Curly gray clouds, such as emissions of turn-of-the-century steam locomotives, floated over the other rolling green northern mountains of Pocono on the recent Memorial Day weekend. Can they be hints of a district railway?
Weed grass, diesel engine support, New York Central stainless steel, and three burgundy Pennsylvania Railroad trainers near the Wayne County Visitor Center were ready for their 13:00, 25-mile run to Hawley and Lackawaxen, since Delaware-operated “Lackawaxen Limited” Stourbridge Line, Lackawaxen and Stourbridge Railroad Company. From the railway line, apparently, to serious rails.
Managed by the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, as well as opening tour travel services in September 1979, the Stourbridge Line continued for more than three decades as an earlier version, ceasing operations on December 11, 2011, to date Delaware, Lackawaxen and the Stourbridge Railroad Company, managed by the Myles group, switched to tracks since May 9, 2015.
A 50-minute drive from Scranton to Honsdale, exploring Main Street, Wayne’s Mexican Museum of the Historical Society, and a collection of brochures, pamphlets, newsletters, travel guides and literature on local places, a wooden platform surrounded by a growing collection of train passengers.
It seemed to me that the history of the train’s railway, although with a silent subtitle, spoke to me. A glance at the coaches showed the Victorian architecture of the city, which, like a preserved pocket, showed that it withstood the ticking of time, and next to the brick, the center of sports visits at the ticket office, was a replica, a wooden coal car, set on a slope. Rails clearly linked the city with its past.
A memorial plaque outside the historical society is proclaimed: “Delaware and the Hudson Canal. The terminal of the waterway connecting the Hudson River and the Delaware. Built from 1825 to 1828. A lift with gravity rail reached Carbondale. For 70 years he has been selling anthracite shopping center for the region. ”
When I heard the conductor’s “All on Board” shout — a virtual tone and a great echo of instructions given by instructors for almost two centuries — and came to the trainer with my passengers, I realized that something in this area drew me to my past .
Where, for example, was Canal Delaware and Hudson, and what relation, if any, did it have to the “railroad of gravity” with which Houndsdale seemed to be consonant?
Having settled in my seat in car number 1993, Clinton Leach, which was once run by the New Jersey Central Railway, I thought of a philosophy shared by Sir Arthur Pinero, an English actor, playwright and director who lived between 1855 and 1934. “The present is the past again, entered through another gate,” he philosophized.
Since the train will pave the way to its destination in the present, I will try to trace the history of the area to its past.
A short jolt of a locomotive preceded by a mandatory whistle increased the car’s clutch tension until the circuit formed by four coaches slipped in a direct impulse clutch, crossing Route 191, where the cars were assembled as witnesses of his departure.
Painstaking lumber, among the protesting shouts of its wheels, led Lackawaxen Limited into an ancient green tunnel, as it paralleled the approximately named Lakavaksen River, which on the oily surface reflected like trees on the oily surface, before squeezing the last trainer and coaster.
The increase in speed defined itself as a trainer, since side-swinging — excuse the rhyme — took a real gift to take me to the area. Divide him, I ordered me!
Channels and rockets shared both geographical and logical origins. In the case of Honesdale, they seemed the same.
Located in Wayne County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, the city was 35 miles from Scranton (and I drove it myself) and 150 miles from Philadelphia. Until now, this was not very important.
Founded in 1798, the count himself was named after General Anthony Wayne, a hero of the war of independence, who gained fame when he finished resisting India and destroyed the North-West Indian Confederation at the Battle of the Fallen Trees.
In 1798, Wayne County was founded from Northampton County, which today covers 744 square miles.
Over the years, his government was different from Wilsonville to Millford, Bethany and from May 4, 1841, to Hounsdale himself, in which the train took place. I wonder where the name came from, but, more importantly, what led people to certain places? Perhaps the path and the exit and transport something in either or both directions.
The word on the nameplate, “The Wayne County Historical Society,” which I wrote down in my notebook, was stuck: “Anthracite.” I do not know if this was a common word in Pennsylvania, but it seemed important - important enough to dig into my laptop in its meaning. And, of course, “digging” was, unconsciously, a rather fitting word to link it.
