Scranton, Pennsylvania yards - early 20th century photo
Click on photo for larger view
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Lots of great old photos on Shorpy!
VERY cool photo!
Love them old photo's, Hard to tell if it's winter or summer with all that smog or pollution in the air.
Wouldn't that sky give L.A. city fathers fits out their windows? Notice the odd shape
four story, light colored building to the right of the yard. If I saw a kit for that, I would
think...naw...that doesn't look like a real buiding...duh..there it is. Right next to what
looks like but cannot rationally be a string of sheets hung out on a clothes line....! Doubt if any body was hanging white sheets out next to a coalfired rail yard.
But this is Scranton - Anthracite Country! No worries about smoke, just ask Phoebe Snow!
ChipR
And Today: Same view. Towards the end of the walkway, to the right is the Bridge 60 Tower - aka: My Office.
In the Shorpy image, those are indeed sheets or linens of some type you see hanging. That was Scranton's "wholesale" district and many of the buildings there had residences on the upper floors.
What makes the laundry hanging even more comical is that there was a wye around the station (also on the right hand side) that, to my eye, would pass right under the hanging linens.
Dave Crosby
Thank you Dave for your photo and comments.
Really put the old photo in perspective of how it was.
Great pics.
all of the 800's steam engines are Camelback's on the right.
straight ahead was all of the passenger car tracks to make a train.
about 2 o'clock was the freight depot
about 9 o'clock out of the picture was the roundhouse, oilhouse.
about 1 o'clock is bridge 60, but you can't even see it.
scranton yard was able to hold over 3000 freight cars, and 200+ passenger cars in the first picture. looking at it today in the second picture you would never know...
Being that the first photo was taken in 1900, the location of the second is close, but no cigar. The original coal trestle was about 30 feet north of where the current one is, constructed in 1906. Still good to compare and contrast, since 30 years ago the yard in Scranton only saw one local move per week.
