I would certainly think that John Pechulis media would love to put this footage on DVD. It could be part of a Conrail in the coal regions or something. Great footage! Thank you for sharing this.
I visited my great grandmother and her sister in Tamaqua during the first half of the 1980's, I remember the Tamaqua station was closed and it was a light yellowish color, not the brick it is now. And the tracks were Conrail, I saw a few Conrail freights go through. I'm from Allentown area, my father who passed away March 8, 1986 at night (car hit him 2 miles from our house) his mother's mother and her sister lived in Tamaqua, my father graduated from Marian High. He was born in the Bronx, NY.
All I can say is "Wow!!!!" This is a great video. You ought to put this out on DVD. I for one would buy a copy. I am sure the members of the RCT&HS and the guys at the RBMN would eat this stuff up. I have never seen anything on video with Conrail in the Reading's anthracite area. I also saw your slideshow with the photos of Conrail in the hard coal region, which is also great! If you have anymore stuff with Conrail in the hard coal region, please post them!
The question was asked how do I convert my videos. I use a Sony Digital 8 Walkman for playback. It will playback Video 8 and Hi8 tapes. It has a Firewire out jack which connects directly to the Firewire board on my PC. I captured the files as .mp2 for the most part, although I did do some AVI's also. I edit them into .mp4 files for RU-vid.In the past I used a Dazzle capture box and a standard Hi8 deck, but the newer arrangement is fewer wires and does a slightly better job of capturing.
That shot of the diesel excursion, they were running on tracks that they didn't own yet that they own now. Temple to Tamaqua? That would be hard now because to get from Temple station to the main line would require a move on a mile of NS between Laurel and Belt. I guess it's easier for them to run excursions on their own track now, without having to bother NS or anyone else. Which is why they built the new connection over the CNJ bridge for the LGSRY trains to avoid crossing NS at Packerton.
During Conrail days, was Port Clinton just a junction point between the Tamaqua and Pottsville lines? Trains didn't stop there or anything? It looked so empty without all the buildings that the R&N built. I rode through Port Clinton buildingless in 1992 on a West Leesport-Jim Thorpe 425 excursion.
How come you don't have a million views yet? Wonderful stuff. And this is all on film, right (vs tape recording)? Really great. Loved your slide show too. Vic Minetola
+fmnut I was only kidding. What I meant was that everybody should see this stuff. Actually there's only a coupla-tree hunert thousand people from the anthracite valley(at any given time). Vic minetola
Nice video. Many of the scenes look the same as when Andy Muller pulled a coal train in 1991 with 2102. Seems as if there's plenty of business here. I don't know why Contrail didn't want it. But there's a lot I never understood about Conrail.
At the time Conrail shed these lines the outlook for hard coal was bleak, with basically only one big customer (QIT) for coal traffic. CR was not interested in trying to grow the non-coal business to make up for the loss in hard coal traffic because their costs to provide service were much greater. Union wage scales and work rules, track maintenance costs and the run down condition of much of the trackage all entered into the decision to sell. R&N was able to upgrade track at less cost and also received taxpayer money for some of the work, which would not have happened under Conrail. To their credit, they were able to grow the business to make the line viable in the long term.