Since it was mined from the most ancient geological formations of the Earth and was subjected to the greatest amount of heat and pressure, anthracite, a variety of coal, was able to produce much more thermal energy than its softer, geologically younger analogue, putting it in significant demand in emerging countries. market, to feed his home hearts, factory stoves, steam engines and locomotives, and not the fact that around them were some of them - at least not yet.
Although heavy mining in the state in the late 1800s - early 1900s exhausted most of its supply, except for the fact that it was still in very deep, hard-to-reach deposits, it was considered one of the three most important fossil fuels, along with oil and natural gas.
Thus, for a developing, increasingly industrialized country, it was equivalent to gold. I suppose what's left is how to get from there to there.
The answer was again imprinted on the board of the historical society: "Delaware and the Hudson Channel." It's time to dig more.
William Wurz was an early explorer of what was then called anthracite mines, regarding this rich northeast energy source in Pennsylvania as potentially monetized. Acquiring large land plots of land, where he was located, together with his brothers Charles and Maurice, in 1812 for little money, he, apparently, saw a value that few did.
Coal mining was the first step in his plan. Transferring it to the market, especially to Philadelphia, was the second. But this method through the barge-cable channel has so far proved to be less efficient, since most of the precious coal product was lost en route. It should have been different - and better. He believed that there is.
Inspired by the newly built Erie Canal and inspired by the idea that such a waterway could provide New York, he realized that he could create his own - in this case marked by the delaware memorial and the Hudson Canal, a long-distance itinerary designated by the states of Pennsylvania and New York in 1823.
Making his way through the narrow valley between the Chavagun Range and the Catskill Mountains, he followed - or, more precisely, became - a 108-mile waterway to the Hudson River near Kingston.
Why not hire the best to complete your plan? This is exactly what the Vurts and brothers did when they signed a contract with engineer Erie Canal, Benjamin Wright, to inspect and plan the artery, after which the earth was destroyed in July 1825. Their vision of $ 1.6 million. The United States, which requires three years of construction and 2,500 jobs, was transformed into a watercourse reality in October 1828.
Its origin, between Kingston and Rosendale, New York, from where it is connected to the New York Hudson River, followed the Rondout mine to Ellenville, passing through the villages of Sandberg Creek, Homowak Kill and Basher Kill across the River Neversink (what a reputation to maintain!) and in Port Jervis. Acting northwest on the New York side of the Delaware River, he entered Pennsylvania along the north bank of the Lakawaxen River (currently framed by my coach’s left side window) in Houndsdale.
Visions are often ahead of technology. This phenomenon, of course, broke out here. The water was buoyant, supporting barges, but provided little propaganda for trips from the scene to the destination, leaving the mules with “engines” that were based on a reach of 15-20 miles. Supersonic they were not.
You can lead a horse to the water, as the saying goes, but not unnecessarily near it, leaving people as primitive GPS guides from them along the trail.
They also periodically pumped water from barges and fueled four-legged engines, known in the 19th century as “feeding”. Salary was $ 3.00 per month, not per day.
The need has undoubtedly led to innovations in the project, including such “civil engineers” as “waterfalls” dealing with the river, to reduce the time of travel and excavation of cement in the Rozendale region by John Robling, who would later use it during the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge .
The channel certainly facilitated transportation to Kingston and then down Hudson to New York, but how did the coal go from the mines to the waiting barges? He returned to the plaque.
He mentioned a term that I had never heard, and did not particularly need: “Gravitational railway”. Why emphasize the invisible power that ensured that trains stay in their path - or, for that matter, everything else on earth? Internet, here I am!
Interesting. I am again amazed at how human ingenuity replaces technical engineering. Since the locomotive, albeit with diesel power, now pulled my train, the world from my window, despite the perception of the opposite, remained motionless. This railroad Gravity used a concept that was almost inverse because the engine remained stationary, but at least the moving cars moved.
The channels above the Muz Mountains to Honsdale for exchanging and then moving along the waterway Delaware and Hudson were not feasible, leaving a trail where the stone sleds and wagons could work as an alternative for the first section connected with the New York trip.
But again, Benjamin Wright, who allows the wheels of his brain to turn (this is, after all, what made him an engineer), suggested that for a train, turn onto a track and offer a railway based on the concept embodied in Delaware and Hudson Gravity, which, at least in part, will be powered by this natural force created by the earth.
