I will go out on the proverbial limb and suggest that the lettering on both the hopper car and the gray box car are "leftover" from the "Molly Maguires" movie project--and, possibly, so was the boxcar itself.

Hopper lettering: Luzerne County Gas & Electric, same place the steam crane came from. And the boxcar looked that way when it arrived, but received the lettering for the movie.

Carroll Park & Western apparently had three ex-Reading wooden covered hoppers. Built originally as boxcars, they had their door openings sheathed, with slope sheets, outlet gates and roof hatches added. Morning Sun's RDG Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment has a good photo and futher details of these unusual cars.

Alan Maples

If I recall correctly, the white panel above the reporting marks was a notice that the car was to be used only for cocoa bean loading for Hershey at Hershey, Pa. I recall hearing that these cars were loaded at Wilmington, Del. and then went north on the RDG's Wilmington & Northern branch.

In the mid-1990's, I worked for a shortline that served an "industrial" chocolate manufacturer, and for a time, the cocoa beens were delivered in large burlap bags in boxcars. The plant workers would pull the bags out one at a time, cut them with a boxcutter, and dump the beans onto a grating with a conveyor below. The bags weighed 300 pounds each, and it was hard, dusty work. Those guys would have loved these Reading cocoa hoppers.

Alan -

Thanks for info and photo. Unusual cars. Too bad at least one wasn't saved at some railroad museum.

Les

Thanks for the info everyone this will be helpful in my search for info. Alan I'm sending you a private messge about your photos.

Do you know what year it leaft the C&O and came to the CP&W?

As mentioned in an earlier reply this box car was just a grey color when it came to the CP&W. I beleive the lettering on the side for Carbon and Schuylkill was added for the Molly Maguires movie as that was the the railroad in the movie and CP&W Locomotive No 117 was also lettered for the C&S RR on the tender. Can anyone possible confirm this.

Sorry, I don't. I only have very sketchy records for the dispositions of the cabooses.

I road on the CP&W Memorial Day weekend of 1971. The Climax was out of service at that time. I was told that they had fired it up the year before but the air pump wouldn't work and since it burned twice as much coal as the 0-4-0T they never fixed it. If anybody ever turns up the builder's number for the crane I would like to know it.

Contrary to what you were told, the air pump on the CP&W Climax was hardly ever used, and I'm not sure it ever worked. Usually, the engineer just shut the throttle and the gears would bring the engine to a smooth stop.

The real reason No. 3 was out of service was a hole in the left firebox sheet. I know it was there because I helped Carroll Stahl find it. It was hidden behind the grate bearer on that side, which required removal of all the grates and the bearer to find it. It was large enough for me to stick my finger through it.

A lot of great info so far. I'd like to thank Mr. Laepple and Mr. Maples for all their help sofar with my current project about the Carroll Park and Western RR.

I still need some info and/or images of the Steam Crane, C&O Camp Cars, RDG Coco Hoppers and the various Speeders that were at the CP&W. Anyone out there have anything they can share about these?

Thanks in advance for any info you can provide.

Odd that a short-lived tourist operation would still have the water tower and depot still standing, who owns those now and what are they used for today?

Both are owned by the gentleman who owns Tower Micro, the computer store located between them. The station has been empty since around 2003 when the flea market that was located there ended. Both are basically just for display now.

Thanks,
Andrew

Hi - I visited the CP&W site on 13 Oct 66 and took 15 photos while there. They are nothing to rave about but some might be of help to you - different views etc. Among them is one of the CP&W 3 and 3 of the Henry Clay and its engineer. If you are interested I would be happy to pass them along to you but you'll have to tell me how. Normally I just use attachments to email.

Cheers for now,
Paul Kelley