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 Post subject: Strasburg Rail Road: Connection to Hurricane Agnes
PostPosted: Thu Jun 23, 2022 4:18 am 

Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2009 2:10 pm
Posts: 151
Location: Shingle Springs, California
<quote>
The Strasburg Rail Road has a special connection to Agnes. The railroad's steam locomotive No. 89 was on its way to Strasburg when floods stranded it in Wilkes-Barre. The weight of the locomotive kept it in place when the flood tore through the railyard, tossing freight cars around and causing millions of dollars in damages.

The locomotive was fixed up and is still in service in Strasburg.
<unquote>

A little more text, plus a video are available at the following site:

WGAL 8: https://www.wgal.com/article/strasburg- ... /40379159#

• Strasburg Rail Road 89, 2-6-0 (Canadian Locomotive Works, Kingston, Ontario 922 / 1910), originally Grand Trunk Railway of Canada 1009, CN class E-10-a

Strasburg Rail Road 89: https://www.strasburgrailroad.com/our-l ... ves/no-89/


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 Post subject: Re: Strasburg Rail Road: Connection to Hurricane Agnes
PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 12:36 am 

Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:47 pm
Posts: 1398
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Egad! Agnes was exactly 50 years ago this week.

I kept a picture on my desk. It was a boat afloat on Market St near the LV and CNJ stations, and about 1/2 mile from the River. In trolley days, W-B railways would run as many trolleys as possible onto the humped Market St. Bridge to keep them high and dry whenever the Susquehanna flooded.

As to SRC 89, young Linn Moedinger was 89's engine messenger and had to be rescued from the high water in W-B.

89 is indirectly involved in the Downton Abbey series. The patriarch, Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, had invested heavily in the Grand Trunk Railway out of confidence in GTR President Charles Melvin Hays. Hays went down with the Titanic in April, 1912 and the GTR lost his management ability and went bankrupt in 1919. Robert's marriage to wealthy American widow Cora Levinson replenished his fortune.

89 had been built in February, 1910, as GTR 1009. Thus, Lord Granville had been one of the investors who bought 89.

Phil Mulligan


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 Post subject: Re: Strasburg Rail Road: Connection to Hurricane Agnes
PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 3:38 am 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:54 pm
Posts: 2367
After the flood, my grandmother took me "downtown" to see the ramifications. I remember being in a store on South Main Street, and that the overwhelming smell of the "flood mud".

Flash forward a dozen or so years and I was taking some PC classes at King's College in the evening. I became friends with a classmate who was a chiropractor with an office on Union Street (where King's has their B-school now). When his office was being sold and he wanted to show me some antique machinery in the basement. I can't remember the machinery, but I remember in that basement-that acrid smell was still hitting my schnozz, at this would have been '87 or '88, a decade and a half after the flood in 1973.

I wonder how long it took to cook the smell off of 89.


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 Post subject: Re: Strasburg Rail Road: Connection to Hurricane Agnes
PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 9:36 pm 

Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 7:52 am
Posts: 2561
Location: Strasburg, PA
No smell, but when we were heavy into her frame off overhaul circa 1986, we were constantly finding patches of dried mud everywhere there was a pocket, no matter how small.


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 Post subject: Re: Strasburg Rail Road: Connection to Hurricane Agnes
PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 11:07 pm 

Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:25 pm
Posts: 485
This story is related to Hurricane Agnes, but not related to the Strasburg Rail Road.

Back at that time my Pop (a NYCRR locomotive engineer) was "holding down" a regularly scheduled freight on the PC from Buffalo NY to Corning NY via Lyons NY. This was a route that existed from way back in NYCRR times.

He would take the train from Buffalo to Lyons NY (on the NYCRR "mainline"), then divert south on the "Corning Pike" through "Beaver Dam" and "Watkins Glen" to arrive in Corning NY.

Then the crew would "overnight" in Corning NY at a motel just across the street from the World Renowned "Corning Glass Works" (a museum of rare glass objects with real time demonstrations of craftpersons making Stuben Glass while you watch).

While sleeping he was awakened (about 4 AM) by the local constabulary and told; "The Water is Coming, Get to High Ground".

The RR folks got all the crews to "High Ground" at the engine house (still in use just north of Corning as an NS facility).

Tbe railroad (PC) put over a dozen fully loaded coal hoppers on the RR bridge over the Chemung River (a tributary of the Susquehanna) to "hold her down".

All those steps failed, the bridge was washed away, the motel was destroyed and it took years to restore things to normal.

We still have the room key from the destroyed Motel Room, Pop was in such a hurry he did not bother to "return the key at the front desk".

