Time for navel gazing and finger pointing as more rotting equipment in Northeast PA bit the dust apparently. A Facebook video shows the "clean up" of the CNJ station in Wilkes-Barre to prep it for restoration. It appears all the non-historic additions and the remaining collection of rolling stock are being scrapped.

Among the pieces are/were the last D&H "miners' train" car and an Erie Ten Hundred (or most of it) plus 4 or 5 other pieces.

The video seems to show a pile of trucks set aside, so possibly some bits were saved.

Who's got the details?

It should be noted this equipment, like that in another thread here, lay waiting for someone. The stuff sat there rotting for all to see. A few pieces (at least 4 by my count) did get out over the years. The others? Well, now we know the rest of the story, it seems.

Rob

PS: I shared the video to the Ahead of the Torch page so you should be able to find it there.

PPS: Here's the story on the station, including the latest warning the equipment would be scrapped. http://timesleader.com/news/local/533622/redevelopment-authority-approves-sale-of-historic-wilkes-barre-train-station

Not that there's any great satisfaction from this, but yes, this was posted to RYPN when the fate of the remaining equipment seemed sealed in 2011: http://rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31696

Previous thread from 2006--TEN YEARS AGO:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20980

WE HAD A WHOLE #*&^(!@ DECADE.

I'm simply staggered it took this long for the inevitable.

It's quite interesting, Sandy. Here are two well known collections of historic equipment in Northeast PA, just 20 miles from each other, that have been the subject of scrapping in the same month. The reactions to the two are quite different, eh?

Steamtown first raised the flag on the wooden rolling stock in 2001. I know that was discussed here, because I started the thread. Since then some pieces have left, while the rest remained. Recently (15 years later) a small number got scrapped due to safety concerns (after efforts to find them homes and government bid postings). A furor ignited on RYPN.

Down in Wilkes-Barre word went out in 2006 that the stuff was doomed. That was discussed on RYPN. I know that because I started the thread and others after it. A few pieces made it out. Now the entire collection (a half dozen cars or so) is being scrapped including last-of-their-kind pieces and what of the Internet? Well, let's say no one seems too concerned.

There's a bias here that is disconcerting. Both of these collections had trucks, ladders, and other parts that could be used for other projects. Steamtown gets accused of not doing enough to satisfy the preservation community while the Wilkes-Barre stuff disappears with barely a concern from us.

Of course, the main difference is that Steamtown is a museum and the Wilkes-Barre lot was a collection owned by the muncipality (and then private hands for the past few months). That doesn't make the trucks or other parts any less valuable.

You see what I am getting at, right? No one came forward to save any of this equipment that was just cut up at either place. But once it was all gone, somehow Steamtown's actions were an affront to rail preservationists everywhere while the larger and more significant Wilkes-Barre scrapping is just accepted as business as usual.

It makes one think...

Rob

I find it disturbing that there are a number of people associated with Steamtown who post here often, and are very vocal about some issues, but for some reason there was not a peep that these pieces were to be disposed of.

So just let history be destroyed? Why not just post the info in the classifieds section, and report any commentary to the mods for removal? The reality is that between federal regulations and liability issues anything that leaves SNHS is going to be either in a dumpster or transferred to a serious entity with the cash to back up a first rate transaction. And that's just the way that 2016 America is.

The NPS doesn't want to deal with cowboys climbing all over unstable and rusty/asbestos filled/lead covered equipment, neither does it want to pay personnel to carefully remove certain pieces for entities that may not pick up items that they "had to have" for months or years on end, for free.

Still, there should have been some advanced warning that five pieces of equipment were on the immediate chopping block. If they had contacted other east coast rail museums, I can't say.

As someone who has been there at the site myself and followed the whole saga from afar, I must confess that my reflexive reaction, upon seeing the video, was:

"What, are you kidding?!?! Those things were scrapped YEARS ago!!
............................... wait, weren't they?!?!?"

I can tell you, however, that at least one piece from the site, a Vulcan center-cab diesel, was reportedly rescued to the nearby "junk yard" at Pittston............ wait a minute, who's doing the scrapping? THOSE guys?!?!?

[makes phone calls......]

Just an observation by someone from "not from around here" (or "there"), but I think the D&H wood "miner's commuter train" coach would have been a natural and appropriate addition to the Steamtown collection; certainly more relevant than a B&M wood coach/combine.

Are any of those D&H cars still extant? I recall seeing a very nice one in Colonie Shops Building 29 around 1973 or so, seemingly restored/refurbished by D&H itself. Any idea what happened to that one?

Howard P.

Howard,

I believe that car went to Sloan Cornell and was destroyed in the K&K fire. There was another miner's car kicking around in the 1980's but I believe it was scrapped along with some other wooden D&H equipment (including a milk car).

Rob

My comment was regarding the Steamtown scrapping, not the WB equipment.

From my Facebook feed tonight

http://wnep.com/2016/08/30/work-underwa ... kes-barre/

The brutal truth is that really no effort would have saved these cars. The location is in Luzerne county. One of the most corrupt counties ever. I was helping to rescue a car years ago but that turned into scandal where somebody lost their money and the car was sold to someone else. The political atmosphere destroyed these cars. Nobody had a chance to save the remains of the others, unless you were in the political ladder.

Yes and no, you just have to know how to play the game. Pay a connected scrapper enough for whatever you want plus some extra for kickbacks and palm greasing, and use a connected hauler to get it out of there. It costs twice as much but it can certainly happen.

The truth really has not come out....

Everyone here(anywhere, not picking on RYPN) looks at these things, and they are similar in many ways to the junk we DO work for and spend for and save. So we look at it, and think "Golly gee that stuff is historic and so similar to my adopted junk" and we are just CERTAIN that the guy who wants that stuff is out there, it just wasn't us. Maybe the simple truth is that no one out there really wanted it at all (wanted=willing to spend the needed money). And we are shocked when it gets cut up and taken away. It probably also reminds us just how close our own junk is to the scrappers torch.

My recollection is that at least three of these cars are/were still in northeastern Pa.--an open car at Waymart and an enclosed car in Hawley (near the Stourbridge Line), both under pole sheds, and a second enclosed car indoors at the local museum in Honesdale. All are/were real, or as "real" as "Washington's hatchet" by now, though I've no idea if one was the Colonie one.