Coal, that is…

While cruising the narrow, potholed roads of Western Pennsylvania back in 1971, I came across an impressive, but abandoned, dark and dingy, and massively dilapidated monument to the USA’s ability to produce the fuel to feed the fires of industrialization – coal. The story of that edifice – the Ernest (PA) mine and facility began in 1902, when officials of the Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal & Iron Company started looking to Indiana County in search of new coal fields.

In May, 1903, the rails of the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway reached the new town of Ernest, and the first coal was shipped the same month. From the early days of its existence, the Ernest plant was a marvel of engineering. In an era when most coal companies were dependent upon the lowly mule for motive power, the R&P’s new operation utilized electric motors to haul coal to the steel tipple where a system of endless chains hoisted it up a long incline into the plant for cleaning and grading.

Within three years of its opening, the plant underwent the first of several renovations as the R&P constantly searched for more efficient mining and preparation methods to produce, clean, size, and market coal. In 1906, Heyl and Patterson of Pittsburgh constructed the first washing plant. This firm had also built the original tipple and most of the buildings used for coal storage and preparation at Ernest. The Fairmont Machinery Company and McNally-Pittsburgh also did important work for the R&P as the complex at Ernest expanded.

The R&P also established a coke industry at Ernest and eventually built a battery of 278 beehive coke ovens at the plant. Coke production figures from the Ernest ovens reflect general economic trends of the first half of the twentieth century as well as the effects of the later development of more sophisticated methods of making coke. By the mid-1920s, lack of demand for coke caused the temporary shutdown of the line of coke ovens at Ernest. The plant began production again in 1929, with the addition of mechanical unloading to replace the old hand drawing method. Annual production ebbed and flowed until a peak of 145,977 tons was reached during World War Two.

While the manufacture of coke formed a significant part of the activities at the Ernest plant, the mining, processing, and sale of clean fuel remained the prime factor in the success of the operation. In the early days, railroads, primarily the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh, consumed the greatest percentage of Ernest’s coal. It was particularly desired as high grade stoker coal for passenger engines. By the mid-1920s, the original tipple had been remodeled, and a huge bin constructed for storage of clean, sized, coking coal. In the next decade, a “dry” plant for cleaning coal by air, and a wet” plant for cleaning coal with water, were installed at Ernest to bring the operation up to date.

By the beginning of World War Two, the Ernest coal plant began to resemble the plant best remembered by most Indiana Countians. As the war effort increased, Ernest kept pace with a growing need for coal; and, in 1945, the mining and preparation plant worked together to produce over a million tons of coal. In 1952, the McNally plant was built an the hillside behind the original site. Using a wet cleaning method to separate the coal from impurities, the McNally plant had a capacity of fifty tons per hour for coking coal. R & P later expanded this plant to clean four hundred tons per hour, and it contained all of the cleaning equipment used at Ernest.

By the early 1960s, R&P officials decided that coal could no longer be mined profitably at Ernest. In 1965, the plant was closed. Within a few years, equipment and buildings gradually disappeared from the landscape as scrap companies dismantled the mining operation that had taken over fifty years to construct. But the McNally preparation plant and the skeleton of the coking coal bin still remain on the blackened site. These, the foundations of the coke ovens, and a brick office and machine shop are all that survive of the R&P’s Ernest operations, an Indiana County landmark to remember with pride.

And a search of the mapping programs confirms that the land has returned to nature in the area…I couldn’t find the buildings mentioned in the above paragraph, though their remains may be hidden in the trees.

As the saying goes, “Ashes to ashes – dust to dust.”

Mandy

There may be times when I want to wear a dress, but the temperature says “Not so fast…” All is not lost, however.

First option is to add pantyhose. They’re practical, and pretty, not to mention that they can help cure that “untanned winter legs” look. They would be my first choice. But at times weather may dictate that they’re not sufficient. Next would be black tights. I have them, wear them, and like them a lot. But the weather sometimes dictates even more.