There is now a "town house" development where the motel once stood.

And one funny bit, the local Taxi Cab Company owner had the foresight to drive all the cars up onto a hill overlooking Corning, but He left the keys to the cabs down in the taxi company office which was flooded. Lots of operational cars, no keys....

And Agnes which arrived in 72 left a whole bunch of water in the Upper Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan, Huron) that took another year to flow down to the Lower Great Lakes (Erie and Ontario) which led to flooding on the southern shore of Lake Ontario in 1973.


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 Post subject: Re: Strasburg Rail Road: Connection to Hurricane Agnes
PostPosted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 10:38 am 

Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2011 7:48 am
Posts: 65
I believe this message may be tangential to the topic, so I'll accept the judgment of the Moderator...

In June of 1972 the typical industry (Amtrak and, in this instance, Penn Central) practice was to continue operations, by detour or otherwise, rather than to suspend operations in the manner that is currently done in the face of predicted extreme weather events.

The effects of Agnes were experienced over a wide area, to a degree largely unanticipated. I was assigned as a traveling Amtrak Passenger Representative to the Southward Meteor (IIRC - I believe the Florida Special may have by then been discontinued for the summer season).

This trip was memorable for several delays, including a detour over the Trenton Cut-off, which reversed the consist, causing many complaints from the passengers in the four ex-UP leg-rest coaches. In those days, we tried to put "our best foot forward" regardless of the circumstances. The passengers did NOT want to ride backwards, so I turned all the coach seats to face forward in the new order.

South of Philadelphia we were running about six hours late. I seem to recall we passed Perryville in waning daylight.

Overnight, the reversed consist had been noted, so someone took the initiative and do what they thought was best: the entire train was looped at Broad Street Station in Richmond, so at daybreak, and by "popular demand"...

We turned all the seats AGAIN!

I have wondered if we were may have been one of the last trains to cross the Susquehanna that day, before the NEC would have been closed between Perryville and Havre de Grace. I know all the flood gates at Conowingo Dam were wide open and downriver evacuations were eventually ordered, in fear the dam would be "overtopped" with catastrophic consequences.


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 Post subject: Re: Strasburg Rail Road: Connection to Hurricane Agnes
PostPosted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 12:55 pm 

Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:47 pm
Posts: 1398
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Agnes washed out the Shock's Mill Bridge across the Susqehanna between Columbia and Wago Junction/Enola. This bridge carried almost all of PC's freight traffic between NY, Phila, Wilm, Balto, Wash and Enola. Agnes also washed out part of the Northern Central Branch between Baltimore and York Haven. (never repaired) All PC freight traffic had to be routed via Harrisburg and Rockville for a few years. Fortunately the Main Line jumped over the Columbia Branch West of Middletown so there was little freight-passenger interference.

Harrisburg itself was flooded but it was more easily repaired.

Note this is the same Susquehanns River that flooded W-B.

Phil Mulligan


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 Post subject: Re: Strasburg Rail Road: Connection to Hurricane Agnes
PostPosted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 8:45 pm 
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Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 9:25 pm
Posts: 56
Location: Franklin,Va
[quote="NYCRRson"]This story is related to Hurricane Agnes, but not related to the Strasburg Rail Road.

Back at that time my Pop (a NYCRR locomotive engineer) was "holding down" a regularly scheduled freight on the PC from Buffalo NY to Corning NY via Lyons NY. This was a route that existed from way back in NYCRR times.

He would take the train from Buffalo to Lyons NY (on the NYCRR "mainline"), then divert south on the "Corning Pike" through "Beaver Dam" and "Watkins Glen" to arrive in Corning NY.

Then the crew would "overnight" in Corning NY at a motel just across the street from the World Renowned "Corning Glass Works" (a museum of rare glass objects with real time demonstrations of craftpersons making Stuben Glass while you watch).

While sleeping he was awakened (about 4 AM) by the local constabulary and told; "The Water is Coming, Get to High Ground".

The RR folks got all the crews to "High Ground" at the engine house (still in use just north of Corning as an NS facility).

Tbe railroad (PC) put over a dozen fully loaded coal hoppers on the RR bridge over the Chemung River (a tributary of the Susquehanna) to "hold her down".

All those steps failed, the bridge was washed away, the motel was destroyed and it took years to restore things to normal.


I wonder if the hoppers are still in the river?


