Do any of you of you know if the last remaing Wanamie engine is still there in Wanami. It was a local Vulan 0-4-0. Not sure of what number it was. Was there several years ago. This engine was located in Wanami Pa. on the western edge of of the northern anthracite coal field. The Wanamie coal complex was served by the CNJ. Please help.

memnon11075@earthlink.net

I cannot find any reference to the locomotive in Conrad. It was 36" gauge. At Steamtown we do have its operation extensively photographed (100+ B&W prints and color slides) as part of the Alfred W. Bennett Collection. Most of these photographs were taken in the early to mid 1960s.

I wish you luck in finding it.

Patrick McKnight
Historian, Steamtown NHS

pat_mcknight@nps.gov

It was listed in the very back of Conrad's Directory Volume 2, under the "Unknown" section. It was Glen Alden Coal #8; I think near the top of the list.

Someone photographed it in about the mid 1990s, and passed it along to me for my "Surviving World Steam Locomotive" CD-ROM. I have the picture(s) on my website somewhere, but can't remember where. I will try to find them, and post another message linking them to here.

The mine at Wanamie was a Superfund site and in the process of being cleaned up when the picture was taken. I don't know if it was scrapped or sent elsewhere; I have not managed to find out any more about it since. It was pretty derelict looking in the pictures, and dumped in the midst of a culm pile (but not totally buried as once reported); so it was quite possible it was scrapped.

I have the Hawk Mountain video that has the Wanamie operations on it. Number 8 was the one on the video that had a dent in the left rear edge of the cab roof. That dent is clearly visible in one of the pictures that was sent to me.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

> I cannot find any reference to the
> locomotive in Conrad. It was 36" gauge.
> At Steamtown we do have its operation
> extensively photographed (100+ B&W
> prints and color slides) as part of the
> Alfred W. Bennett Collection. Most of these
> photographs were taken in the early to mid
> 1960s.

> I wish you luck in finding it.

> Patrick McKnight
> Historian, Steamtown NHS


Surviving World Steam Locomotives CD-ROM
james@survivingworldsteam.com

Hi Dave,

Heyna, heyna, hows it going in PA?

I have to dig up Wanamie notes from the past few years. Jim Hefner and others have chimed in in the past. It seems like there are three Wanamie lokies that are definitely around. The two from Allaire went to Iowa and then into private hands. The one left from the original DL&W coal days is out in Oregon.

The baby we saw buried in the 80's is still a mystery to me. Did she get bulldozed? Completely buried? Rescused to someone's backyard?

I have to dig things up, as I know I had a list of all known anthracite lokies I was putting together, and it's on a CD somewhere.

I keep getting confused on this, but wasn't Wanamie a 42" gauge operation? I though the two sent to Iowa were tinkered with to run on 36".

Rob

trains@robertjohndavis.com

Rob:
The Wannamie locomotives we had at NJMT were indeed built as 36 inch gauge locomotives. Details are as follows:

#9 was built in 1916 by Vulcan for the DL&W RR Coal Mining department. It weighed in at 27 tons.

#4 was built by Vulcan in 1926 for the Glenn Alden Coal Company and was nearly identical in design as the #9.

Our #51 was a 42" gauge Vulcan (1923) built for the Lehigh Navigation and Coal Co.

J.R.

> Hi Dave,

> Heyna, heyna, hows it going in PA?

> I have to dig up Wanamie notes from the past
> few years. Jim Hefner and others have chimed
> in in the past. It seems like there are
> three Wanamie lokies that are definitely
> around. The two from Allaire went to Iowa
> and then into private hands. The one left
> from the original DL&W coal days is out
> in Oregon.

> The baby we saw buried in the 80's is still
> a mystery to me. Did she get bulldozed?
> Completely buried? Rescused to someone's
> backyard?

> I have to dig things up, as I know I had a
> list of all known anthracite lokies I was
> putting together, and it's on a CD
> somewhere.

