P&R Shamokin Division Route

c.fetterolf

New member
Hello,
I believe I'm in the right area to post this.

About six months ago I began to work on a model of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad's Shamokin Division. I based the route in the 1910-1920s era. I started at Gilberton and worked every way the tracks went. Right now I have from the Tamaqua Tunnel to Ashland, Lofty, and Saint Claire done as far as track work. From Gilberton to Shenandoah Jct. is scenic with Colorado, parts of Lost Creek, and half of Frackville scenic too. I only show the other railroads such as the Pennsy, Lehigh Valley, and CNJ where they are seen from the Reading tracks. The only thing missing on the route that is important to the route is the breakers but i hope to model them on Blender.

But here are some pics.
A train passing Corktown which was east of Mahanoy Plane but west of Maizeville

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The Rappahanock. Looking towards Shenandoah at the Packer No.5 Colliery. Reading Anthracite's Girard breaker sits here today. I'm still working on this area.
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The head of Mahanoy Plane. The town of Mahanoy Plane is to the right with the typical man made mountian of refuge and culm behind it.
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this is the orignal 924 highway at the village of Maizeville
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1024x768 for all

Saint Claire to Frackville
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Tamaqua Tunnel to the Mahanoy Tunnel. the Lofty Tunnel is at the top of the screen
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Bear Run Jct. to Girardville. Frackville is at the bottom
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The largest coal faring yard int the world Saint Claire
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I agree this is a nice start.

Are you going to do the St. Nicholas Breaker outside of Mahonoy City? I visited that breaker back in July 2013.


Look for breakers for the Lehigh Valley & Western RR on the DLS. https://www.auran.com/DLS/index.php

Click all versions on the left and for description put in Breaker.

Ewen_Breaker - bendorsey
21st June 2014
Description
This is based on the pennsylvania Coal Companys Ewen Coal Breaker located between Pittston and
Wilkes-Barre in the northern anthracite region of Pennsylvania. It was served by the Erie & Wyoming Railroad but
could be seen fom the Laurel Lines tracks. It loads std ga hoppers on 2 tracks with animated chutes, smoke and sound.
Many thanks to Dale Pattee of bsnteng inc. for the script file to make it all work
Type: Buildings / Structures | Version: TS2009 | KUID2: <KUID2:210518:10264:3> | Filesize: 636.96 kb | File Type: .cdp | Downloads: 1760


PC Prospect Breaker Spoil Tower (LWVRR) - pcas1986
24th September 2013

Description
This asset was built for the LWVRR Project.
The Prospect Breaker was one of many coal breakers in the Wilkes Barre (PA) area and was located between Wilkes Barre and Plains. The breaker is now long gone but the partial spoil heap can see be seen on photos and maps of the area.
Many thanks to:
LWVRR for photos of the breaker and maps of its location.
Jananton for advice and re-use of his coalmine script and product queues.
Type: Buildings / Structures | Version: TS2009 SP4/TS2010 | KUID2: <KUID2:186372:190002:1> | Filesize: 3.77 MB | File Type: .cdp | Downloads: 514

PC Prospect Breaker (LWVRR) - pcas1986
24th September 2013

Description
This asset was built for the LWVRR Project.
The Prospect Breaker was one of many coal breakers in the Wilkes Barre (PA) area and was located between Wilkes Barre and Plains. The breaker is now long gone but the partial spoil heap can see be seen on photos and maps of the area.
Many thanks to:
LWVRR for photos of the breaker and maps of its location.
Jananton for advice and re-use of his coalmine script and product queues.
Type: Buildings / Structures | Version: TS2009 SP4/TS2010 | KUID2: <KUID2:186372:190001:1> | Filesize: 6.33 MB | File Type: .cdp | Downloads: 641

Ewen_Breaker - bendorsey
24th August 2013

Description
This is based on the pennsylvania Coal Companys Ewen Coal Breaker located between Pittston and
Wilkes-Barre in the northern anthracite region of Pennsylvania. It was served by the Erie & Wyoming Railroad but
could be seen fom the Laurel Lines tracks. It loads std ga hoppers on 2 tracks with animated chutes, smoke and sound.
Many thanks to Dale Pattee of bsnteng inc. for the script file to make it all work
Type: Buildings / Structures | Version: TS2009 | KUID2: <KUID2:210518:4167:2> | Filesize: 636.7 kb | File Type: .cdp | Downloads: 628
 
I have considered it but the route has the topography, roads and towns of modern times. I would only be able to use the trackage because in the 1940s new roads were put in and when collieries shut down the town where the miners lived would sometimes be torn down with the breaker. Strip mining has also changed the mountains in the area and the culm banks from the collieries have been taken in and burned in the cogens plants. So I would be in the same boat with starting from scratch, and I don't want to take another man's craftsmanship and butcher it.
 
