I grew up in Monaca PA. The P&LE went right through town. Everyday at recess a friend and I would railfan and watch as train would go by and it was a bonus if we caught 2. Once we're heard this crazy sound wondering what it was and there was a Steam locomotive in the middle of the train. Talk about getting excited. The P&LE gave the B&O, later the Chessie System, track rights and that's how we saw the Steamer. A great memory. It was the first time I ever saw one live and up close
Ah, western PA in 1990. Those days are a great memory I have. My now former wife and I were just starting out and our oldest child was 5 years away from being born. We raised 3 great kids. Gramma and Pappy lived in Monessen and I could see the Mon river from the back porch whenever she and I went to visit them. Pappy worked for Pittsburgh-Wheeling and had long since retired. Stepping into their home was like going back in time and I enjoyed every minute of it. P&LE was great railfanning. I even have one of their coffee mugs as a reminder of those days. Great work on the video. Gave me time to reflect and smile, but made me a little sad at the same time. Not your fault, sir; just feeling nostalgic is all. I miss those days when life was simpler and I could spend time now and again watching those P&LE trains go by.
Jack, great stuff. A lot of really neat stuff in those clips. The thing that struck me the most is no use of the horn through the elizabeth street running, only constant sounding of the bell. A lot different from today’s world.
Thank you so much for this...especially the Elizabeth footage. My grandparents lived next to the tracks very close to the old Wylie station. Great memories. BTW, is that station building still there? Haven't been to Elizabeth since 1990.
Thank you for posting. I grew up along the youghiogheny branch in whitsett do you remember when the last train to Connellsville was at the coal loader? I’m thinking 1988. I did remember the train was stopped to cut a tree out of the way we helped clear the track. I did see a picture that 506 was the last caboose to leave Connellsville. I did see the Facebook post going to Connellsville just wanted to know if you seen them go west after it was loaded. Thank you again. Kenny
Yah Kenny, I did. It was August 26, 1987. I caught it running to Connellsville in several places. Got it at Smithton, Van Meter, Layton, Dickerson Run. It was covered with leaves. LOL. I didn't see it come back east. I didn't get any movies of it at, since I didn't purchase my first VHS camera until mid 1988, and I quit taking Super 8mm movies about 1984...
Just a tidbit for everyone . The first two numbers on every P&LE Engine would tell you how many horse power they were . 1500's = 1500 horse 20 = 2000 horse power .
Thank you for the reply do u remember the derailment in whitsett around 1983 or 84 I remember the cars in the river. Also WM-6 wrecked under smithton bride in January 1967 there are pictures online from Roy.
I shot the train that derailed near Whitsett across the river at Jacobs Creek. Then I went to the bridge at Layton to get him again. The train just stuck his nose around the corner, and stop just out of range of the camera. The conductor stepped down, and walked the train. About 20 minutes later he came back. He walked down to the bridge were my wife and I was waiting, and said they had one heck of a wreck just around the corner. If we were standing out on the bridge over the Yough, we would have saw it derail. There was three strange things. The train wasn't going that fast, we never heard a thing, and why was coal going east. Anyway, we walked down and took a bunch of pictures of the wreck, including the cars that went into the river. Those pictures are in the P&LE Morning Sun Book.
@@1jackdk very good i have had a lot of debates about the coal going east i know the cars were loaded i seen them many times in my life maybe they interchanged at west yough bridge with chessie at the time because wm would had been severed right? I thank you very much for the replies and sharing the old stories do you know what year the wreck at whitsett was?
