(erielack) Wye at 100 foot bridge in Dunmore

[Golden6727_@_aol.com]

Gentleman , may I shed some light on the question about the wye at the 100  
foot bridge here in Dunmore , as Frank A. and Rick S. know I was born and 
raised  in the Bunker Hill section of Dunmore , Pa. and lived on Sand St. 
across from  the Erie Wyoming Division tracks and where the Bunker Hill Breaker 
once stood . 
 
  As a kid , I walked those tracks and walked across the 100  foot bridge 
many , many times , now this was in the mid 1950's . When I got near  the 
bridge there was a curved rail bed  ( curved to the left off the  main ) that 
connected with the existing track bed ( from the right of  the main ) leading 
onto the bridge . The bed with no rails or ties was a  sizeable amount of 
coal about 10 to 15 feet in height from the original lay of  the land , this 
was the part of the wye , Rick and I were at this spot about 4  years ago 
and you can clearly see that this was a bed . 
 
  On the Penn Pilot 1937 photos you can see this wye and also on  the 
Dunmore Gas & Water Co. map that I have a copy of . My late dear friend  and 
neighbor Bill Leggat verified this wye ( He and his father were  Erie men , his 
dad was an Engineer  ) also in that area of the bridge  off the main was a 
siding , Burkes siding , Bill showed me where it was located  , this siding 
was for a stone quarry owned by the Burke Brothers constructing  company , 
seems they had a contract with the E&WV RR in the late 1890's  probably up 
till the very early 1900's .
 
  I assume everyone knows that at Rock Jct the main line went from 3  
tracks down to  one track because the main track bed beyond Rock was built  on a 
very steep hill side . The Pa. Coal Co. Gravity RR Light track was here  
also only about 10 feet higher in elevation than the E&WV RR bed , the  E&WV RR 
did not build on the gravity rail bed they ran side by side for  about a 
year before the Gravity went out in 1885  ( the gravity bed is  still here 
today ) I've been on it a few times over the years . 
 
   Many years ago my late friend Dr. Ed Steers told me a story he  once 
read while doing research on the PA. Coal Co. Gravity RR . , he said that  when 
the E&WV RR started to build their track bed in the Greenville  Cliffs area 
 ( today  known as the Village of Nay - Aug ) the E&WV  RR asked the Pa. 
Coal Co. to hold up their return of empty coal cars on the  light track in 
this area so as the E&WV could blast out the face of the  cliffs so that the 
rock would make a good base to lay coal and cinder upon for  the E&WV rail bed 
, as the story goes all this blasting was done in one day  including the 
rebuilding of the gravity rail bed and track so the empty  coal cars could get 
to the mines in Dunmore and Pittston .
 
  Just to clear up one thing about Rock Jct. and the Wye , the  Ghost bed 
leading to the bridge was dug out back in the early 1980's for it  was a 
wealth of coal , tons and tons of coal as was the area above the old  Bunker 
Hill breaker where the Sunshine Mine operation was , ( I was told by  another 
friend that the Sunshine Mine was part of the Spencer Operation ) the  coal 
at Sunshine was so vast that part of the Old Elmhurst Blvd. was destroyed  
because there was so much coal under the road , as of today that section of 
the  Elmhurst is blocked off to traffic because there ain't no road there 
anymore and  there ain't going to be a road ever .
 
   I hope this info is of some help and if you want your welcome  to take a 
walk with me and I'll show you all that I've written . If you have a  
question  , please contact me at  _golden6727_@_aol.com_ 
(mailto:golden6727_@_aol.com) 
 
    Thanks guys , 
 
 
         Tony Ranella Jr.
 

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