What a great exploration! The underground videos are my favorites. Liked the music on the black/white montage and the comparisons from today's ruins to those pics from the late thirty's was amazing. One of my all time faves!
This is absolutely amazing! I actually live right up the hill from here and I go see the underground tunnels and the gatehouse almost everyday I'm free! I decided to email you about the history I know about this place and some tunnels that you missed because my comment would be way too long. Thank you so much for this! - Daniel W.
It always amazes me how you can go down into those holes ...no way could I do it . Loved the wonderful old iron fence around the reservoir , the structures and the brick sloosh.. . Great of Matt to share this historic site with ya. ...incredible in its day .
Jay...this is the absolute best Railroad find to date! The PRR in its day had a most impressive operation and these huge facilities are witness to that fact! The underground bunkers are so cool. The Castle style water tower is infamous for the Pennsylvania Railroad during the early 20th century to pre WW II Era. The ornate architecture was the trademark of this once mighty Railroad. I would have loved to see this Coalinga structure in operation! I must confess I have NEVER seen anything like this before. I would imagine that Pennsylvania's Coaling country contributed to this fascinating site! What an impressive cut they made to gain access to that peered structure.
Omg.. I couldn't go under ground but interesting and good to see awsom to see the train come through the pictures from back then are so cool loved the water tank thanks JP 😊..
I really enjoy learning about the history of Pennsylvania. This was so interesting, I can just imagine what it was like when it was in operation. That was so cool to see the tree intertwining and growing in and around the iron fence. Nature is truly amazing. The architecture of the water tower that looked like a castle is awesome! Great video, thank you so much JP!
Thanks for the video JP, matt this would have been one hell of a great place when fully operational. That sure is a great cutting and the pillar is of wonderful quality. Will be great to see more underground if possible!!😎🚂🚂🚂🚂🇬🇧🇺🇦
What an interesting adventure Jay. It's mind blowing of all the work and planning to make a place like this, and there are more similar all over the country. When in full operation it must have been a sight to see. Thanks Jay and Matt 👍🤙
This was really cool !! I really enjoyed it and there is a lot of history here !! That huge coal transfer tower was amazing to see and there was lots of rooms under ground and such really liked the pictures at the end also !!👍👍Great video as always !!
Awesome video JP! What a awesome place! Thanks to Matt for sharing it! Love the photos from the past! What a great place it was! Thanks for bringing us along for the adventure!
I grew up in this area in the 60s, 70’s and 80’s. We explored this whole area as kids, there used to be a lot more ruins, but was plowed under or dismantled in the late 70’s. A few points, at the beginning of the video you showed a water channel, that used to be covered with wood planking. The round valve house that you show we called “the castle” as you saw has valves in it. It actually was a water main that filled the reservoir, how do I know? Because as kids we went down that rusty ladder and found the valve handles and turned the valves, it was still active and we fill the reservoir just enough to ice skate in the winter. There is actually another valve that we used to drain the reservoir, that valve stem used to be topside through the floor of the castle. That reservoir used to be in such good shape that we would ride our dirt bikes down in there and actually ride around the walls at high speed. There used to be so much more that I could explain that’s buried but I don’t have all day and don’t really feel like trying to explain, would be hard to explain anyway. If you would like more information or would like to walk the area down again sometime, I would be more than willing to show some other stuff that you missed of its indeed still there.
That big cut, I understand the awe. I used to roam some woods a bit further south than this video and there was/is a stream of sorts and there is a massive ravine similar in size to the one shown in this video. The best I can tell, the area around here is natural. It was quite the walk getting up it.
Jp they have model trains running here in Medford Oregon and I know your really into model trains your friend Betsy lucey I whatch all your videos I,m big fan of yours and your family there arealot lessons to learn from your videos and there very entertaining also to ok
What an interesting video. A little piece of railroad history. I loved it. I loved the map you inserted of each thing to show what it used to look like so long ago. Thank you for taking me here with you.
I’m glad there’s people like you Jay!! I wouldn’t mind walking the drainage trench or the deep trails but going underground would give me the hebegebes! Thank you for your videos!!
