@Joe Bonkers
Good description, but I think a better way of doing it is having my idea for a train over new track in northern Pennsylvania from Pittsburgh to Williamsport, which I discussed with you in that conversation we had about replacing the interurban lines with a new line from Pittsburgh to Williamsport.
So what I may do instead is have the Phoebe Snow as its own original Buffalo- Jersey City route. While the Chicago- New York train is now The Big Apple Limited. So here's my revised version...
It's a cool, crisp April morning in 1972 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The sun is not yet over the horizon, but the railroad never sleeps. In the early morning twilight, a Baltimore & Ohio SW1500 switcher can be seen (and the chant of its EMD engines heard) outside the ornate 1908 downtown passenger station, which looks much the same as it did then, except for details - like the words BALTIMORE & OHIO which stand in place of the former LACKAWANNA RR on the facade. The switcher is awaiting its daily ritual: the split of the eastbound
Big Apple. Which will then be followed by the
Phoebe Snow from Buffalo in a while.
The
Big Apple makes its way east out of Chicago with an early-evening departure, traveling along the historic Chicago- Pittsburgh Route, but then heading northeast to Dubious, where the train rolls onto relatively new trackage, which the B&O and NYC built jointly in the 30s to compete with the PRR. The train then rolls over the former Reading line from Williamsport to Sunbury, then it rolls on to the one-time Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (now the Lackawanna Division of the B&O). From there it travels over the ex-DL&W to Scranton. At Scranton, where the train arrives in the early morning hours, it is split into two sections. The New York section continues east on the old DL&W and is pegged for arrival in New York at 9:05 am. The Philadelphia section will travel down the former trackage of the Central Railroad of New Jersey (now the Lehigh Division) via Allentown to Philadelphia, arriving at 11 am.
The procedure is swift as the
Big Apple rolls in along the tracks overlooking the North Scranton Expressway (US 11). It rolls past West Scranton Junction (WS), where the Lehigh Division splits off to the south, about a mile west of the station, and then the downtown yards. The train rolls up to the platform to make its stop, and passengers both alight and board as baggage handlers swiftly take suitcases both to and from the baggage cars.
Meanwhile, the head end power - two four-year-old FP45's - cut off from the train, pulling forward the head-end cars, with the Scranton express cars at the end of the cut. The switcher uncouples and pulls the Scranton express cars into the downtown yard and leaves them there to be worked later. It then returns to the train, this time crossing over behind the head-end power to couple up to the train itself. The next group of cars are the Philadelphia section - a baggage car, two coaches, and a sleeper, which are placed ahead of the New York section.
Once all passengers have deboarded and boarded, the switcher pulls the Philadelphia cut into the clear, then backs it into the downtown yard. A lounge car (providing snack service) has been readied in the downtown yards; the switcher picks up the lounge car as it shoves the cut through the yard. The train is then shoved west, past WS Junction. Once the Philadelphia section is clear, the FP45's back up onto the New York section, make their tests, pump up the air, and highball off to Stroudsburg, Morristown, Newark and New York City.
Awaiting, meanwhile, on the Lehigh Division track is an older (but still well-maintained) pair of E-units, the power for the Philadelphia run. The switches are thrown and the locomotives back onto the prepared Philadelphia section. Coupling, tests, air brakes, and the Philadelphia section is soon rolling past Taylor Yard and onto the tracks of the Boston & Maine (the former Delaware & Hudson; B&O inherited the former CNJ's trackage rights into Wilkes-Barre).
The railroad handled the switching moves smoothly enough that most of the Philadelphia-bound passengers are still asleep as the train rolls through the industrial and coal-mining landscape south toward Wilkes-Barre. The Anthracite Region has in recent years reinvented itself as, among other things, the toymaking capital of the United States, with Mattel, Parker Brothers, Hasbro, and homegrown heroes Roth-American all having plants in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area (shameless plug: see my Fix-Your-Hometown timeline).
About three miles north of downtown Wilkes-Barre is Hudson Yard, where the Wilkes-Barre Connecting Railway (connection to the PRR) splits off to the west and the B&M continues south. The CNJ used to have a track veering off slightly to the east here, but that's been abandoned, because of a project instituted about ten years ago at the insistence of the city of Wilkes-Barre, which was tired of downtown crossing congestion. The Wilkes-Barre Grade Separation Project was a joint effort of the B&O, C&O (which operates the former Lehigh Valley), B&M and PRR to place their collective tracks below street level; it was paid for largely through Pennsylvania state funding.
The train descends into the trench created by the project, passing under a number of downtown avenues before its arrival at the Wilkes-Barre Union Station. It's the old LV building on Pennsylvania Avenue, now carefully restored. Where in the old days one boarded the trains at street level, the Project included the building of a concourse from the venerable station across the tracks (it was intended to match the old station architecturally, although many regional architects nevertheless regard it as ugly. The concourse extends across the tracks, with escalators down to track-level platforms, out to the former CNJ station, which has been converted into the city's bus terminal.
The project eliminated some industries that had trackside sidings but enhanced others. The huge Thomas C. Thomas produce terminal company insisted on a spur track being built under Pennsylvania Avenue a block north of the station, to allow continued access to its warehouse. The old Carr Biscuit company building was demolished, but Stroehmann Bakery bought the site and built a new building with rail access at the new track level. The Stegmaier Brewery, across from the station, built a new track-level loading dock facility.
In the same block as the station, there used to be three meat warehouses; LV crews called the track serving them "the meat hole." These were demolished to add more parking for the station. But just south, across Northampton Street, the three meat companies bought the site of the old PRR freight station (most LCL is handled in the form of TOFC nowadays, so the station was little used). The new "meat hole" is also at track level. Just south, past the South Street Bridge over the tracks, is the former Hazard Wire Rope plant, now undergoing conversion into a Reading Terminal or Pike Place Market-like location for Wilkes-Barre. (Likewise, the old wholesale district across Pennsylvania Avenue from the station is in the process of undergoing conversion into trendy restaurants, shops, and nightspots.)
After making its Wilkes-Barre station stop, the train begins climbing the mountain east of the city. The C&O has in recent years begun using the old CNJ track here as well via trackage rights on the B&O, which has allowed it to abandon the old LV line. The old CNJ Ashley Shops have shut down as well as the B&O has consolidated its local locomotive and car maintenance in Scranton. Reportedly, the old Ashley Shops and LV track up the mountain are being eyed by an outfit in Vermont called "Steamtown"....
By the time the passengers awaken, the train is in the beautiful Lehigh River gorge. It rolls to a station stop at Mauch Chunk, the "Switzerland of America" and an important tourist location; few alight here, but some homebound tourists from Philadelphia board the train. Ahead are the station stop at the steel city of Allentown, from where the train will roll onto former Reading trackage, and at the manufacturing center of Reading, before the train makes its final arrival at Reading Terminal (still called that even after all these years) on Arch Street in the City of Brotherly Love.