Lehigh Valley Railroad

On this date

Today: is the 216th day of 2011. There are 149 days left in the year.

On this date

In 1790, the Coast Guard had its beginnings as the Revenue Cutter Service.

In 1944, 15-year-old diarist Anne Frank was arrested with her sister, parents and four others by the Gestapo after hiding for two years inside a building in Amsterdam. (Anne died the following year at Bergen-Belsen.)

Today's birthdays

Journalist Helen Thomas is 91. Actor-screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton is 56. President Barack Obama is 50. Race car driver Jeff Gordon is 40.

The sun sets 8:13 p.m. today, rises 6:01 a.m. Friday.

The moon sets 10:43 p.m. today, rises 1:02 p.m. Friday. It is six days after the new moon.

100 years ago today

1911: Moving mountains: "A large stone crusher has been erected at the foot of Bear Mountain at Mauch Chunk (Jim Thorpe) by the Lehigh Valley Railroad at the very spot where the company some time ago thought of driving a tunnel through the mountain to eliminate a dangerous curve around the mountain's semi-circular base. The mountain is to be destroyed. The plant, which is in very close proximity to the tunnel that was driven several hundred feet into the base of the mountain several years ago by ex-County Commissioner 'Top' O'Donnell and his associates, who were then prospecting for gold, and who struck the precious metal, but not in sufficient quantities to operate the mine at a fair profit. The Lehigh Valley, which owns Bear Mountain, is not at all averse to its removal, although it will greatly mar the beauty of Mauch Chunk, because its obliteration will save the company the enormous expense of drilling a tunnel through it."

50 years ago today

1961: "Four Lehigh Valley Railroad employees were hurt when a fast freight eastbound from Buffalo, N.Y., rammed into the rear of a local freight train at Glendon. The four-unit diesel of the through train and three box cars and the caboose of the local were derailed. The caboose was demolished. All the injured were aboard the fast freight. The local freight was standing still at the time of the crash. Two members of the crew — George Rymond, conductor, and Eugene Jarvis, flagman — were about to swing up into the caboose when they saw the fast freight bearing down on them. They sprinted to safety. The local train was made up of a diesel switcher, four box cars and a caboose. It had just come from the Transogram Co. with a load of toys. The four-engine diesel road unit hauling the through train lay against a bank after the crash. The train of cars extended 1.3 miles west from the accident scene.

RochesterSubway.com : Today, August 25, in Rochester History ...

One of the deadliest accidents* in our area’s history took place exactly 100 years ago today. 29 people were killed and 62 injured when a Lehigh Valley Railroad train derailed about 20 miles east of Rochester. According to investigators at the time, it was a defective rail on a 400 foot bridge in Manchester, NY that shattered into seventeen pieces and sent at least 3 of the cars into Canandaigua Outlet. Newspaper reports described the scene as a “twisted and splintered mass of wreckage.”

“Train No. 4, east-bound, left Buffalo, N. Y. at 10:35 A. M., 40 minutes late. It consisted of twelve cars, and was hauled by engines Nos. 2476 and 1804. At Rochester Junction , a station 20 miles west of the point of accident, two additional cars were picked up, so that at the time of the accident there were fourteen cars in the train, in the following order: One express car, one mail car, one baggage car, four coaches, Pullman sleeper Austin , dining car, two coaches, parlor car Emelyn , and two coaches. “The two engines and the first five cars were not derailed. Grand Trunk coach No. 2187, the sixth car in the train, had one truck derailed, while all of the following cars were derailed. The Pullman sleeping car Austin was leaning over to the right; the dining car was down the embankment on its side, just east of the bridge; Lehigh Valley coach No. 237, the 10th car in the train, was resting on its side in the bed of the Outlet, 40 feet below; Lehigh Valley coach No. 293, the 11th car, was standing on one end in the bed of the Outlet, the rear end of it extending about 15 feet above the top of the bridge and resting against the corner of the parlor car Emelyn , which remained on the bridge. The majority of the fatalities were in coaches Nos. 237 and 293, both of which were of wooden construction.”

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