrisburg-bound train crosses the bridge over the Lehigh Canal as it departs Allentown Yard. In the right background, R Tower, which was demolished as part of the 1979 yard rebuild project, is still in service.
As an eastbound Conrail train approaches Hamilton Street in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the crew looks ready to get off of the lead SD35. They’re all looking in different directions, and not engaging each other at all.
An SW1500/GP38/SW1500 power consist pulls the “Hazleton man” west toward the anthracite mines around Hazleton, Pennsylvania. This train, seen leaving Allentown, was predominately made of empty hoppers with coal loads returning.
An eastbound Conrail train, most likely CGAL (Corning – Allentown)in about to duck under the Hamilton Street overpass in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Ahead is the last tangent before entering Allentown yard.
The day after Conrail’s first anniversary finds a GP30/GP9/GP30 power set in a mix of patched and unpatched Penn Central colors (colors?) approaching Allentown Yard from Reading, Pennsylvania in the rain.. This lash up ir reminiscent of the last days of Penn Central’s Bel-Del Subdivision, which frequently saw GP30/GP9B/GP30 combinations on its trains. 366 days earlier, a Reading GP30/GP35/GP30 combination would have been a likely consist on a train coming over this bridge.
In 1970, the US Treasury’s longest-running promotions for Savings Bonds was initiated. Posters and billboards seemed to be everywhere, and even some railroads got into the act. The Reading Company had several freight cars augmented with the placards, including this covered hopper seen at Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1986
One of the Lehigh Valley’s dynamic brake-equipped SW8’s idles at the west end of Allentown yard. Those 50’ Vermont Railway boxcars were a common sight in that era.
Eastbound coal arrives at Conrail’s Allentown, Pennsylvania yard on the former Reading East Penn line. The N&W box car is on one of the tracks that curve to the right as part of the former Jersey Central main line.
A pair of Conrail SD50’s works a train of loaded hoppers (coke from Bethlehem Steel?) west past the Allentown Yard hump leads.
An SW8 in one of the Lehigh Valley’s later paint schemes works the west end of the yard in Allentown Pennsylvania. Today, I would never expect to see a piggyback car in a classification yard, but single-car routings mixed in general freight was commonplace in the 1970’s.
A freshly-painted Delaware & Hudson C420 leads a GP38-2 and two GP39-2’s out of the west end of the yard in Allentown, Pennsylvania. In the background, two Conrail U25B’s, a U23B, and a GP30 wait their turn to leave.
Late in the day, a Delaware & Hudson set of power backs to its train in the west end of Allentown yard. There are two lightning stripe U23B’s in the consist, but the Lehigh Valley heritage is in abundance. The “watercolor” paint used to remark the two C420’s has worn off after only fourteen months, and three of Conrail’s ex-LV “pups” can be seen working in the vicinity of the heavy side hump tower at the far right.