8

NEWSLETTER

OF THE MOHAWK & HUDSON CHAPTER, N.R.H.S.

September 1991

L&W's anton Yard d Shops

By Tim Truscott
The Lackawanna's Scranton Yard in the 1850s occupied only a portion of what it ultimately came to cover. The center of the operation was its first passenger and freight stations, wood frame structures built in 1851 and located alongside the yard on Lackawanna Avenue adjacent to Scranton's downtown area. At about the same time, a brick machine shop was built on the west side of Washington Avenue with a boiler shop and car shop on the east side of the street A small foundry was located nearby. Both the passenger station and freight depot were said to have been moved to new locations on Lackawanna Avenue in 1854, then were replaced in 1864 by brick buildings. In 1907,when the most recent passenger station was built, a large brick freight house was constructed on Lackawanna Avenue across the yard from the last roundhouse. This is now the site of a State office building. The original Scranton roundhouse, depicted in George Inness' famous painting "The Lackawanna Valley" (now in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.), was constructed in 1855 west of what is now Washington Avenue across from what became the Erecting Shop. This structure was a 225-footdiameter, 30-stall,full-circle, fully-enclosed structure, i.e. the center 60foot turntable area was capped by a 98-foot high dome. For a period of several years this roundhouse was the most prominent structure in the growing city of Scranton. In about 1864 the raised center dome was removed, as this portion of the structure was observed to be settling. This original roundhouse was demolished in about 1902, but its 6O-footturntable was retained until the 1920s when it was replaced by a 100foot turntable removed in the late 1940s. This part of the yard was known to Lackawanna employees, for some reason, as "Hog Town." In about 1865a second roundhouse with a 66-foot turntable was built to the west of the original roundhouse described above. A new roundhouse was built on this same site in 1902as a part of PresidentTruesdale's redevelopment program, and the 66-foot turntable was replaced with a 90-foot turntable in about 1912. The roundhouse was used until the end of the steam era in 1954, although a portion of it was demolished in the early 1950s. The turntable was used until the 1970s,just before Conrail, but was sold to a scrap dealer in about 1981. While there is evidence that the interior configuration of this roundhouse was altered at least once and that the number of stalls evidently changed because of fire damage and reconstruction, this roundhouse was at its peak a 46-stall, full-circle structure. Modifications were made to the building over the years. The roundhouse shell and the turntable pit can be seen today. The inspection pits of the roundhouse, though filled in years ago, are still intact beneath the surface of the roundhouse floor. Adjacent to the roundhouse on its east side, a machine shop supported the roundhouse activities. Portions of this building, still standing, date back to 1865. After World War II an addition was put on this machine shop building and the structure became the Lackawanna's diesel shop. To the north of the roundhouse was located a large wooden coal trestle for fueling locomotives. Ash pits were also located in this vicinity. These structures remained for a period after the end of steam power in 1954. The Scranton roundhouse was frequented by the DL&W's No. 1I50-series "Hudson" type steam locomotives,recently recalled fondly by Jim Ratchford, in recent years the Manager of Locomotive Maintenance at the Delaware & Hudson's East Binghamton shop. These large-wheeled steamers were used in passenger service. Ratchford began working for the Lackawanna in 1947 and spent nearly a year working in-the Scranton roundhouse in 1950. The No. 1600-series "Pocono" steam locomotives were also recalled by

A map of the DL&W's Scranton Yard and Shop complex as it appeared about 1898. The smaller roundhouse near the center of the map was the DL&W's first in Scranton and dated from 1855. The larger roundhouse in the upper lett (south) dated from about 1865, but was replaced with another larger roundhouse on the same site in 1902. The area at the bottom of the map (east), part of which wa occupied by the Lackawanna Coal & Iron Co., became the site of the DL&W's large locomotive erecting shop in 1907.

September 1991

NEWSLETTER

OF THE MOHAWK & HUDSON CHAPTER, N.R.H.S. into a large firm with three separate shops manufacturing machinery primarily for the anthracite industry. The Cliff Works facility had been purchased by Dickson from Cooke & Company (unrelated to the Paterson locomotive firm) in 1862 and converted to locomotive construction. These facilities, interestingly enough, appear in Inness' famous painting as they were at the time they were operated by Cooke. A small portion of the Dickson Works' structures still exist today. 'The main shop building, located on the east side of Washington Avenue from the freight yard, roundhouse and other shop facilities, had dimensions of 344 ft. x 582 ft. with six bays running the length of the building. The two outside bays comprised the erecting department, each having eighteen tracks which were accessible by a large transfer table on the east of the building, or by overhead crane on the side adjacent to Washington Avenue. The four interior bays were the machine shop, reserved for repair and rebuilding of individual pieces. Large concrete lettering high on the end walls of the building still reads "ERECTING SHOP," although the facility was closed in about 1949 after dieselization occurred and has been used as a munitions factory ever since. A large Stores Department building was located on the opposite side of Washington Avenue from the Erecting Shop, with the two connected by a subterranean passageway crossing beneath Washington Avenue which in-

