PRR Schuylkill Branch and RDG St Clair Yard
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- Опубликовано: 5 мар 2021
- While this video may be of limited interest, I felt it was important to upload as much of what is shown has either changed or been demolished. Those familiar with the area will appreciate the history.
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We need to rebuild our infrastructure. This would be a great place to start this. Let's reduce our dependence on automobiles and let's rely more, much more, on rail transport. Thanx for sharing the video.
Thank you so much for posting this. I always look for anything related to the PRR Schuylkill Branch. I’ve hiked or biked pretty much the entire line, Philly all the way up to Delano and Lofty (LV from New Boston) and as much of the Tomhicken Branch to Nescopeck as I could. Of course one could ride the BM&R for a while as well. I used to play as a kid in that coal tower at Mt. Carbon until it just wasn’t there one day around 1990. The music is perfect.
Holy smoke, the music gives a sad but eerie feeling to it. At times, the music is also downright haunting.
I believe the music is from "Caprica" or perhaps from "Battlestar Galactica" itself. ISTR that the track is titled "The Ruins" or similar.
@@Weesel71 Battlestar Galactica Season 4 soundtrack, track 07, "Among the Ruins". Good ear!
@@fmnut recognized it right away....put two of my favorite things (BSG and trains) in the same video!
Though I'm unfamiliar with the area, this is really cool. Human history tends to repeat itself, but the buildings & structures fade away after a while. It's great to see the camera man had enough foresight to preserve this footage for us future folk to enjoy.... or mourn over, depending on your point of view. Thanks for posting this rare footage! Regards!!
Great stuff ! As a kid that grew up in the area my friends and I would spend days walking these tracks exploring everything , we would even tell our parents we were sleeping over at each other’s houses and sleep in box cars at the entrance to the St. Clair yards !
Thanks so much for posting this! I grew up in St. Clair (born 1958) on the north end of town by the RDG station on Franklin & 3rd Street. I have vivid memories of RDG trains running on the Frackville branch - FM Trainmasters shifting cars on the southbound receiving yard by Hancock St., about 10 trains a day until 1963 when St. Clair Yard was shut down and operations moved to West Cressona. Maybe 1-2 trains a day traveled over the Frackville Branch (using GP7's and RS3's) until June 1972 when the line was washed out by Hurricane Agnes. The yard was used for derelict car storage until 1980 when it was torn out. Several trains a week still went to the Pine Forest branch south of town to pull raw coal out until the line shut down. The area was silent until Yuengling Brewery built a new brewery on the south part of the yard in 2001, then the Reading and Northern rebuilt a mile or so track on the old roadbed to serve the brewery. The wye at Mill Creekk Jct. is open again! I also vaguely remember the PRR center cab Baldwins going north on the line to Delano and Neskopeck until it was shut down in 1966. I have some 8mm movies of trains on the RDG line in 1970 that I will post on STC Yardmaster soon. Again, thanks for the memories!!!
While not primarily of interest to me, i feel that it is still important to document the history! Truly appreciate that you put these together. Would love to see any historical photos/videos of the original PRR mainline (philadelphia to Paoli) if you have any
yes, the video is not of primary interest to either, but I very much appreciate the upload. I'm from philly grew up in the 70S had privilege of seeing the Reading Railroad in its last year's of operation. Unfortunately for me it seems nobody filmed the philadelphia area of reading freight operations in its last years.there's some of the Reading terminal, but I can't find any of port Richmond, or especially the Erie Avenue yard.
@@victordubowski1276 See my Reading Marine Operations video for scenes of Port Richmond. My Reading Passenger Service video has scenes in Philadelphia also.
@@fmnut thank you I will check it out. I love looking at anything that has to do with the Reading railroad.
Hard to imagine but at one time St Clair was a very busy place for the Reading. The backshop and roundhouse along with the yard employed hundreds of workers. Round the clock operation to supply the mines with empty hoppers that they would fill with anthracite. I suppose we have to progress and change is inevitable but we should always take some time to acknowledge the past, even if it makes us sad.
@Railfanning Points Amen to that, cancel culture and identity politics are tearing our society apart. The left wants to turn to socialism which anyone with even half a brain knows is a recipe for disaster. The new administration is already an exercise in abject failure. It’s not looking good but I still have hope we can get back on track. The 22 and 24 elections are critical.
