Hello,

For the Reading Historians on the interchange that may have a "few" more years on me, can anyone provide the specific dates and years on which the Reading Rambles made trips down the Gettyburg Branch with T-1's? In each of those can you site the engine number used?

I recall seeing a color slide taken of my mother holding me with a T-1 approaching in the background. I believe it was at the Georgetown road crossing noted on the following map.

http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=m&lat=40.030668&lon=-77.213157&zoom=18&q1=peach%20glen%2C%20pa

At the time, I believe it was two tracks at this crossing, one being a passing track....of course well cared for in the early 1960's! At this point it was upgrade southbound from Goodyear to Starner's Station.

At the time of this photo, I was maybe 2 or 3 years old?? So it may have been 1963, 1964?

Many years later I stood at the same crossing to see the BM&R 2102 head south and stall on this grade to be later assisted over by one of Gettysburg's Alcos.

I wanted to know if it was indeed the 2102 that was used when I was a little boy......a bit of daja vu?

Close to this spot, I used to work in an orchard over the summer and recall some very serious trains passing through while the Reading had control -maybe 3-4 road units on the point. Looking back now, with the significant grades and tight curves on this line, the crews had their hands full!

In the Rambles days, I believe the Reading could go down this branch with steam nose first and turn the locomotive in Gettysburg. Just west of the Gettysburg Reading station there was a wye that was located right at the junction of the Reading and Western Maryland. The interesting thing was, the south leg of the wye was a reminent of the old trolly line that went south to Little Round Top.

Thank you in advance for any information you can provide.

Best regards,

Randy

I believe this is the "wye" you were referring to, just on the other side of the Gettysburg Railroad station (not the old Lincoln station, but the one used up until a couple of years ago) near the college in town.

Just went and dug out my ticket stubs - I went two times, but I think they ran one every year from Philly and some from Harrisburg. I have the sales/ ticket order sheets someplace.

1959 three trips - went on all
1960 - eleven trips went on four
1961 - fourteen trips went on six
1962 - eight trips , went on four
1963 - eight trips, went on five
1964 - eight trips, went on three

Sunday May 7 1961 - originated at Jenkintown and Wayne Junction for second stop. ticket says
- change to steam locomotive at PH&P Junction
- "speed photo stop" Mt Holly Springs
- Gettysburg - turn locomotive
Sunday April 29 1962 same as above for passenger stops
-change to steam locomotive at Rutherford.
- "speed photo stop" Mt Holly Springs
- Gettysburg - turn locomotive

I have pictures of the movement to Wye the locomotive,
On one of these trips they greased to rods with with a huge grease gun ( have Picture)

These trips were for family outings as well as railroad fans, Gettysburg was a very popular destination as was Hersey park.

This was one of the best PR campaigns that anybody could have done, they had a nationwide following and typically pulled between 14 to 30 cars behind a T-1

Hello,

On the post of bigjim4life on the aerial wye photo, I believe this is the photo of the new interchange of the Gettysburg Railroad with the old WM.

The original interchange was much closer to the Reading station. The new interchange was installed not long ago as the Gettysburg College took over and developed much of the original Reading Railroad right of way…..south of Mummasburg Road.

Please see link to 1920 map as follows:

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/gettysburg_pa_1920.jpg

The former trolley line was part of the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad, which appears to have been taken over by the Reading later.

[url]http://www.readingrailroad.org/reading/images/rdg_map_system_15x9_300.jpg[url]

You can see it was designated Reading property to “Round Top”.

In the 1920 map, the wye did not appear complete but I believe it was completed later. I believe this is where the T-1’s were turned for the Rambles.

In the heyday of Reading steam, if my memory serves me right, I was told some fairly serious power were staged on the ready tracks at the Gettysburg yard. This may have been required for the difficult northbound trek to Carlisle Junction.

Best regards,

Randy

According to this 1937 Penn Pilot aerial map, the other leg of the wye was south of the Western Maryland main track.

http://www.pennpilot.psu.edu/

In case you guys haven't seen the pictures, John Dziobko, Jr.'s GodFatherRails web site has some excellent color pictures of the T-1's in PRR lease use from 1956.

