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Alpha cement [WAS Re: Steam era freight yards, take II]
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bnpmodeler
Tom and Group:
Tom couldn't have said it better - Alpha Cement is indeed a fascinating place. The silos still exist, and it was used as a grain storage facility for 35 years or more; I am not sure of its status at the present time... Some funky little outfit in New Jersey makes a pretty neat cast resin kit of the LNE Martins Creek Station/yard office... Hmmm... I am posting some scans of the DL&W 1918 Valuation Map of Martins Creek and Alpha Cement in the 'Files' section. Pending moderator approval, they should be there for all to enjoy in short order. Caution - they are relatively large files of about 1.5 MB each. A request to all on the list - I am modeling Alpha Cement (did a first-round version of a clinic at last year's Valley Forge RPM meet) and would enjoy immensely if anyone has any photos or other information to share - Tom, your photo of P-Burg is priceless as it is taken from a vantage point not often seen... Thank you for sharing it! Enjoy and Happy Modeling to all! Jim Harr ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jim Harr Stella Scale Models P.O. Box 121 High Bridge, NJ 08829-0121 908-797-0534 www.stellascalemodels.com " On Veterans Day 1960 I took a series of three shots of the PRR Phillipsburg facilities from across the river just south of Easton. A couple of years ago I assembled them into a panoramic view of questionable quality - at least, as best as I could. When taking the photos I neglected to overlap the left and center ones: http://www.pullmanproject.com/Phillipsburg.jpg The line of cars at the left is no doubt bound for or just in from the Alpha cement plant at Martin's Creek, PA, a few miles north of Easton. The PRR crossed the Delaware to reach it, while the DL&W served it from Bangor to the north, and the LNE came up from the south. Fascinating place. Tom Madden" |
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pullmanboss <tcmadden@...>
Jim Harr wrote:
[snip] I've posted five more photos - four of them are hand-held telephoto views of some of the more interesting portions of the PRR Phillipsburg yard, including the Russell plow and Jordan spreader. The fifth is of the Alpha cement plant: http://www.pullmanproject.com/P-Burg1.jpg http://www.pullmanproject.com/P-Burg2.jpg http://www.pullmanproject.com/P-Burg3.jpg http://www.pullmanproject.com/P-Burg4.jpg http://www.pullmanproject.com/Alpha2.jpg At the time I was living & working in NJ and dating a girl who was attending school in Easton. Every Friday afternoon I would leave work an hour early, drive to Easton, pick her up and head north on Route 611 past the Alpha cement plant, through the Delaware Water Gap, eventually reaching our homes a few miles apart in the Pocono Mountains near Lake Wallenpaupack. We'd retrace the route late on Sundays. Veterans Day 1960 was a Friday, a holiday for me but not for her, so I spent the day railfanning in the area - Netcong, Hackettstown, Bangor, etc. before picking her up. That's her in the passenger seat of my 1957 Chevvy in the Alpha photo. This September we'll celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary..... Tom Madden |
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Andy Harman
On Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:06:34 -0000, pullmanboss wrote
Hackettstown, Bangor, etc. before picking her up. That's her in the passengerBet you wish you'd kept the 57 Chevy too! Andy Big Bucks, OH |
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gn999gn
Tom -
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Nothing speaks "romance" more than taking your date to a cement plant located by a railroad facility. Apparently it was a successful strategy as proven by your 50-year run. I can not count the number of times I did something similar. There was guilt incurred but, it did not last long. :-) Great pics. Thanks for sharing with the group. Ron dePierre I've posted five more photos - four of them are hand-held telephoto views of some of the more interesting portions of the PRR Phillipsburg yard, including the Russell plow and Jordan spreader. The fifth is of the Alpha cement plant: |
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pullmanboss <tcmadden@...>
Andy Harman opined:
There are many things I wish I had from 1960 (opportunities, mostly), but that car isn't one of them. It was a bottom-of-the-line DelRay, 6-cylinder stick shift, seriously underpowered, that I bought used that summer. Oil changes were every 2000 miles, and from 65,000 miles onward things started to fail - fuel pump, water pump, windshield wiper cables, shift linkage - always at the most inopportune moments. We traded it in for a new '63 Chevy Biscayne, also a 6 cyl stick, but at least with that car the countdown-to-failure clock started at zero, not at 30,000. I wish film hadn't seemed so expensive. My $435 monthly salary was spread pretty thin, and I missed a lot of RR photo ops because I couldn't afford film & processing. I wish I hadn't been so wrapped up in Colorado narrow gauge that I ignored the richness of everyday railroading in the near-at-hand coal, cement and slate belts. That 11/11/1960 excursion was an exception, undertaken only because I had a day to kill and wanted to end up at Easton late in the afternoon. Even so, there were enough such exceptions in the 1958-1961 span when I was single or in the early stages of marriage that I ended up with a few hundred slides and negs of steam era freight cars in action. I was a regular presenter at Martin Lofton's California mini-meets, and in a moment of desperation 8 or 10 years ago (I couldn't come up with a suitable modeling topic in time) I strung together several dozen of the "exception" photos into a slide show. I presented "The Accidental Railfan" with no small amount of trepidation to a room full of Serious Prototype Modelers and Researchers (many of whom are on this list), expecting to be lambasted for offering such a weak clinic. I only presented it that once, and it may have been the most well-received clinic I've ever done. Tom Madden, who still has his 1960 body but has gotten it all wrinkled |
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