When trying on this new dress, I found that the leggings I ordered with it just didn’t fit – and they have gone back. There’s still more work to do, in regard to find a pair which fit properly. So in order to see how my dress would look with pants, I changed back into my everyday stirrup pants. (Yes, I know black or dark gray would look better – but it is what it is.)

With the proper color, this also becomes a valid fashion choice in weather too cool for just a dress and pantyhose. A pair of dark stirrup pants would be perfect, in cooler weather.

Now all we (collectively) need is to be able to travel safely again – without the virus!

Hugs,

Mandy

Happy Groundhog Day!

And welcome to 6 more weeks of winter….

Once again, thanks go out to my father-in-law, for documenting this bit of history…by the name of Elizabeth. No, not a girl. A ferry – which ran between Jersey Central’s Communipaw Avenue rail terminal in Jersey City and Liberty Street, downtown Manhattan. He commuted daily via this ferry, and took the picture on one of the last few days of operation:

Some background on the Elizabeth, taken from a copy of “The Boats We Rode – “A Quarter Century of New York’s Excursion Boats and Ferries” and various other sources.

She was built as the LAKEWOOD by Harlan & Hollingsworth Co. of Wilmington, Delaware in 1901 for the Central Railway of New Jersey (CNJ). Her gross tonnage is 1115; she is 194.4 feet long, 43.5 feet wide, and had a displacement of 16′. She was built as a double ended car ferry; and was powered by the 1500HP four cylinder triple expansion engine on 170lb steam.

After a disastrous fire, she was rebuilt with an all steel fireproof structure, and renamed ELIZABETH. She was capable of carrying 20 automobiles and 1950 passengers, and ran between the Jersey Central’s Communipaw Avenue rail terminal in Jersey City and Liberty Street, downtown Manhattan. In February 1965, the ELIZABETH was the only steam ferry serving this route, when the diesel electric ferries THE TIDES and THE NARROWS were chartered to replace her unrebuilt sisters.

The ELIZABETH last operated to the Jersey City terminal on April 28, 1967. But while sister ferries were scrapped or sent to die a slow death in the Witte Marine Equipment Co. yard on Staten Island; she was sold to the Public Service Electric and Gas Company of New Jersey. Renamed THE SECOND SUN, she was then used as a floating exhibition ship describing the use of atomic energy, and was based at Salem, New Jersey.

However, the history of the Elizabeth did not end. In the years after the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the veteran ferryboat took on a variety of careers. First the old Elizabeth was purchased by PSE&G, for use as a floating museum at the Salem nuclear power plant on the Delaware Bay. Here she was renamed the Second Sun, and contained exhibitions on the history of energy from the dawn of human civilization to the present; her car deck converted into an audio-visual center.

The boat switched careers again in 1992, when she was towed from her mooring at the power plant up-river to Philadelphia. The 200-foot-long ferry wound up as a waterfront restaurant at the foot of Callowhill Street. It operated as a classy eatery called the Elizabeth for a few months, then spent 7 years as a Hooters ( “delightfully tacky, yet unrefined” ) before closing in January 2002.

There was some hope that the Elizabeth could be returned to her old home in Jersey City and restored as a display in the Liberty State Park, but that hope faded when the vessel sank at her pier over the winter of 2003-2004, and remained there for over a year. Finally, in 2005, the old ship was raised, partially stripped, and sunk at sea as an artificial reef.

That’s as is done with other dis-used ships, and subway/railway cars – give the fish and other aquatic creatures a new home…

Mandy

A shorter dress to wear!

You may recall that occasionally I wear a denim jumper dress on my excursions. It’s mid-calf in length, and though I enjoy wearing it on those few occasions, it’s long enough to just give a hint of “leg showing”. I’ve often thought I should have a shorter dress to wear with bare legs, or leggings and my stirrup pants. A tee-dress (simple, not-form-fitting, and knee-length or a bit shorter) would be perfect for this, and in a catalog one that wasn’t form-fitting caught my eye, so I ordered it, along with a couple pairs of leggings.

Well, the leggings were a bust. They will be returned. I guess I’m in the category of girls whose top and bottom are different sizes. But the tee-dress fits reasonably well, don’t you think?