Here are the links that show 2107, 2111, 2115, 2119 and 2128. Some pictures have other RDG T-1s in them, but I can't see the road numbers.

http://www.godfatherrails.com/photos/pv.asp?pid=1049

http://www.godfatherrails.com/photos/pv.asp?pid=1055

http://www.godfatherrails.com/photos/pv.asp?pid=1054

http://www.godfatherrails.com/photos/pv.asp?pid=1056

http://www.godfatherrails.com/photos/pv.asp?pid=1053

http://www.godfatherrails.com/photos/pv.asp?pid=1050

http://www.godfatherrails.com/photos/pv.asp?pid=1052

http://www.godfatherrails.com/photos/pv.asp?pid=1051

"In case you guys haven't seen the pictures, John Dziobko, Jr.'s GodFatherRails web site has some excellent color pictures of the T-1's in PRR lease use from 1956."--J. R. Evans

I live in the wrong time. . .

Hello,

Excellent photo links posted by jrevans! This is interesting to me as I worked in Williamsport 10.....lonnnng years of my life.

As for Rambles trips, thank you RDGRAILFAN for the trip list. I did find the following information from a Trainorders posting....

"1961
April 9 West Trenton, Jenkintown - Elsemere, Del via the W&N Br.
May 7 Jenkintown & Wayne Junction - Gettysburg
June 11 Port Reading, NJ, West Trenton - Bethlehem via the North
Penn Branch and return via the Perkiomen Branch.
September 23 Philadelphia (Reading Terminal) with steam on at
Norristown to Tamaqua partially doubleheaded
also in 1961 but I apparently did not go on these
October 7 Philadelphia - Gettysburg
October 15 Harrisburg - West Milton
October 22 Jenkintown - West Milton

1962
April 29 Jenkintown, Wayne Junction to Gettysburg
also in 1962
May 20 Bound Brook to Zionsville
June 9 Jenkintown to Hershey
June 23 Wayne Junction, Jenkintown to Port Reading

1963
May 18 Bethlehem to Elsemere, Del via W&N Branch
October 6 Jenkintown, Wayne Junction - Gettysburg
October 12 and 19 Philadelphia (Reading Terminal) with steam on
at Norristown and Harrisburg with the two sections joined at
Reading and doubleheaded to West Milton
(These two trips were originally billed as the last Iron Horse
Rambles but the railroad reconsidered and operated some in 1964.

1964

May7 2 Philadelphia (Reading Terminal) with steam at Norristown
to Gettysburg
June 14 Jenkintown to Hummelstown (Indian Echo Cave) and Hershey"

To my understanding this is only a partial list, but I suspect either of the 1963-1964 Gettysburg trips were the ones in the photo I mentioned.

Thank you all for the postings.

Regards,

Randy

The "1920" map also shows a disconnected part of the Gettysburg Electric Rwy. in the Park, but it had been bought out and abandoned about 1917.

The Reading track crossed the Western Maryland and continued south onto the Battlefield, terminating at the foot of Little Round Top. The P&R operated a shuttle passenger train from the P&R station south to the Battlefield on an hourly schedule, at a cost of 75 cents. The line was heavily used in 1913 when the 50th anniversary celebration. The line was abandoned in the late 1920's when the National Park Service bought it. Some shallow cuts and embankments are still visible, though. A short stub remained to serve a monument works a couple blocks south of Chambersburg Street.

I rode a Ramble to Gettysburg in 1962, I think it was, the first trip with 2102. At Birdsboro, we exchanged whistle salutes with the ex-Reading camelback No. 4 at the CF&I works, and at Sheridan, E.J. Lavino had both of their 0-6-0T's fired up and whistling at us. 2100 handled the train to Rutherford Yard, where 2102 took over. On the way home, 2102 pulled the train to Reading, where FP-7's returned us to Wayne Jct. and Jenkintown.

The trolley line went south along Baltimore Street and then curved through the cemetery. It's grade is still visible in that area.

This link:
http://www.gettysburgdaily.com/?p=2068
claims that

That wye is relatively new, and was built when Gettysburg College expanded. When I worked on the Gety back in 1981, none of that was there yet. Instead, the track alignment was very close to that shown in the 1937 map. During my most recent visit, I was surprised to see how much the area had changed.

Actually, the wye show in the color photo wasn't completed until the summer of 2000, when CSXT put in the west switch. This was done to expedite interchange, since their local from Hagerstown ran east late at night and could set out at the east end and pick up when it headed home westbound very early in the morning.

The old Reading Co. valuation sheets showed a multi-track yard behind the station that was set up to accommodate numerous excursion trains. There were water columns strategically located to serve engines on adjacent tracks without the need to re-spot them, for instance. The track that now terminates in front of the station originally extended almost to Carlisle Street along what is now Railroad Street and connected to the Western Maryland at that point.

I was general manager of the Gettysburg Railway from April, 1998 through February, 2001, when the railroad was acquired by Pioneer.