What is happening, as you know, must come down. But this first part was a problem because, while gravity would do a wonderful, tireless job on the second, some type of engine was needed for the first.
Starting from the Carbondale coal deposits, at an altitude of 1,200 feet, the 16-mile route stretched to Honsdale, first climbing 1,907 feet in the Ruksa aisle, using five aircraft on the western side, which were raised vertically with stationary, steam engines or winches, and then moved horizontally through them. Demining made it easier to descend from the east side, right up to a height of 975 feet, although here, of course, gravity replaced all the needs for driving force.
The steam connections between the machines varied as the process improved, starting with two drums and chains moving to 7.5-inch braided cables and ending with steel ones.
The cars themselves were open, but topped with roofs and internally equipped with benches. In the opposite direction, the horses pulled them out of Hounsdale before they could be tied to Music Mountain Pavement and abandoned the planes.
16 miles of otherwise reliably flat ground was a small engineering obstacle. Or that? Here neither stationary steam engines, nor a team of horses were effective, and the captain required his own care and maintenance. A tool with a mechanical, wood or coal engine power was needed, but this was not limited to its only location. The answer to this dilemma may be simple (my train is pushed by one), but not necessarily then. Regardless of what a person takes for granted, there was, at one time, innovation in the field of engineering, a newfound advance that would be announced to the world.
Great Britain, in the case, and not in the United States, was the birthplace of the railway. However, at the time, it was a painful passage through a channel on this side of the Atlantic, which stimulated technology that could improve it on the other side.
However, if stationary steam engines exist, what about the practicality of their processing so that they can be converted into moving ones?
Skeptics were rampant. However, he again took the engineer — in this case, the Delaware and Hudson’s chief engineer John B. Jervis — to turn the vision in his mind into a reality on his way.
Convinced that this potential not only exists, but that he holds the key to the future regime on rail transport, he sent his young protégé Horatio Allen across the pond in 1828 to brainstorm, along with engineers in England, a reliable, efficient locomotive that could cover a decent distance in a relatively short time. He was evenly instructed to purchase the necessary iron belt to cover the surface of another wooden walkway.
The distance across the ocean did not change anything to reverse the common conviction between Jervis and George Stevenson and son Robert, who were considered the ruling experts in the young railway industry, that this was in the future. They themselves were in the process of designing just such a locomotive for Liverpool and the Manchester Railway.
John Urpet Rastrik, who took out the patent for a steam engine in 1814 and since then formed his own company Foster Rastrick in Stourbridge, was contracted to build the first Gravity Railroad locomotive, t, $ 2.9414.90 "Stourbridge Lion" , therefore, he was listed because his cauldron had filtered the head of a painted lion.
Subjected to his own intermodal transport, he was first sent from Sturbridge before he was loaded onto the ship for the transatlantic crossing, arriving in New York on May 13, 1829, where he took part in a static demonstration in the foundry.
Three months later, on August 5, he was set for his first launch, about which Jervis wrote to Delaware and President Hudson Bolton: “We will go for it tomorrow or the next day,” adding that “the alarm increases as the our adaptations must come to their test stone of experiment. "
Opening the choke, Horatio Allen summoned a new-fashioned engine to fold and pierce three miles of wooden walkway, faced with wrought iron straps that lay on a 30-foot overpass at the Lakawaxen flyover, in the process of opening a steam locomotive service in the United States.
The First Locomotive of America, Leo Sturbridge, sent Honsdale and all of Wayne County to history books when, on August 8, 1829, an amazing iron horse, with its grasshopper legs and a lion face painted on its boiler head, splits a track in this very city ", - said the" Bulletin of the Historical Society of Wayne "(volume 32, number 1, January-March 2017).
Due to the fact that the engine collider was too high to clear the bridge, he could only travel as far as Seliv, before he had to return, now the reverse. However, the story was written on the rails that day. America entered the era of rail traffic.
“I started by looking at the speed, passed the curve safely over the creek and soon did not hear the greeting of the great presence of the national team,” Allen later explained. “At the end of two or three miles, I turned the valves over and returned without incident to the starting place, having made the first trip by rail in the Western Hemisphere.”
His fame was brief. Although the success of the locomotive could not be discounted, there was no track on the track on which he worked. He was too weak to support the continuing layer of iron locomotives and coal cars, and the cost of strengthening it was prohibitively high.
