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Reading Buses ALX400 Dennis Trident WA04CPZ 536 is seen passing Reading Station on a service for Fleet, 28th April
I recently had been going through my archives looking for some other photos when I stumbled upon some previously unedited images that I had set aside to edit. So I did a few quick edits and will hopefully be presenting these images over the next several days. This is another of those photos.
On one of my few trips to the BNSF Chillicothe Sub in the final months of the famous Santa Fe-era signal bridges and cantilevers with searchlights, we happened to be exploring the line between Mazon & Ancona. We were on the way back from Ancona when we noticed an oncoming train in the east. We cut a beeline to the nearest crossing, which just happened to be a small cluster of houses south of Streator. The train turned out to be (if I remember correctly) NSIGAL, the train that comes off the Norfolk Southern Kankakee Sub on the south side of Streator. We had seen this train holding for orders or new crew earlier when we had been exploring around Streator.
Anyway, after the train passed, we noticed an odd little gravel drive that went through a cluster of trees next to the tracks. What we could not see from the road we would soon discover. Inside the trees we discovered this abandoned building. At first glance, we thought it was an abandoned farm building of some sort, you could see old hay through the collapsing walls.
But the more I looked at it, the more I thought it might be an old long-forgotten depot. This building's proximity to the railroad tracks seemed too suspicious to me, and the windows and door seen in the image did not seem like they belonged were original features, while the dual sliding doors also seen in this image clearly were not (and may have done more to compromise the stability of this building than anything else). The only way for us to know for sure was to find the tell-tale feature of almost every railroad depot, the bay window that the station agents used for seeing oncoming trains.
I should add, it had been raining all day this day, a very hard and steady rain that will soak you to the bone in minutes, and only with proper rain gear is it tolerable. Also, the grass here was knee-high and covered in poison ivy. Even though it meant soaked pants, socks, & shoes, and potentially getting poison ivy, we walked around to the trackside of the building. And just as I had predicted, there it was, the bay window! Granted, it was worse for wear, but still plain as day. So not only was this building a depot, we soon discovered that it was not listed in my friends listings of known depots!
With no idea of this place, a peek inside revealed this depot's life after retirement. Sometime after it was disused as a depot, it was converted to farm use of some sort. Either a second floor was added or the existing ceiling was lowered, with the new upper story used to store hay. This second floor had largely collapsed over time, but old rotten hay could still be seen matted to the floor like a pile of wet sheep's wool. The double doors were likely added about the same time and no doubt housed some sort of farm machinery.
Almost convinced we stumbled upon a mystery nearly lost to time, we called it quits and finally headed for home. Later that night, some research and Google Maps revealed what we had found. It turns out we were in the tiny blip of a town named Reading that sits between Streator and Ancona, and this was indeed the old Santa Fe Reading depot. It had never been moved and was indeed in its as-built location. My friend never did find it in is depot resources, and we could only speculate that its use as a farm building may have masked its life when that list of depots was compiled (I want to say his version dated from 2006 or so). About a year later, however, when we learned of DepotMaps.com, we were able to confirm our reasearch.
Sorry, I know this is long, so I'll sum up this way. We found this in October 2017. I have no idea if this thing still survives today, much less whether it's standing. But as of this writing, a look on Google satellite view shows what might be building walls or the outline of a foundation. It's just too hard to tell. And with no street views out in rural Reading, the only way to know is to drive by it.
Reading & Northern train PISB approaches Taylor on a steep upgrade. The job works out of Pittston, and is enroute to the Keyser Valley Industrial Park.
My collection of Westerns is slim to say the least. A trip out to Reading in 1974 got me Hussar and Stalwart.
50038 Formidable departs Reading and heads for Paddington in November 86
Taken on a trip to London and I think the only train shot taken that day.
The headlight appears to have failed! Photos where the sun was off the front always benefited from the light being on.
Location: Reading, Pennsylvania
Date: 2019.12.19
The things seen lying around in Reading, on a cold 20 degree evening.
Reading Company EPa 865 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on an unknown day in July 1964, Kodachrome by unknown photographer, Chuck Zeiler collection.
Seen in Reading in January 2019 is Reading Buses Scania N280UD4 / Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC H45/27F 705 YN66EZS..
Continuing my Lockdown Lookback @ 2020, March saw me in Reading which of course is home to the colourful fleet of Reading Buses.
1:6 Scale
dragondeemini.blogspot.com/2011/04/reading-area.html
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The old gas works building along the Kennet canal. Another one from a series of multiple exposure images.
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Snow fell on many parts of the south in early February 2019 and Fleet was no exception. Reading Buses used their Tiger-branded Scania K270UB / Alexander Dennis Enviro300 B42F 414 YR13PMV 'John Vaughan' on the service as seen at Fleet Station.
Rescanned at higher resolution with better colour and image quailty
Realised I had missed scanning some cracking shots from the first roll of slide film I ever took - why oh why didn't I stick with Fuji. Cheaper than Kodachrome and faster at 100asa - good colour too in sunny conditions
First of the refurbished Class 50s and still in overall BR blue, 50 006 Neptune coasts past the Southern Region platforms as it prepares to stop at Reading with 1M07, the 13:50 Paddington - Liverpool