> I keep getting confused on this, but wasn't
> Wanamie a 42" gauge operation? I though
> the two sent to Iowa were tinkered with to
> run on 36".

> Rob


http://www.njmt.org
jrmay@njmt.org

> Someone photographed it in about the mid
> 1990s, and passed it along to me for my
> "Surviving World Steam Locomotive"
> CD-ROM. I have the picture(s) on my website
> somewhere, but can't remember where. I will
> try to find them, and post another message
> linking them to here.

Here is one of the two pictures that was sent to me; the other appeared on "Surviving World Steam Locomotive" Update CD-ROM. The other picture was from the front, and showed the cylinder covers and smokebox door missing.

The following are my notes from that discussion Rob mentioned back in 1999. It survived the disk crash and moving to a new computer. Looking at it now it seems almost quaint, the amount of back-and-forth work it took to figure things out before the advent of the RYPN Interchange; I hope it makes sense.

***

4/2/1999

Rob;

I just reviewed all of our correspondence to date, went through the Hawk Mountain videotape a few more times, and did what I should have done in the first place - wrote down *everything* in J. David Conrad's "Steam Locomotive Directory". It looks like I made a lot of errors; but I think all is very close to being correct now.

First, some observations:

* I was wrong about the numbering of the Lokies on the tape. (Mine you, the videotape is a copy of an amateur home movie taken in the late '50s - early '60s; very poor quality.) #4 and #8 have number plates that say #4 and #8, respectively. They also have their numbers neatly painted on the cab sides and the cab back.

#9's number plate reads #9. It has a number "9" hand-painted on the right side of the cab, maybe not the other. It had no number painted on the back. This is probably because it started out as #28, as you will see later. (Yes, there were two Glen Alden #28s.)

* I was sent another picture of the Wanamie derelict. The lokie is too badly derelict to make any positive identification. I haven't found out when it was taken yet either, although it is definitely only slightly buried. (Just up to the cylinders.)

* However, remember that dent in the cab roof in the first picture I sent you? Well, careful studying of the Wanamie videotape reveals that #8 had the exact same dent in the exact same location. (It first "dips", then has two "peaks", and is about a sixth the way around the edge of the cab.) Yes, it could be another locomotive that received the same dent; but I am beginning to think that #8 left the property, then was returned and later stripped by whomever.

* #8 was definitely intact when it was photographed in "Shano" in 1970. If it was definitely seen at Wanamie by Keith Taylor intact in 1983, then that would lend support to it's return to Wanamie. But shouldn't it have been
stripped and partially buried by 1983? That part I can't reconile. And what a tragic loss.

* Both #9 and #28 were re-boilered; as you will see, this resulted in the "wrong" builders data on #28. (Since it is normal for steam engines to be re-boilered; the original construction data on the frames and remainder of the locomotive is usually retained.)

* The builders data I had on #51 was wrong; it belonged to a "fireless cooker" that was working in Easton at the time the directory was written. I apparently thought they were one and the same, but I was wrong; the fireless is just one of 40-50 that were working or stored when the directory was
written in 1988, and have since disappeared. But that's a topic for another conversation.... [:)]

The rest of what you sent me does agree with J. David Conrad's history on these Lokies; at least for the most part. (Some dates are off by a year.) So here is the "final" scoop on Glen Alden #4, #8, #9, #28, and Lehigh Valley #51:

****************************************************************************
******************

Lokie #4
1926 Built by Vulcan Iron Works as 3585 (Conrad)
1926 #31 Glen Alden Coal Corp. at Plymouth, PA (Conrad)
???? #4 Glen Alden Coal Corp. at Wanamie, PA (Conrad)
1955 #4 Glen Alden Corp. at Wanamie, PA (Conrad)
1966 #4 Blue Coal Co. at Wanamie, PA (Conrad)
1967 #4 NJMT at Farmindale, NJ (Conrad)
1976 Keystone Light Railway Equipment Co. at Farmingdale, NJ (Conrad)
1990 Stan Matthews, Mount Pleasant, Iowa (Gary)