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 Post subject: Re: Strasburg Rail Road: Connection to Hurricane Agnes
PostPosted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 8:54 pm 
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Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 9:25 pm
Posts: 56
Location: Franklin,Va
Dad was working a freight heading to Enola from Baltimore and it was caught on the Port Road somewhere between Conowingo and Columbia. The water was coming up to the engines. they radioed in and were told to abandon the train (he was a front brakeman) and after making sure the crew in the cabin car were told they all got off, waded thru the water and went up a hill next to the train where a PC company van picked them up and took them to Harrisburg. I would imagine they had to drop the pans on the E44s which were pulling the train and set some of the brakes before abandoning it. He didn't get home for more than 3 days.


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 Post subject: Re: Strasburg Rail Road: Connection to Hurricane Agnes
PostPosted: Mon Jun 27, 2022 1:13 am 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
Posts: 11482
Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
Left unstated in all of the above was the biggest victim of Agnes in rail preservation: The Magee Transportation Museum near Bloomsburg, Pa., the fine trolley/transport museum opened in 1966 and wiped out in Agnes. You can search the forum for more info on the Museum and its fate.

As I am to understand it, the nearby Carroll Park & Western received at best superficial damage, mostly from the huge amounts of rain rather than true flood damage. Nearby Knoebels Grove Amusement Park in Elysburg, then still an "old-fashioned" amusement park rather than the de facto amusement park museum it has become, lost both a pedestrian covered bridge and a miniature railroad covered bridge used by its live steam loop railroad, and I believe there was a streetcar body in one of the shop barns (STILL there) affected. It took a year for the park to rebuild and reopen. The park was hit by flooding again in 2006 and 2011.

Unusually, for the location and all the damage to the north, the flood-prone Baltimore Streetcar Museum received no serious flooding in 1972. That would occur after other tropical storms in 1979 and 1985.


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 Post subject: Re: Strasburg Rail Road: Connection to Hurricane Agnes
PostPosted: Mon Jun 27, 2022 5:42 pm 

Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:25 pm
Posts: 485
Quote:
I wonder if the hoppers are still in the river?


No, they cleaned it all up, There might be some coal in the river bottom.

They brought in some bridges from elsewhere on the PC and restored the route pretty quickly, It was a major North South route from Jersey Shore (west of Williamsport Pa) to Upstate NY.

There is a modern bridge there now. Look on Goggle Earth for Painted Post NY and Gang Mills NY, that is the location of the bridge.


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 Post subject: Re: Strasburg Rail Road: Connection to Hurricane Agnes
PostPosted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 10:07 am 

Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 3:01 pm
Posts: 1730
Location: SouthEast Pennsylvania
EJ Berry wrote:
Note this is the same Susquehanns River that flooded W-B.
Phil Mulligan
1 year before, during the drought of 1971, that river ran dry at Wilkes-Barre.


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 Post subject: Re: Strasburg Rail Road: Connection to Hurricane Agnes
PostPosted: Tue Jul 05, 2022 7:30 am 

Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2022 8:54 am
Posts: 3
NYCRRson wrote:
Quote:
I wonder if the hoppers are still in the river?


No, they cleaned it all up, There might be some coal in the river bottom.

They brought in some bridges from elsewhere on the PC and restored the route pretty quickly, It was a major North South route from Jersey Shore (west of Williamsport Pa) to Upstate NY.

There is a modern bridge there now. Look on Goggle Earth for Painted Post NY and Gang Mills NY, that is the location of the bridge.


Minor clarification: Yes, PC rebuilt the bridge that was washed away, but when the EX NYC line through Corning was abandoned, the bridges were removed. The last train to use the line was May of 1978. The bridges was located between Bridge Street and the Centerway Bridge. No trace exists today.

The bride you describe in Painted Post was built during the 1950 Erie realignment that took the tracks off what is now Dennison Pky. It is still in use.

Fritz in MD


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 Post subject: Re: Strasburg Rail Road: Connection to Hurricane Agnes
PostPosted: Tue Jul 05, 2022 8:07 pm 

Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:25 pm
Posts: 485
Quote:
Minor clarification: Yes, PC rebuilt the bridge that was washed away, but when the EX NYC line through Corning was abandoned, the bridges were removed. The last train to use the line was May of 1978.


Thanks for the clarification. I did not grow up around Corning and have only been there a few times. Should have checked some old maps before I assumed I knew which bridge was which.

Cheers, Kevin.


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 Post subject: Re: Strasburg Rail Road: Connection to Hurricane Agnes
PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2022 12:57 pm 

Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2022 8:54 am
Posts: 3
Thanks for the clarification. I did not grow up around Corning and have only been there a few times. Should have checked some old maps before I assumed I knew which bridge was which.

Cheers, Kevin.[/quote]

You're welcome. Corning was my mothers home town, spent many happy days exploring there.

Fritz in MD


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