Aficionados of Northeastern railroading are probably familiar with the Lehigh & New England Railroad. It was the second big Northeastern railroad to go out of business, thus serving as a canary in the mineshaft for the problems that would come to a head in the early 1970s with the Penn Central and almost every other railroad up there.

The L&NE Railroad went into the history books on 31 October 1961, but was resurrected, sort of, the following day by the Central Railroad of New Jersey, which continued operations on parts of the line it deemed profitable as the Lehigh & New England Railway. This isn't to say that the L&NERR died as a bankrupt ruin in the manner of the New Haven or the Penn Central. No, it was sent into history by its corporate parent, the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company. The LC&N was an anthracite mining concern dealing in the particular type of coal found in Pennsylvania that burned cleaner than other types, such as bituminous.¹

The LC&N took a look at the declining anthracite market---replaced in its home-heating use by oil---in the late 1950s and decided to cut its losses before they happened. The L&NE's other major customer, the cement industry, was switching over to trucks because of modal efficiencies that the railroads were incapable of matching at the time. I had read somewhere that the parent, known as the "Old Company", went into oblivion not too long after its railroad. The end, right? Wrong.

While researching the L&NE recently, I decided to look up its parent, and lo, I found the website of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company. Surprised, I went there expecting a historical thing. Boy, was I wrong! The LC&N, reformed in 1989 after a period of 24 years, still operates its anthracite mines in Pennsylvania.

No word on whether they'll be re-establishing in-house rail service . I think I'd like them better if they put the L&NE herald on their trucks and other equipment.

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¹ Clean enough that the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western sent its mascot, Phoebe Snow, forth to proclaim that she could wear white upon the Road of Anthracite and not get filthy. I'm told that it was the fuel of choice for vessels seeking to evade the United States Navy's blockade of the Confederate States of America's ports during the Late Unpleasantness, because when you mixed anthracite's low-visibility smoke with a low-slung hull and a low-visibility paint scheme, the USN might not see your vessel until you were out of position for them to effect an intercept.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 04:31 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Via Rachel at Tinkerty Tonk, I've found something that was somewhat distressing:

A Scotsman's diary

The file is named 'anorak', which apparently is Brit-speak for those who watch and photograph trains or planes. It gives you an idea of the subject matter, some poor chap in Edinburgh, Scotland. Upon reading it myself, I promptly went to check and see what kind of data I kept and the like. The results?

-No train tapes, as it were. I've been wanting to get one on the ALCO/MLW units of the Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia Railway and the Green Frog Penn Central ones, but other than that, nada. Luckily, my railroad enthusiast's budget goes to books and stuff for Train Simulator. Whee.

-No records on VHS/DVD viewing; I don't want to know. It's been nearly zero this year, and was similarly low last year. I could bug my Sony DVD player (when it isn't giving me its famous error) to tell me how much it's been used, but I'd rather not.

-Only a handful of visits to railway preservation sites. I did get to ride a nice excursion in Tennessee last year; if I ever dig up my notes, perhaps I'll post 'em. Photos, too. Lucky for me that my sort of record keeping is notes scribbled hastily on a napkin or something that gets tucked in a drawer and found years later, hopefully with a time and date stamp.

-No unrequited or unacted-upon love at work, so that's good.

Useful to read, but not the most pleasant experience. The Scottish Co-Operative Wholesale Republic also has some thoughts on this.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 04:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Thank God I don't live in West Virginia. This isn't some insult directed at our erstwhile relatives, but rather inspired by the latest accident on the CSX system.

The CNN report indicates that evacuation of the State capital, Charleston, might be necessary if a leak of the train's payload occurred.

There was no information on whether the crew was injured or not. I hope that they survived uninjured. As with the UTU/CNR news, further updates as available.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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