Eastern US Railroad Anthracite Coal Story

[@charlessmileyvideos]

This whole DVD "The Hard Coal Roads" is available at our website www.cspmovies.com

[@valerieumphenour3565]

A bygone era. Nice footage with the right amount of information and no background music. Thank You.

[@glennpupino4890]

I miss it

[@dirkradler532]

Great footage of the Lehigh Valley in Lehighton. Both of my grandfathers worked in the yard. The white Alco engines were known as snowbirds.

[@RRose-ie8oh]

In the commentary, the year 1972 looms large. The roads fell into bankruptcy but the video doesn't tell the whole story. These railroads were still marginally profitable until Penn Central went bust. When Penn Central declared bankruptcy, it quit paying its bills on the interchange of freight cars to neighboring railroads. This forced these railroads into bankruptcy and was the catalyst for federal government action that ultimately created CONRAIL.

[@hartmutlorentzen9659]

Great video, thanks for presentation, from Germany

[@mjrodriguez8670]

The Cornell Red looked AWESOME, even though I liked seeing the ALCo Century 628 in white.

[@davidmihevc3990]

This is some great footage. Being on the west coast, I never got to see much of the east coast roads except in photos. I really enjoy seeing all the multi colored freight cars. Some railroads had some cool colors, reds, greens and even yellows. Also miss the non tagged rolling stock.

[@margiecooper6045]

Love the old trains. Thank you.

[@danielbackley9301]

Reason the RS-11s had 4 digit numbers is because they were on long term lease from Pennsy and thus for legal reasons kept their Pennsy numbers.

[@judyrush3219]

I have a Pennsylvania N-scale and it's beautiful to railfan.

[@royzug2847]

Thanks for the video. Brings back many memories of a time when coal was king in PA.

[@Greatdome99]

LV's C628s were called Snowbirds by most.

[@kornellred]

Only the C628s that were painted white were called "snowbirds" for obvious reasons

[@richarddrum9970]

Yes they were, I got past at 50mph by two of them at Tingley Lane crossing in NJ in the late 60's on the LV mainline........wow they were beautiful. I now have two of them in HO scale on my layout hauling coal. Supposedly, Alco C628 number 630 was the only C628 that sported all three LV paint schemes, see that unit at 7:46 in the video. Thanks for this history of the LV, my favorite railroad growing up.

[@Retired88M]

I grew up with a friend whose father was a yard master on the Valley. I’m pretty sure his dad got him on when he graduated high school. He made it up to engineer with NS Sadly he passed a few years ago

[@bruceames6332]

Thom, I can't help it,I enjoyed every minute of the video. Wonderful job !!!! Hope your Thanksgiving was just as awesome as your video. Get better soon,my friend. Bruce in Minnesota

[@steveib724]

Like this classic rail.just a little kid in the 70s man I had fun lol thanks for sharing 👍

[@spuds6423]

The old line that once ran up to Ithaca to Auburn to Fair Haven where the coal cars would dump coal onto freighters going to Toronto.

[@eugeeropel5572]

I have a few Charles Smiley videos and the ones I own are an A+++++ as far as clarity, which is better than outstanding, coverage and locations. I’m now looking to purchase this one.

[@Watertender-lu7vj]

I knew a gentleman who was a yard bull for the Lehigh Valley in Buffalo NY from the 1930s to the 1970's. He was a former minor league baseball player. He was not gentle when it came to trespassers...

[@wchaun]

Why does the narrator pronounce Bethlehem beth-lee-ham?

[@hectorhardy886]

like train

[@feminazislayer]

They can get it to Buffalo from NYC in 3 hours ? Not possible unless they're going 75mph the whole way. 3 hours but it will be there tomorrow...NY central will take 8 hours on the water route, but it will be there 8 hours after the orders placed.

[@curtbrockhaus6131]

Anthracite used for Corten steel, before China created shipping containers California and other places use in steel mills. California has no coking coal, they can't create steel. Judging by their demands for commuter railroads, you might think they could make the rails. One of the biggest reasons for railroads is they could make the rails. Railroad common crossings frogs. Rev 16:13

[@dgrossiter8610]

Seriously misleading LV map.... connecting the Naples and Hemlock Lake branches... showing the Elmira-E. Ithaca abandoned in 1935.. making the Bowman's Creek branch look like a main line. Oh well. The films are good.