That's a really cool location! I'm opposite of you though, I'd rather deal with heights than claustrophobic underground rooms. At least you get to explore them for me lol. Catching the Amtraks was a nice bonus too. FYI, there's similar remains of a stone water tower base along the D&L Trail just south of Rockport. I can give you info if you ever want to check that out.
Hi Jay, fantastic that there is so much still left to see, definitely a shadow of it's former self though which is a shame. Thank you for taking us along to share in the adventure, much love. xx ❤
Thanks for taking us along on this adventure. The things they did to move water around are cool. It's hard to understand what you are looking at until you showed the pictures from the past that put everything in perspective. Thanks for doing that. Also cool to see modern trains still using some of the tracks.
Hello JP it's been awhile having written anything I've been enjoying all your videos so forgive me for not replying to all of them I watch him and moments that are not busy and this one I'm right now laying back watching this and I enjoy this all video it was amazing especially all the fines and the rooms awesome I cannot wait what you have next in store keep enjoying yourself and those videos like the one with your family at canova's love your videos and keep doing what you love doing always and I cannot wait to see you on your next video
I thought the whole story was interesting!! I like it when you slip in pics from the past, really helps the old imagination!! The old support was cool. And thanks for not pushing me down that last rabbit hole….looked pretty creepy!! 💖💙💖💙💖💙
the scope of this site tells you just how important the railroads were back in the day, and especially the Pennsy. In this day and age of trucks and airplanes, it is hard to imagine how crucial the railroads were. The sheer size of this tells you that, the amount of cost and effort it took to build this would likely be the equivalent of a hundred million today,easily. The amount of labor would have been staggering, even with the low wages of back then and materials would have been expensive. The need for something this huge also explains why Diesels took over and why this was abandoned prob in the 50s. Diesel servicing and fueling facilities are relatively simple in comparison. The other thing to think of was maintaining this. as well made as it was, those pipes and valves and the coal warf and the other infrastructure would need maintaining, especially w PA weather. The railing around the reservoir is also indicative of something else, it may seem a small thing but they took pride in how stuff looked. here you have a fence around a reservoir in an industrial like setting, but they made it look like something. I know with the Pennsy that even things like signal towers and signal bridges and signals were designed in a way to look distinctive. Could you see someone from CSX caring about that? The image was part of their pride in what they were doing. As far as the tunnels and rooms ( which were a massive thing in of themselves) I think they were there for storage w the rooms, plus they also were access points I would guess to shutoff valves and distribution panels for electrical. Just from what I saw not all that was original, I suspect a lot of the electrical conduit looked later, prob added as electricity was needed for various things. In one frame there is exposed wiring that looked like it was late 30s or 40s. As for why underground I have a pretty good guess.The biggest factor prob was to keep the pipes from freezing, at the depth they were at were likely below the frost line. Not to mention that not being exposed to the elements above ground would let them last longer.Idk if it was also bc exposed pipes are a safety hazard, ppl trip over them, trucks run into them. Too with them underground freed up working space. It showed me long term thinking, that putting it underground cost a lot more but they took the long term view. Kind of sad they once had that kind of view, then in the 60s sold the air rights to NY Penn Station and it was torn down bc they had sunk that low. If you want more information, contact someone at the Pennsylvania Rail Historical society or check their website.
Wow! What an awesome find! And what a great 'helper'! Glad you had someone with you! That place is amazing! Loved it! Thank you for sharing and your photos are just amazing as always!
JP Those pictures where great, and the structures are incredible. That must have been a huge place, a lot of thought must been put into building all that, it definitely shows it. And the old stream locomotives, nice to see that old stuff.
Thank you so much for exploring history. What you do is amazing work and with the help of phots we can get a view back in the day. Truly astonishing work they did back in the day.
This was pretty interesting. My favorite was the area we're you thought water ran and the big cuts in the hills for trains to go . I wish I didn't live so far away I'd like to explore the area...
Oh my there's a man coming out of the ground. Lol .pretty cool tunnel so very cool to see these kind of things in the woods hard to believe at one point they were up and working for at one point so very cool to see.......
You are so lucky to live where you do J. I'd love to live there with my love for history as it is today. Anyhow, that place is so cool! You ought to research it J. I think the tunnels were probably quarters for the workers. Just my guess.
