Springtime in Landingville
The 9th time I've sat in the mud along the Schuylkill River and the 11th train I've seen there finally yields the quality photograph I had envisioned. A late running NRRB is on it's way home to North Reading as it crosses the river for the first of multiple times at 533pm. This was one month to the day after I had departed Minnesota to begin the road trip.
I don't really have a tremendous amount of set up for today's segment on the Pottsville Branch. I can tell ya that seeing one of the RDG inspired GP38-2's in consist with an MP15 through February and March is probably what stuck in my head and made me put R&N to the top of the list when I got furloughed in early April. A whole bunch of you guys were posting the photo of NRRB coming northward under the former PRR south of Auburn and it was driving me a bit nuts. So I get there, find the shot and BING it's nose-on for 7 months out of the year. Good news is they've recently done a whole lot of brush clearing to open up the wedge. Rumor is it's going to be a trail but man it looks like logging to me.
Anyway the Pottsville Branch is the former Reading passenger main from Port Clinton to Pottsville. At Blue Mountain (a couple miles north of Auburn) the Auburn Runner (former PRR) diverges and goes south back to Auburn. There is HAVEN at Schuyllkill Haven and MINE at the Minersville Branch switch which is also the entrance to West Cressona yard. We already hit the immediate Schuylkill Haven area earlier in this series so hopefully we remember the restored station serving as the headquarters of the R&N passenger department and the repro signs and such. North from MINE the branch ducks into the woods opposite the river from Route 61 before reappearing at Mount Carbon (which I also covered already) and the Muller signal bridge before ending at Pottsville Junction.
Springtime in Landingville
The 9th time I've sat in the mud along the Schuylkill River and the 11th train I've seen there finally yields the quality photograph I had envisioned. A late running NRRB is on it's way home to North Reading as it crosses the river for the first of multiple times at 533pm. This was one month to the day after I had departed Minnesota to begin the road trip.
I don't really have a tremendous amount of set up for today's segment on the Pottsville Branch. I can tell ya that seeing one of the RDG inspired GP38-2's in consist with an MP15 through February and March is probably what stuck in my head and made me put R&N to the top of the list when I got furloughed in early April. A whole bunch of you guys were posting the photo of NRRB coming northward under the former PRR south of Auburn and it was driving me a bit nuts. So I get there, find the shot and BING it's nose-on for 7 months out of the year. Good news is they've recently done a whole lot of brush clearing to open up the wedge. Rumor is it's going to be a trail but man it looks like logging to me.
Anyway the Pottsville Branch is the former Reading passenger main from Port Clinton to Pottsville. At Blue Mountain (a couple miles north of Auburn) the Auburn Runner (former PRR) diverges and goes south back to Auburn. There is HAVEN at Schuyllkill Haven and MINE at the Minersville Branch switch which is also the entrance to West Cressona yard. We already hit the immediate Schuylkill Haven area earlier in this series so hopefully we remember the restored station serving as the headquarters of the R&N passenger department and the repro signs and such. North from MINE the branch ducks into the woods opposite the river from Route 61 before reappearing at Mount Carbon (which I also covered already) and the Muller signal bridge before ending at Pottsville Junction.