ALLENTOWN, PA

Once one of the most diverse rail centers in the country, the Lehigh Valley area now is pretty much all Norfolk Southern territory.  When Conrail moved their through east-west freights off the Amtrak Northeast Corridor they used the combination of the former Reading and former Lehigh Valley Railroad lines to make a through Harrisburg, PA to Newark, NJ freight main almost completely free of passenger train conflicts. 

The large yard was built back in the late 1940's by the Jersey Central.  After 1972 it became the Lehigh Valley's and then Conrail.  With the closure of the once massive Bethlehem Steel Plant, there has been a dramatic decline in freight activity in the area. 

Beginning in western New Jersey on the old Lehigh Valley main and heading west to Allentown, here are some recent images:

    A NS local heading east through Neshanic Station on 11-2-2011.  More of this train just below.

  An eastbound going under the Higginsville Road bridge.  The last of that freak October 2011 snowstorm remains on the ground.

        These big units look out of place switching the Black River & Western interchange
in Three Bridges, NJ.  This was former CNJ track.

  Between Three Bridges and Flemington is the Rockafellows Road crossing. 

  A nice trio of UP units heads an eastbound at the crossing. 11-2-11.

    21M and 19G in the Flemington area, July 18, 2008

  Eastbound at Bloomsbury, NJ. 9-25-05      Another on September 29, 2008.

    Phillipsburg, NJ  9-25-05

  8365 on an ethanol unit train passing the former CNJ tower. ( The tower is being restored ! )

      On a grubby, rainy day the empty coal train from Portland, PA comes over the former Lehigh & Hudson River
bridge over the Delaware River and turns west on the Lehigh Line at Easton, PA.  November 16, 2011

  Westbound passing through the remains of the former Lehigh Valley passenger station in Easton.  7-31-2010.

  A NS local sitting at the former Lehigh Valley station in Easton.  The original LV paint and lettering was just recently painted over.  7-31-10.

    West of Easton.  The line runs alongside the old Lehigh Canal in this area.  11-16-11.

NS 8691 west of Easton, PA, 9-30-2007 

    6788 on a work train.  Steel City, PA.

      SD60 2600 at Allentown and Bethlehem, PA. 9-25-05

    High-nose GP50 7051 on a work train has 19G pass by.  July 18, 2008

     The former Bethlehem Steel Plant railroad, the Philadelphia, Bethlehem and New England, now reduced to moving
stored hopper cars around the virtually dormant steel works.  A casino has opened up in the middle of former plant.  A strange, yet sad sight indeed.

      An eastbound autorack train at Bethlehem on October 25, 2009.

  A one unit wonder auto-rack eastbound passing the former Bethlehem Union Station. 7-31-10.

   At the Allentown hump tower. 9-25-2005

    Activity at the Allentown hump yielded these images, 9-30-2007.

    SD40 6185 and a slug push cars over the hump.  The old CNJ color light signal is still standing ! 7-31-10.

A former Reading GP40-2 sits in the Allentown car shop area on 9-30-2007.  That little drip strip over
the cab windows gives its former Reading heritage away.  This was one of 5 units purchased for the Johanna mine operation.

  Here is 3001 again on July 18, 2008.  Moving local H13 through the very east end of Allentown yard, commonly known
as "Steel".  The stored units are signs of a sluggish economy.

  9302 and 9666 have arrived off train 13T and are parked at 'Steel'.  October 25, 2009.

   An eastbound CN train at Allentown, PA.  February 22, 2004.  This is up west of the yard on the old CNJ.

A couple of images along the former Reading lines west of Allentown, PA.          

Macungie            Alburtis (19G)      3001 again, local H13 Alburtis         62 @ Schlossberg St,  68Q same place.  All 7-18-08

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