Lokie #8
???? Built by Vulcan Iron Works (Conrad)
???? #8 Glen Alden Coal Corp. at Wanamie, PA (Conrad)
1955 #8 Glen Alden Corp. at Wanamie, PA (Conrad)
1956 #8 Blue Coal Co. at Wanamie, PA (Conrad) **** Note: the transfer

to subsidiary Blue Coal in 1966 for others. This is a typo????
1960 Donated to ???? (Conrad)
1970 Photographed intact at Shenandoah, PA (Jack Edwards)
1983 Seen intact at Wanamie by Keith Taylor

1970s #8??? Photographed slightly buried by "ROC"
1980s #8??? Seen partially buried by Rob Davis
1990s #8??? reported completely buried.
199? #8??? Northeast Shared Equipment Center at Wanamie
199? #8??? Earth Conservancy at Wanamie????
Today #8??? Still buried, or removed by Earth Conservancy and scrapped????

#9
1916 Built by Vulcan Iron Works as 2484 (Conrad)
1916 #28 Delaware, Lackawanna & Western RR at Loomis Colliery, Plymouth,
PA (Conrad)
1921 #28 Glen Alden Coal Corp. at Plymouth, PA (Conrad)
???? #9 Glen Alden Coal Corp. at Wanamie, PA (Conrad)
1955 #9 Glen Alden Corp at Wanamie, PA (Conrad)
1966 #9 Blue Coal Co. at Wanamie, PA (Conrad)
1967 #9 NJMT at Farmindale, NJ (Conrad)
1976 Keystone Light Railway Equipment Co. at Farmingdale, NJ (Conrad)
1991 Stan Matthews, Mount Pleasant, Iowa (Gary)
Today Bayville, NJ (Wes Barris)??? (Rob is checking on this one....)
**** NOTE: Re-Boilered Vulcan extra order 4763/1949 (Conrad)

#28
c.1918 Built by Vulcan Iron Works (Conrad)
???? #28 Glen Alden Coal Corp.(?) at Wanamie, PA (Conrad)
1955 #28 Glen Alden Corp. at Wanamie, PA (Conrad)
1958 #28 Edgar Mead at Freehold, NJ. (Conrad)
1959 #28 Jean Ledford at Clinton, NJ. (Conrad)
1971 #28 Fred Kepner at Princeton, NJ. (Conrad)
1974 #28 Fred Kepner at Klamath Falls, OR (Conrad)
Today #28 Fred Kepner at Klamath Falls, OR???
**** NOTE: Re-Boilered Vulcan extra order 4311/08-1937 (Conrad)

#51
1923 Built by Vulcan Iron Works as 3311 (Conrad)
1923 #51 Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co. at Lansford, PA (Conrad)
1930 #51 Lehigh Navigation Coal Co. at Lansford, PA (Conrad)
1954 #51 Lehigh Navigation Coal Sales Co. at Lansford, PA (Conrad)
1957 #51 Pine Creek RR, Inc. at Freehold, NJ (Conrad)
1964 #51 NJMT at Freehold, NJ (Conrad)
1965 #51 NJMT at Farmingdale, NJ (Conrad)
1990? #51 Hugh Moore Canal Park, Easton, PA (Wes Barris)
**** Note: may have been caught in fire at park, may have also been scrapped.
**** Note2: H.K. Porter/7255/1937 was a *fireless cooker*



Surviving World Steam Locomotives

james@survivingworldsteam.com

> Rob:
> The Wannamie locomotives we had at NJMT were
> indeed built as 36 inch gauge locomotives.
> Details are as follows:

> #9 was built in 1916 by Vulcan for the
> DL&W RR Coal Mining department. It
> weighed in at 27 tons.

> #4 was built by Vulcan in 1926 for the Glenn
> Alden Coal Company and was nearly identical
> in design as the #9.

> Our #51 was a 42" gauge Vulcan (1923)
> built for the Lehigh Navigation and Coal Co.