THE CALL BOARD 9

Ratchford from his days in the roundhouse, though not with quite as deep an affection. In 1945 a large addition was built at a cost of $100,000 on the machine shop building and the structure became the Lackawanna's diesel shop. A second, smaller addition was constructed in 1949. The diesel shop had six tracks, numbered 2-5 and 7-8 which went outdoors and two tracks, used for repairing locomotive trucks, which didn't extend outside the building. Four of these tracks, #2-#5, had pits and ramps to facilitate access to the engine compartments and undersides of the locomotives, while Tracks 7 and 8 had neither pits nor ramps. Drop tables to remove and install locomotive trucks were incorporated into Tracks 4 and 5, with the one on Track 5 lengthened in about 1952 to accommodate the three-axle trucks of E-8 locomotives. Jim Ratchford also recalls that the Scranton diesel shop became home to an array of diesel locomotive classes over the years while he worked there. He left the shop as a General Foreman when it was closed by Conrail in 1981. The Lackawanna's E-8's (#810-820), the workhorses of the passenger fleet, arrived in 1950 and pushed the F-3 diesels back into freight service. Alco S-l yard switchers arrived in the late '40s, with RS-3 road switchers (the 900-series) beginning to arrive in 1950. The well-known FairbanksMorse "Trainmaster" diesels came to Scranton in about 1956. The Scranton locomotive erecting shop at 23 acres was much larger than the Kingsland shop. The shop was built between 1907 and 1910 on the site of the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company, which had moved to the Buffalo area in 1902 and eventually became Bethlehem Steel's Lackawanna plant. (Lackawanna Iron and Steel had grown out of the Lackawanna Coal and Iron Company, the successor to the Scranton brothers' early venture.) This new facility was to be capable of building new locomotives and accommodating repairs to all locomotives from the Scranton, Syracuse and Utica divisions. Prior to this time, the DL&W utilized the Dickson Locomotive Company's Cliff Works for constructing new locomotives as well as for special work of which the railroad was not capable. The Cliff Works was located immediately west of the Lackawanna property which had recently closed after becoming part of the American Locomotive Company in 1902. This firm had grown from an obscure iron foundry started in 1856 by Thomas Dickson

eluded an electrified three-foot gauge railway for transporting materiel. Also located across Washington Avenue from the Erecting Shop and on the site of the original roundhouse, a Maintenance of Way repair shop and storage building was constructed in 1951. Charles Yungkurth, now known for his contributions to Railroad Model Craftsman Magazine, grew up four blocks from Lackawanna Station and near the railroads shops toward the end of the steam era. Yungkurth recalled how the railroad would break in its steam locomotives after major repairs or rebuilding by running them back and forth for hours at a time on the stretch of track adjacent to the south side of the Erecting Shop which extended over Washington Avenue toward the roundhouse area. These newly-refurbished locomotives were always freshly painted. An 0-6-OT switcher was used to work the shop and to move inactive locomotives on and off the transfer table. Adjacent to the shops, on the east side toward the station, the tenders were stored which belonged to all the engines in the shop. Between the shop and the station was located the Lackawanna's power plant, whose large steam engine and flywheel were visible from the street in the hot weather when the doors were open. Yungkurth also recalled the impact that dieselization had on the Lackawanna's workforce, first on the road and then in the shops, after the first FT diesel units arrived in Scranton on May 3, 1945. It was com-

Steamtown engineer Bernie O'Brien (standing in the doorway) and fireman Seth Corwin Oeaning out the window of the 2317) at Kingsley, PA. Bernie and Seth will be working the train when the Mohawk & Hudson Chapter takes the steam excursion on October 19.

10 THE CALL BOARD

NEWSLETTER

OF THE MOHAWK & HUDSON CHAPTER. N.R.H.S.

September

1991

mon at that time to use three 2200-class 48-2 or various 2-8-2 pushers on the back and a helper on the front of east-bound coal trains heading out of Scranton, thus making five steam locomotives on a coal train of about a hundred cars. Sitting on the station platform, one witnessed at about ten minute intervals what seemed to be a constant stream of these locomotives drifting back down the grade from the summit of the Poconos. Soon after the first F-units were delivered to Scranton in 1945 for pusher service, 50 firemen were furloughed and 50 engineers were immediately bumped back to firemen. The impact of a pair of higher horsepower diesels replacing a trio of steam locomotives was apparent. One can also imagine the impact that these new high horsepower, low maintenance units had on the steam shop, as the diesels ran night and day with only crew changes, while the steam locomotives could make only two trips up the mountain before having to spend as much as eight hours being coaled and serviced. At the same time that dieselization was being implemented after World War II, the tonnage of coal being shipped out of Scranton was falling rapidly. Although in 1940 the DL&W was probably the largest employer and taxpayer in Scranton, perhaps employing as many as 5,000 people, the Lackawanna's roll in Scranton was soon to decline. And the DL&W was one of over a half-dozen railroads that came into Scranton. The Lackawanna's Scranton Yard was one of several in Scranton and was relatively small. Its use was primarily for servicing local industries, as well as for adding to or taking cars from hotshot freights. All trains changed engines at Scranton, and even the hottest of merchandise trains with refrigerator and stock cars stopped at the Scranton Yard for at least two hours while an inspection of the train and a power change took place. The DL& W's other two nearby yards, Hampton Yard and Taylor Yard (which is now part of the Delaware & Hudson), were principally used for coal traffic. The Taylor Yard was intended primarily for handling of empty coal cars and Hampton Yard was intended primarily for loaded cars. The DL&W's Scranton Yard and Shop complex went through about 175 years of evolution before it ceased operation as a railroad facility. The Steamtown National Historic Site will be a partial restoration of that historic rail site, and will interpret its history for the public.

What remains of the DL&W's 1902 roundhouse in Scranton has been stabilized and refurbished by the National Park Service during 1991. A new 9O-foot turntable, seen in the photo in front of the roundhouse, was installed in recent months.

, ,
.-Truck No.6

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The genera1 floor plan of the DL&W's Scranton diesel shop, which was developed in 1945 from the old machine shop building adjacent to the roundhouse, shows six tracks, four of which entered the shop from the east (right) and two of which had no outside rail connections. Tracks 1 and 2 were for running maintenance, Track 5 was used for heavy road locomotive repair and Track 6 was used for heavy repair of switching locomotives. Tracks 3 and 4, which did not go outside the building, were used for truck repair and engine overhauling.