In 1848, the Honsdale Warehouse Lion was moved to Carbondale, where its boiler was removed and sold in the manner prescribed by law, leaving its mark on the use of horses after the boards were laid on them.
Although it was the end of the line for the Lion, it certainly paved the way for more advanced engines and properly reinforced the steel rails, which combined and contributed to the growth of the country.
Его котел, цилиндр и ходовая пучка были впоследствии приобретены Смитсоновским институтом в Вашингтоне и сформировали частично оригинальный экспонат паровоза в своем Зале транспорта.
Теперь это имело смысл, то есть вторую мемориальную доску за пределами Исторического общества округа Уэйн, в которой говорилось: «Здесь размещена копия знаменитого льва Стурбриджа, первого паровоза, работающего на рельсах в США, 8 августа 1829 года Рядом с ним - Eclipse, оригинальный пассажирский автобус на Делавэрской и Гудзонской железной дороге.
Теперь также стало понятно, почему Хоунсдейл считался коммерческой железной дорогой «Место рождения Америки».
Само общество было размещено в кирпичной структуре, построенной в 1860 году, когда штаб-квартира компании в штате Делавэр и Хадсон-канал и город, когда-то известный как Дайберри Форкс, были переименованы в Филиппа Хоне, одну из транспортной системы канала планировщики. Мой пункт отправления моего маршрута, как я узнал, когда-то был его лодочной базой или точкой пересадки угля, от железной дороги Gravity до барж для 108-мильной поездки в Кингстон. Деревянный вагон, рассматриваемый перед посадкой, символизировал его.
Используя оригинальный проект, в Стране прогресса был показан Музейный музей исторического общества Уэйн-Каунти, 0-40 репродукций локомотивов, построенный в 1933 году в Колони, Нью-Йорк, магазины Делавэрской и Гудзонской железной дороги. Выставка в Чикаго и на ярмарке в Нью-Йорке в 1939-1940 годах, прежде чем она будет размещена на постоянной экспозиции в ее нынешнем месте.
По данным музея, с 17,4-футовой колесной базой, двигателем и тендерной длиной, 4,3-футовой гусеничной дорожкой и котлом с четырьмя футами он весил от семи до десяти тонн. Сжигая уголь, он произвел девять лошадиных сил и имел тяговое усилие от 1750 до 2000 фунтов.
Дополнительный салон-салон «Eclipse» с внутренним пером, 20 элегантно обтянутых, реверсивных сидений, потолок с трафаретом для рук, деревянные ставни и багги-хаусы, представляли собой те, которые обычно используются железной дорогой Gravity между Honesdale и Carbondale в 1920 году. Он имел общую длину 29,3 фута, 24-дюймовый диаметр колеса и 6,9-футовый потолок.
Толчок моего тренера вывел меня из области и переделал меня в настоящем. Всплеск солнца, пронзающий металлический потолок, передал реку Лакаваксен, вдоль которой поезда продолжали змеиться, в зеркало слюды.
Крича с протестующим визгом, когда аккордеон автомобилей растягивал свои криволинейные муфты, а затем оседал в надежно прямолинейной тишине, поезд подошел к Уайт Миллс.
Расположенный между Хоунсдейлом и Хоули, промежуточная остановка Lackawaxen Limited на маршруте 6 в Уэйн-Каунти, нынешнее сонное уединение с обратной рекой служило резким контрастом с индустриальной суетой, которую когда-то предлагали. И синее каменное здание с дымоходом, возвышающимся над ним, мимолетно видно сквозь расчистку деревьев, когда поезд, звенящий по дороге, пересекал железную дорогу, дал не что иное, как намек на эту эпоху. Как я узнал, стеклянную фабрику, которую я узнал, получил известность Дорфлингера.
После восьмилетнего стажировки в стеклянном дутье, резке и декорировании в Cristalleries de Saint-Louis во Франции Кристиан Дорфлингер эмигрировал в США в 1865 году, поселившись в Белой Миллсе, штат Пенсильвания, и основал свою собственную стекольную фабрику. Первоначально он составлял семь небольших рабочих домов с наклонной крышей, которые были похожи на во Франции, и он расширил комплекс, включив в него 33 из них к 1869 году, что позволило разместить 182 сотрудников и их семьи.