I'm not sure if I am going to put the St. Nick on the route because it wasn't built until 1928-1930 area and that's a little bit out of my era.......and I can't find a trackage map of the yard so that doesn't really help either. The other super breaker the Reading owned the Locust Summit I have a map of so I probably will put that on if I put the St. Nick on
 
I'm not sure if I am going to put the St. Nick on the route because it wasn't built until 1928-1930 area and that's a little bit out of my era.......and I can't find a trackage map of the yard so that doesn't really help either. The other super breaker the Reading owned the Locust Summit I have a map of so I probably will put that on if I put the St. Nick on

That makes sense. I had a difficult time trying to get info on the St. Nick tracks too. Have you looked at the USGS historic Topographic maps? There are various ones of the area but I don't know how accurate they are for your needs.

A Trainzer friend and I had visited the old No. 9 Coal Mine Museum over in Landsford and one of the elders working there gave us directions to the St. Nick. It was quite an experience visiting both, especially the mine during the 90s-plus weather we were experiencing. We stayed at the campground up in Jim Thorpe while we were down that way. It all started out because he wanted to pick up some parts for his tractor and asked me to take the ride - we live up in eastern Mass so it was a bit of a ride down there. I navigated and he drove.

John
 
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Thanks for the names of those breakers! I was able to use one of them once it was a to wide to fit in where the Gilberton colliery was and the Lawarence colleiry. It says Lehigh Coal Co. on the front so I put it where the Lost Creek Colliery sat, as you can tell i only have the house, roads, and tracks in, no real scenery yet
 
That's great. I'm glad I could help and that's definitely a good start.

You can always edit the assets by cloning them and changing things such as the name on them to suit your needs.

If you are interested in other houses, check out those by Dave Snow (davesnow). He's made those old famous bungalows and Classic Revivals which were so popular during the time period you are modeling, and are still around today. He also made some nice little Victorian-style farm houses and worker's homes as well. All these houses are up on the DLS.

John
 
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This is going to sound like a stupid question but can the boxcars in the game be loaded with coal? I'm trying to make the St. Nick in Blender and I was going to put the boxcar loader on it but if it can't be used I wont animate it and I'm not sure if the Reading even used the boxcar loader because coal traffic was on the decline when they finished the breaker.
 
This is going to sound like a stupid question but can the boxcars in the game be loaded with coal? I'm trying to make the St. Nick in Blender and I was going to put the boxcar loader on it but if it can't be used I wont animate it and I'm not sure if the Reading even used the boxcar loader because coal traffic was on the decline when they finished the breaker.

You can add coal as a commodity to a boxcar. You need to include that in the config.txt file - look at a config.txt file for a current boxcar that accepts loads and you'll see how to set it up.

I never knew the St. Nick used boxcars for loading coal. The car dumber was still in existence when my friend and I visited the site in 2013; the yard there though and the loading tracks at the breaker are all ripped up as the cogen facility is digging around everywhere for coal culm. The area looks like a moonscape now.

I do have some pics of the breaker if you want them for reference. I don't know how good they'll be for you though.

John
 
NICE WORK.......if you are really ambitious you could bring your line all the way down rt. 61 along the Skully all the way to Reading and build the Outer Station.......get ahold of the Reading RR Historical Society...im sure they have tons of photos and maps.....:)...it's good to see locals here.........lots of railroad history around.....
 
Shamokin, I never thought I would see that mentioned here. Bothe my parents came from Shamokin and I can remember the steam engines setting in the middle of town when we drove up to see my grandparents. Nice work.
 
Yeah, Shamokin was really cool back in the day.

BTW, I figured you might want this. A nice aerial shot of Tamaqua in the 40s. If you search dinorius_redundicus on the DLS, he made that freight house for me.
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Thank you,
I've just been using google images becuase some pics are from when the breaker was operating

For right now I'm going to take the tracks west to Paxinos, Treverton, Lykens, Pine Grove, and I haven't decided where I'm going with the Catawissa Branch. East I'm going to stop below Port Clinton so i can put the old main line alignment in. My focus is mostly on the coal region but I would like to go further south with it eventually.

I finished the mountains, trackage, and roads around Shenandoah.
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