@Railfanning Points I’ve got my fingers crossed that the supreme court will rule HR1 unconstitutional but they have shown very little backbone lately. If HR1 stands you are correct and there will be no free and fair elections. America as we’ve known it will cease to exist. It’s almost funny that all these immigrants from south of the border are coming to escape socialism might just be walking right back into it. The left is going to get just what they’re asking for, but they aren’t going to like it and when they finally realize that they made a big mistake it will be too late.
This isn't far from Centralia, PA..."The Town That Was". Another sad story.
So sad seeing our industrial might turned in to rubble. I assume the huge roundhouse was St. Clair? Thanks for sharing this with us.
I traveled through Pottsville, St. Clair a few times in 1971,1972 & 1973 when my late father would drive from Newark, Delaware to Pittston, Pennsylvania. St. Clair’s Reading yard was quite busy then. The video now shows a lot of Reading freight cars just parked in the once busy yard. The old PRR line by early 1972 from the Schuylkill river crossing of the PRR concrete bridge crossing over I-76 the Schuylkill Expressway on Northwest to Sunbury was almost gone.
It's hard to believe the dozens of trains used to run this line, and now, there's pretty much nothing left, just hollowed out buildings and abandoned railcars
Grew up in St Clair but the rail yards were mostly gone when I was a kid, thanks for sharing this.
Great film. With the music, I kept expecting Jason or the Blair Witch to pop out
LOL. So true ~ the music is spooky.
Fascinating and expertly produced in my opinion. As one who spends way too much time walking around things abandoned, I appreciate being able to see things I will not be able to in person. Thank you.
Awesome video. I still remember the St. Clair yards from when I was little. It was big! I was given a book either the plans for building the St. Clair yards and Frackville Grade by an old railroader I was friends with back in the day. If you walk the Schuylkill River Trail along 61 you can still see remnants of what used to be.
Sad to see the St.Clair Yard has been left to ruins, but with inspiration from the East Broad Top it can be refurbished and restored. What a sight it would be to see the yard and extension brought back to life. We can't be throwing our railroad history down the drain. Very heartbreaking but very informative
I live next to the industrial park in st clair, wish their were more videos of the yards
I'm still learning about the railroad history in this area. Thank you very much. Excellent.
you video is amazing thanks kyle schu 🙂
Thanks for preserving these memories. Remember seeing the Mt Carbon and St Clair Yards while travelling north on Route 61. Wanted to photograph but never did.
Fantastic (as always!) I hike/bike portions of this line often, and always wonder what it was like when it was active. Almost wish I could step back in time just for a day. Hard to believe that entire St. Clair complex is nothing but history.
Thank you fmnut for preserving this history.
Well I must say you nailed it PAL excellent music all the shots that you focused in on step back in time everything clicked it was beautiful appreciate the video it’s good to see someone who knows what they’re doing when it comes to making videos like this thank you very much.
Creepy Horror movie music !! Lol
When do they dig up the bodies !! : D
R.I.P
Thanks for posting this j grew up along the "Anthracite Roads", sad how much has disappeared
I was waiting to see a ghost etc. with the eerie music
Excellent stuff, both amazing and fantastic at the same time. I am always impressed at the amount of stuff people have taken the trouble to record. Thanks for putting it together.
Thank you so much for posting this!
Great video it has my interests
Great stuff! Thanks for sharing this!
Pretty cool to see those buildings in their natural state. So many people feel they have to leave there mark with a can of spray paint now days.
The shot looking at the decrepit station building was standing on 301 Penn Ave in Shoemakersville. Looks identical today, but station has been fixed up. Track owned by R&N but rusty. Buildings across the street behind station are still there.
Sad to see but glad you posted this !!!
Great video. Wrong music sound track!
Where the old St. Clair yards were once at, there is a fenced in spot that contains an old section of track........the Car shop is now some industrial company now.
Absolutely love this. Thank you
Totally depressing.
The shots at the de-silting basin are great. Even captured the barge that performed the operation. Hard to believe 11 years from the time these films were shot was the beginning of the BM&R in Shoey and we'd see double-headed steam blast through there at 50! Very interesting perspective from Mount Carbon. Often wondered what the view was like up there and now I know. IIRC, by this time, service ended at Haven? Thank you for posting, rare stuff here.
By this time, regular service ended at Auburn. From there to Schuylkill Haven was used for winter storage of ballast cars.
How in the world do you have all this awesome stuff!?
Several friends who allow me to edit and upload it. And Ebay of course.