It should work nicely as-is on excursions, to get me accustomed to going about my business with my legs on display, with summer breezes caressing them everywhere I go. It’s long enough that I can sit down in it, without excessive concern about having everyone see my panties… I just need to keep my ankles crossed!

Wearing a belt would look nice, and raise the hem about an inch, but the act of cinching it in would accentuate the part of my body that I’d rather not make more visible – my middle. So to make the hem shorter (at some unspecified point in the future), I might have my seamstress raise it two or three inches. But to get to that point will take “gaining a fair amount of confidence in my presentation and deportment” before it becomes a realistic option.

Should I think about buying one in bright blue? Or red???

I took a chance and wore my low (1–1/2″) heels on a couple errands in a nearby town the other day, before the cold set in. There were no problems because I was wearing heels – nobody said anything…but they just weren’t comfortable. The experience taught me that the old adage “you get what you pay for” is still true. Being such low heels, I thought they would be good for long days on my feet. And they didn’t cost much. But I was sadly disappointed. These flats are expensive shoes (but bought on a 40% off sale). That brought their price to a reasonable level, and I can wear them day and night without my feet hurting. Though I admit I probably will try wearing them again…

So I guess I need to go shopping for more expensive (i.e. comfortable) heels, then watch for that style to go on sale!

Be safe,

Mandy

…from our 1985 visit to the UK – a pretty skyline:

This is how Edinburgh looked in July of 1985 – in the sun, no less. Taken from Edinburgh Castle, this almost appears as if it were taken from a personal drone (which was not even a twinkle in someone’s eye at that point in history.

Edinburgh, capital city of Scotland, is located in southeastern Scotland with its center near the southern shore of the Firth of Forth, an arm of the North Sea that thrusts westward into the Scottish Lowlands. The city and its immediate surroundings constitute an independent council area. The city and most of the council area, including the busy port of Leith on the Firth of Forth, lie within the historic county of Midlothian, but the council area also includes an area in the northwest, around South Queensferry, in the historic county of West Lothian.

Physically, Edinburgh is a city of sombre theatricality, with much of this quality deriving from its setting among crags and hills and from its tall buildings and spires of dark stone. Edinburgh has been a military stronghold, the capital of an independent country, and a center of intellectual activity. Although it has repeatedly experienced the vicissitudes of fortune, the city has always renewed itself. Today it is the seat of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive, and it remains a major center for finance, law, tourism, education, and cultural affairs. Area council area, 102 square miles (264 square km). Pop. (2001) city, 431,393; council area, 476,626; (2011) city, 459,366; council area, 482,640.

We had a fabulous time…would go back if we were ever to be in the area!

Mandy

Anyone remember the Broadway play titled “A Streetcar Named Desire?” No, it didn’t have a “gutter-type meaning.” Enter New Orleans and it’s car #832:

During first half of the 20th Century, New Orleans had an extensive streetcar operation. But by 1964, only two streetcar lines remained in operation in New Orleans: Canal Street and St. Charles Avenue. Early that year, the decision was made to convert the Canal Street line to bus operation and retain the St. Charles line as a tourist attraction. This rendered 40 cars surplus; from that group, 12 cars were donated by NOPSI to preservation groups and the rest were scrapped.

The compatibility of track gauge and the age and excellent condition of the equipment moved the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum to express interest in obtaining one of these cars, eight years before they became available. Because of its long-standing interest, PTM was given first choice of the cars being retired.

The Museum’s interest in car 832 came from the fact that in December 1947, it had been featured in a Life Magazine article when Tennessee Williams’ play “A Streetcar Named Desire” debuted on Broadway. Three years later, a magazine article identified 832 as the car regularly assigned to operation on the Desire line. Although the Desire Street line quit operation in 1948, the play and movie continue to bring fame to New Orleans streetcars. Sister car 922 was featured in the 1951 movie version staring Vivian Leigh and Marlon Brando; 922 was restored along with the other 34 ‘Thomas” cars and is still operated regularly on the St. Charles line in New Orleans.

