Actually, according to the Article, Mr. Hart is not the one being evicted, it is the Lackawanna Chapter of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society. It seems the County owns the land, the Chapter owns those particular rails and ties, somebody owns the cars. The whole thing sounds convoluted and you really need a scorecard to tell who's who.

In a possibly related matter, Reading & Northern recently returned to rail service the CNJ/L&S bridge going West from Jim Thorpe proper towards White Haven and Pittston. [CR had run its thru service on the ex-LV which is in the former East Mauch Chunk and across the river from Jim Thorpe proper.]

The background facts surrounding the situation at Jim Thorpe are involved and need to be fully understood so as to understand the current situation.
Put simply the controlling ownership of the local designated operator on the County owned trackage changed last year to Mr. Andy Mueller of the R&NRR. Shortly thereafter the County announced that they had executed a new very long term DO contract with Mr. Muellers newly acquired short line(known as the Carbon&Skukhill) and that the right to name the pssgr. operator would rest with the C&S.
The C&S notified Mr. Hart that they would not be renewing his pssgr. contract when it expired at the end of 2004.
Mr. Hart gifted his ownership of the track in the yard at Jim Thorpe to the Lackawanna Chapter of the R&LHS about 18 months ago. The track sits on County owned land through a lease that expires on 12/31/04. The Chapter offered to sell/lease the track to the County on several different reasonable basis which would have protected Mr. Harts continued ability/right to store his equipment there. The County at a meeting last week decided they were not interested in acquiring the track under any of the different options.
Therefore the Chapter is now in the position of either selling it to a scrapper(estimated scrap value as is,where is,about $50,000-75,000(strictly my guess) ) or doing nothing and losing that $$$ by default on 12/31/04 when the lease with the County expires!! Remember the County owns the land under the track.
One would have thought that Mr. Mueller would have come forward with a bid somewhere near its salvage value( it's worth a lot more than that to the new DO, one would think, especially as it includes the 100 foot turntable that will also go if it all goes to the scrapper), as Mr. Mueller has promised the community that he will make a best efforts try to improve and grow the passenger rail business in/out of Jim Thorpe and if steam was to ever be in the future the turntable could have been critical. As I understand it Mr. Mueller has to date not made any offer to the Chapter.
Of course also in the current equation is the need to find a place to move Mr. Harts cars etc. for storage.
Those are the facts as I know them. I would hope that somehow even at this late hour some kind of arrangement can be reached so that Mr. Harts interests can be addressed while saving the trackage and turntable from going to the scrapper??? However if that isn't possible I won't blame the Chapter for selling its asset vs. defaulting and letting the County in essense acquire it for nothing.
One mans opinion!
Ross Rowland

I heard thru the grapevine that the R&N cancelled their trips at the request of Railtours, account of there not being enough parking to support both Fall foliage trips on the same weekend. Jim Thorpe is a natural spot to both originate and terminate trips for the R&N, either way the trip riders will end up spending money in Jim Thorpe, I beleive this will be a win win situation for the town and the R&N in the long run.

Mike

Can anyone provide info on what railroad and location this came from, and about what year it was moved to the present location? If uncertain about the year just say "about" or "it was there by ____."

Ron,

I believe the turntable is part of the original CNJ engine terminal at Jim Thorpe. There was an 18-stall roundhouse at one time.

I've only been there once, so I'm sure someone else can provide more details.

Alan Maples

If anybody is [b]seriously[/b] interested in saving the turntable and the surrounding yard trackage, I strongly suggest working to have the site listed on the National Historic Register. While this will not provide an ironclad protection for the site, it will certify that it is historic and pressure the County and others to find a way to preserve the site. As I understand it: this is one of the better preserved yard sites in the area, it is one of the few remaining original turntables in the area, the former roundhouse area has the potential for future archeological research, and the overall site compliments the historic value of other railroad sites in nearby vicinity -- all of which can be used to qualify it for landmark status.

The State of Pennsylvania's Historical and Museum Commission has a very good website with information about sites already listed in the state (with copies of their original nomination forms) and information on how to get a site listed.

[url]http://www.arch.state.pa.us/[/url]

If anybody is intersted in doing this and would like some guidance/help, please let me know.