« Erie & Wyoming Valley 4-4-0 Camelback, 1880s »
Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 11:38AM 
This lovely little 4-4-0 Camelback engine, No. 14, of the Erie & Wyoming Valley Railroad is the first antique photo I ever bought nearly 40 years ago, a large mounted cabinet print in its original frame; likely a professional company photo, it is in pristine condition. It sits on the turntable at a large roundhouse, but I have not yet discovered where that was located.
It took me several years to discover that E&WV was the Erie & Wyoming Valley RR which superseded a gravity line when it was converted to steam by the Pennsylvania Coal Company, chartered under that name as early as 1864, but not completed until perhaps 1884 (?). It was primarily an anthracite coal hauling line into Pennsylvania's coalfields, but it also ran express passenger trains on parts of the division every day of the week except Sunday. History on the web for this company is sketchy at best, but it was purchased by the Erie Railroad in 1901, yet it had always had a connection as an extension of the Erie's far-reaching lines which eventually went to Chicago (railroad history is convoluted at best).
I have seen one other photo of an E&WV camelback, No. 16, but it was a 4-6-0 configuration which was more common to coal hauling, so I think this smaller one was early and may have been for passenger service. The camelback is one of my favorite engine configurations (in the late 1970s I scratch-built my own running 4-4-0 camelback model engine based on this photo because it wasn't available on the market, most model examples being 4-6-0).
Reader Comments (2)
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Sir ; To correct part of your info on the E&WV RR , the Pa. Coal Co. gravity railroad operated from 1850 to 1885 , the E&WV RR started building their railroad in 1883 and ran in competition with the PCC gravity for about a year before being abandonded in 1885. The E&WV RR did not build their railbed on the gravity railbed as always said , they were two seperate railroads and always ran within a mile of each other . I have a collection of PCC maps and E&WV maps and info along with the Erie here in Dunmore Pa. where the main office of the Pa. Coal Co. still stands , I live across the street from the Gravity / E&WV / Erie Dunmore yards which at one time was known as the # 6 area because the # 6 Incline of the PCC ran thru this area about 5/10 of a mile from my house .
Hope this info helps out , Tony Ranella Jr.