New Orleans 832 was delivered to the museum by railroad in June 1964 and was almost immediately placed into operation because our museum track is the same gauge as New Orleans. NOPSI 832 is very similar in design to PRT 5326, having somewhat taller windows but with no protective guards.

Today, car 832 continues on in the same way as its sister cars that still operate in New Orleans. Designation on the National Register of Historic Places has made the New Orleans streetcars and the 160-year-old St. Charles line an operating museum much like that at the Arden Trolley Museum.

Now I just need to get there to ride it!

Mandy

During our trip to Arches National Park, Utah back in May of 2008, we really hadn’t planned to be out this late while sightseeing. But since we were, we made the best of it. Not often can you see such pretty rock formations in the fading light of a beautiful sunset.

Arches is a U.S. National Park in eastern Utah. It’s adjacent to the Colorado River, 4 miles (6 km) north of Moab, UT and is home to over 2,000 natural sandstone arches, including the world-famous Delicate Arch, in addition to a variety of unique geological resources and formations. It contains the highest density of natural arches in the world. The park lies atop an underground evaporite layer or salt bed, which is the main cause of the formation of the arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths in the area.

It consists of 76,679 acres (119.811 sq mi) of high desert located in the Colorado Plateau. Its highest elevation is 5,653 feet at Elephant Butte, and its lowest elevation is 4,085 feet (1,245 m) at the visitor center. Forty-three arches are known to have collapsed since 1977. The park receives on average 10 inches of rain a year.

The scenery was spectacular…the sunsets even more so!

Mandy

Also on this Inauguration day, remember way back, past all the current issues, to our roots: Fort McHenry in Baltimore:

This picture was taken back in 1963, during a visit to a relative’s house in Baltimore. And we got a tour of many of the heritage sites in the area. On important days like today, it’s good to remember our heritage, and the fact that we as a nation, have pulled through many bad times, with flags flying high.

Hopefully we can do the same this time.

Hugs,

Mandy

PS: 2 posts in one day isn’t a record…but close!

…a Bicentennial remembrance.

Back in September of 1975, I was driving through Johnstown, PA.  Being a railfan, what did I see on the nearby freight rails, but a large and shiny (looking fresh from the paint shop) red-white-and-blue tribute to America’s 200^th year!  It was parked near the shop of the Conemaugh & Black Lick Railroad Company.  Have you ever heard of them?  They are a standard-gauge diesel powered switching railroad, in and near the corporate limits of the city of Johnstown, Pa.

Living in the area at the time, I was familiar with the railroad’s existence, and had seen both trains and locomotives previously, but had not been aware of this particular project!

This short-line railroad came to life “in the Roaring Twenties” – December 31, 1923 – under general laws of Pennsylvania and organized on January 14, 1924. The road is divided into three segments called respectively the Western, Northern, and Hinckston divisions. Due to the peculiar layout of the property there are eight main tracks.

The owned property consists of 2.133 miles of first main track and 0.593 mile of yard tracks and sidings located at the northern end of the Hinckston division. The property comprising the Western and Northern divisions and southerly portion of the Hinckston division is owned by the Cambria Iron Company but subleased to the carrier by the Bethlehem Steel Products Company, the railroad’s main customer.

Leased mileage consists of 7.030 miles of first, 8.489 miles of second, 1.009 miles of third, 0.144 mile of fourth, 0.814 mile of fifth, [where’d sixth go?] 0.976 mile of seventh, and 0.450 mile of eighth main tracks, and 30.786 miles of yard tracks and sidings. The operated road aggregates 52.424 miles of all tracks.

Of the 2.133 miles of road owned by the railroad, approximately 1.803 miles was purchased from Bethlehem Steel Products Company and 0.33 mile from Manufacturers Water Company, as authorized in 94 I.C.C. 443, 450.

Haven’t been back in years to see if the rails are shiny or rusty – but the condition of the steel industry in general doesn’t bode well for its longevity – if it in fact is still around!

Mandy