Его переименованный, изящно вырезанный свинцовый хрусталь, синоним элегантности, вскоре украсил многие элитные резиденции, в том числе и Белый дом.
Хотя завод закрылся в 1921 году, его каменное здание, некоторые рабочие дома, офис компании и магазин с тех пор вновь открыты для публики.
Еще один спринт через древесный туннель предшествовал искрам, царапаниям и размалыванию колес к рельсам, которые задержали движение поезда и купили его до упора на извилистой дорожке рядом с платформой с деревянной платформой Хоули в 13:45 после девятимильного восточного похода по северным горам Поконо.
Как и у Honesdale, у него были свои железные дороги.
Первоначально известный как Паупак Эдди, он принял свое нынешнее имя от Ирада Хоули, президента угольной компании Пенсильвании, который построил свою собственную гравитационную железную дорогу, увидев ценность, которую он предоставил в связи с Каналом Делавэр и Хадзоном. Один из его автомобилей демонстрируется в публичной библиотеке.
Замененный стандартными локомотивами в 1885 году, он уступил железной дороге долины Эри и Вайоминг, которая сделала свой первый запуск с Хоули в Данмор в этом году.
Пересекая Маршрут 6 и пройдя по эстакаде, Lackawaxen Limited предоставила представление о домах, определяющих Хоули, начала проникать в лес на более длинные два его сегмента. Интерфейс «металл-металл», «колесо-трек», несомненно, смело чувствует тренировку: как кремн, их искры направляют усики предгорного воспламенения вверх по ноздрям, и их визги пронзили уши, как ногти на доске.
Короткие, белые, заборные напоминающие мильные маркеры продолжали прокручиваться по левым окнам: JC 121, JC 120, JC 119 - остатки трека «Джерси-Сити», над которым поезд теперь фактически скакал, отсчитывая до начало его линии.
Кроме того, никогда не снижался от взгляда река Лакаваксен, которая в основном протекала через сельские северные горы Поконо и имела дренажную зону площадью 598 квадратных миль. Он проходил через Хонсдейл и Хоули, где он был присоединен к юго-западу от бухты Валленпаупак и оттуда на восток, чтобы впасть в реку Делавэр в городе Лакаваксен, на поезде.
Это, отвечая на мой вопрос о посадке, было угольным транспортом.
Будучи транспортной артерией с начала 18 века, она способствовала поплавке срубленных бревен на реку Делавэр, предназначенных либо для Истона, Пенсильвании, либо Трентона, штат Нью-Джерси, уже пролетел около 50 миллионов досок пиломатериалов. Может ли это быть истинным происхождением идеи транспортировки угля?
В Делавэрском и Гудзонском канале, тогда крупнейшем частном коммерческом предприятии, была применена серия из 28 замков, которая подняла уровень воды в канале на 278 футов, но, как и все ранние видения, когда технология затмила его взгляд, она стала близорукой ,
Когда было осознано, что только трек-только перевозка пассажиров, грузов, пиломатериалов и угля была осуществима с использованием маршрута в Нью-Джерси в 1898 году, ожидаемая сейчас, но медленная и неэффективная система смешанного транспорта тяжести и транспорта каналов была излишней. Последние переливные плотины открывали и воду сливали.
Я мог только представить себе, сколько из этих ступеней успеха должно было быть использовано в истории.
Поскольку тормоза в последний раз пронзительно прорезали широкую кривую впереди чуть больше, чем деревянная скамья, обозначающая другой запредельный город Лакаваксен в 15:00 после еще одного 16-мильного сегмента от Хоули и 25-мильного коллективного из Хоунсдейла , Я спустился на три шага к основанию.
След, стоящий за поездом, пронесся мимо области и после того, как локомотив был перепозиционирован на сайдинге, вернет меня к моему происхождению в Оундсдейле, оставив до тех пор молчание среди возвышающихся деревьев и сосновой иглы, покрытой одеялом, свидетельство о человеческом видении и истории, через технологии, которые он определил здесь. Я думал о пророчестве сэра Артура Пинеро - что прошлое было настоящим, вошло через другие ворота. Могу ли я сделать именно это сегодня, я удивлен?
sources of
«Информационный бюллетень исторического общества округа Уэйн», том 32, номер 1, январь-март 2017 года.