> J.R.
The jury is still out
Took a trip out to Wanamie this past Friday,April 2 and couldn't find it. That doesn't mean it isn't there though. Wanamie has become a very spooky place indeed. No it isn't a superfund sight but it is Goverment land and posted so. Seems to some kind of storage yard with relics from the Cold War that if needed could be reactivated. Other odd things the culm banks surrounding the complex have been relaimed and the area looks nothing like it did a few years ago. As for structures the 3 stall engine house has been had a new roof put on as well as modern garage doors. Three other structures of the origional complex survive and are used with new windows installed.The rest of the complex has been bulldozed over and leveled for a large parking lot. As for the lokie couldn't see it from the vantage points we had but still could be there. One interesting note the old machine shop up the hill still stands but is gutted. Sloppy Joe did answer the mystery of the slot in the back wall and said it was for bar stock to go from the yard to the hoist inside the building. I thank you guys for the info and the pictures of the lokie. Hopefully she is still there. Last odd thing about Wanamie while we were there a steady stream of dump trucks came to the complex and dumped old road pavement inside the complex. No signs of an official guard or guard shack. Place is posted Goverment Land and is very active. The quest goes on.

Wanamie Lok discussion from 4/13/2003
james@survivingworldsteam.com

Don,

The empty message I just posted had a link to a discussion on the Wanamie locomotive from 17 April 2003 (thanks RYPN staff for uploading the archive). In it, I state the picture I posted was from the 1970s; something I didn't have at my fingertips earlier.

The link below is to another discussion on the Wanamie locomotive from the archive started at 6 April 2003. Notice that another visitor to the location stated he did not find it either.

What I haven't figured out yet is that another #8 was photographed at Shenandoah, PA by Jack Edwards in 1970. The engine in the picture was in prestine condition.

The locomotive shown in the pictures I have, and taken supposively during the 1970s shows one that is very derelict. I can't believe these are the same locomotive. This probably WAS the locomotive spotted by Keith Taylor in 1983.

If the culm piles are gone; then the locomotive itself is probably gone too. It might possibly have been buried; and perhaps it may show up somewhere else one day; but I believe it has been scrapped.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

The "original" Wanamie discussion on RYPN

james@survivingworldsteam.com

> Don,

> The empty message I just posted had a link
> to a discussion on the Wanamie locomotive
> from 17 April 2003 (thanks RYPN staff for
> uploading the archive). In it, I state the
> picture I posted was from the 1970s;
> something I didn't have at my fingertips
> earlier.

> The link below is to another discussion on
> the Wanamie locomotive from the archive
> started at 6 April 2003. Notice that another
> visitor to the location stated he did not
> find it either.

> What I haven't figured out yet is that
> another #8 was photographed at Shenandoah,
> PA by Jack Edwards in 1970. The engine in
> the picture was in prestine condition.

> The locomotive shown in the pictures I have,
> and taken supposively during the 1970s shows
> one that is very derelict. I can't believe
> these are the same locomotive. This probably
> WAS the locomotive spotted by Keith Taylor
> in 1983.

> If the culm piles are gone; then the
> locomotive itself is probably gone too. It
> might possibly have been buried; and perhaps
> it may show up somewhere else one day; but I
> believe it has been scrapped.

> -James Hefner
> Hebrews 10:20a
Yeah I'm not getting that warm fuzzy feeling about the lokie and have a feeling it was either scrapped or buried. As for the buried part that is a good possibility. Apparently the stories of superfund sites is not true and there is a happy ending of sorts. The Wanamie site plus a few others is a Big Goverment and State success story. What the "spooky" Goverment land is a partnership between the Department of Defense and PA State DEP to do mine reclamation. It was very limited to three sites in PA and was apparantly a success. Bad for preservation but good for the enviroment. For all I know the complex might now be in private hands. I have also gotten some information on a pile of mine car parts at the site also. So the Wanamie story isn't dead yet. More to follow.