Limited interest? You’ve got about 7700 views after less than 2 weeks :). Super video. Nice view of the Kearny. Fine musical selection as always. I’d certainly like to see more PRR in Shoemakersville, Hamburg, and up to Auburn, the section that is now the trail. There’s a tunnel under the hill that’s bounded by the RBMN track and the trail, you can see it on topo maps. Thanks!
Well, I was pleasantly surprised by the interest in this film, as my audience is from all over the US and parts of the rest of the world, I expected a meager number of views. It's taken off quite well for a train video with no running trains in it. I have found that the four seasons of soundtracks from Battlestar Galactica have great background music for most subjects.
Great history BUT where and whose small roundhouse and coaling tower was that? The coaling tower is almost an exact match of the one in Reading now long gone. What was that circular foundation thing the camera man centered on? Good work as usual but maybe this should have had narration or subtitles. Of course Shoey I recognized as well as St Clairs shops, the full roundhouse, and that coal ramp thing in the middle. Thanks for sharing.
The small roundhouse and coaling tower were part of the PRR Mt. Carbon yard just south of Pottsville. It was located across the river from Mt. Carbon on the eastern side of SR 61. The circular foundation was probably for a water tower in the St. Clair yard.
Industrial America in 6 minutes.
(And what of the people?)
GREAT vid! Thanks
Look at all those great boxcars at 4:28! wish i coulda walked that track...
This area was mostly served by RDG. How did PRR get into this region ?
Dumb question
I never knew that PRR served that area of the coal region. My question meant where did PRR come from to get to the St Clair area. I'm sorry if I offended your inteligence. Maybe someone else can answer my question without a dumbass remark.
@@mightymack99 Reading Railroad only . St Clair is on Pa
Route 61 North to I 81Frackville. PPR was in Sunbury .
Stephen Girard owned Schuylkill County when he
died in 1831. Coal was discovered here trains came
Next . His estate owned some
Reading stock too.
PRR had the line from Philly to Reading to Pottsville to Wilkes-Barre. Sometimes called the Schuylkill Secondary. Hope that helps.
It looks pretty European, or "German", shaped.
The first scene with the small train station could also be in "Hessen".
The scene with the depot could also be in the Sauerland.
I'm guessing everything at 0:51 and in the video thumbnail is completely gone
The passenger and freight stations visible from 00:25 to 1:11 are still there and have been restored/converted into private homes, Google Street View 40.497999, -75.970088. The video thumbnail is the Mt. Carbon roundhouse which is completely gone along with everything else. Most of the width of the yard was removed to widen PA 61 and make a jug handle turnoff for the old road into Pottsville.
What happened to them now?
The stations at Shoemakersville have been restored and are in non rail use. Everything else is gone.
@@fmnut oh well
Areas around manayunk would be appreciated!
When was this?
Circa 1972
AND ALL OF THE SUDDEN...THEY WERE GONE....MOST ALL OF THE HUMANS....THE REMAINING WERE AWAITING THE FINAL ZOMBIE ATTACK
Why the creepy music?
Goes with the creepy subjects, no?
Nice
All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again.
Well ... that was fun.
Sad views if you think of the hustle of what once was. Thanks for sharing. What year was this?
As stated on the video, around 1972.
@@fmnut Sorry. I missed that
The trouble with America and its "manifest destiny" is that when industries die, companies just leave rubble and toxic waste behind (just look at what coal mining co's did to WV). In smaller countries where land is at a premium, the land is recycled into something useful.
All of the sites seen in the film have been redeveloped. No toxic waste or rubble. The stations at Shoemakersville have been developed into a business and a private home. The Mt Carbon yard site was used to widen PA 61 and install a jug handle left turn to improve traffic flow. The St. Clair yard site is now an industrial park. And America does not have a monopoly on toxic waste sites, rust belts or rubble. I have been to Eastern Europe, Mexico, Russia and South America. Plenty of wasteland to go around.
🌐🌐🌐🌐
Where was this location
Did you not read the paragraph at the beginning of the video?
Sorry about that thank you
hi, i do not subscribe to this channel , but for some reason it arrived as a notification.
i must say i have never seen such a depressing video, and as an australian , i have absolutely no idea of the location or the story behind this video.
if anymore of these videos turn up as a notification i will just trash them.
Hi. I have a lot of Australian rail videos on my channel which is probably why youtube's algorithm suggested one of my videos to you. The locations are in eastern Pennsylvania and as I said in both the description and the opening text, it would be of limited value to someone not from the area. Sorry to have brought down your mood. If you are interested in Australian railways or sugar cane in Queensland, you could check out some of my other videos on those subjects. Thanks for your comment.