Beaver Meadow
Railroad Blazed Trails for Coal
Hazleton Standard
Speaker, Friday, February 17, 1984
Contributed by John S.
Koehler, Collector and Historian, Weatherly, Pa.
Historians generally agree that Philip Ginder
was the first discoverer of anthracite at Summit Hill in 1791. His discovery
led to the formation of the first coal mining company, "The Lehigh Coal
and Navigation Company," which is still operating today.
After the discovery of coal by Ginder, there
arose many arguments in other sections of the anthracite fields as to who
discovered coal. Nathan Beach of Salem, Snyder County, Pa., discovered coal
deposits in Banks Township, Carbon County, in 1812. He found coal where the old
Lehigh Valley station once stood in the town of Leviston. (Leviston later
became Coleraine and today is known as Junedale.)
In 1813, Nathan Beach opened a quarry for
extracting coal. It was shipped to market by horse and wagon over the Lehigh
& Susquehanna Turnpike, a toll road built in 1804, from Mauch Chunk to
Berwick, Route 93.
To the east, the coal was hauled to
"Landing Tavern" in the once small town of Lausanne, named after a
province in Switzerland, which was a regular stop on the turnpike at the
junction of the Nesquehoning Creek and the Lehigh River. No sign of this
community remains.
The coal was transferred to "arks," or
canal boats, and shipped to Philadelphia where it was sold for $8 per ton. To
the west, the coal was hauled by wagons to Berwick and Bloomsburg for use in
the blacksmith shops. In 1829, Nathan Beach had to give proof of title to his
coal lands. He won his suit in court and later sold 500 acres to Judge Joseph
Barnes of Philadelphia in 1830.
With the increased demand for coal, a faster way
of transporting the coal to market had to be found.
On April 7, 1830, the Beaver Meadows Railroad
& Coal Company was chartered to build a railroad from the mines near Beaver
Meadows to the Lehigh River and then along the river to Parryville. Soon after
the company was organized, it purchased 200 acres of land located where the
first coal deposits were discovered.
These workings became known as the Beaver
Meadows mines. Officers of the new company were Samuel D. Ingham, president;
John Ecky, secretary; Morris Hall, treasurer; Canvas White, chief engineer;
Ario Pardee, assistant engineer; Hopkin Thomas, master mechanic. (Note by J.
McVey: Hopkin Thomas did not join the firm until after the Garrett &
Eastwick engines were delivered in 1836.)
Many difficulties held up the start of
construction, mainly the firm's own lack of confidence in the feasibility of
the undertaking. However, in 1833, construction was begun under the supervision
of White, the engineer in building the Lehigh Canal and Erie Railroad, and Ario
Pardee, who surveyed the route along Beaver, Hazle and Quakake Creeks to the
Lehigh River at Penn Haven and along the river to Parryville.
Trouble with rival
railroad
While the road was being graded, trouble arose
with the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company in regard to the location of the
roadbed.
With neither side giving in, Ingham of the BMRR
& Coal Co. and J. White of the LC & N Company went to the point of
arming their men with muskets and, at one time, feared a pitched battle would
develop between the two companies. However, the matter was settled peacefully
and the location of the roadbed was changed at a cost of thousands of dollars
to the BMRR & Coal Co.
Hardly had they solved one problem, when more
problems arose again with the LC & N Company concerning toll charges on the
canal which led to the determination on the part of those building the railroad
to push the line on to Easton and the Delaware Canal.The tracks were laid as
far as Parryville when an agreement was finally reached and Parryville became
the shipping point for the BMRR & Coal Co.
Ario Pardee became the first superintendent of
the company after completion of the railroad in 1836 and remained until 1838
when he resigned and organized the firm of Pardee, Miner and Hunt, later called
A. Pardee & Son, which began mining coal in Hazleton.
The Beaver Meadows Railroad built the first
locomotive shops in 1836 in the "pond" section of Beaver Meadows.
A car building shop had been built late in 1835 and
Philip Hoffecker was hired to help build coal cars under the supervision of
Joseph Barker. Hoffecker was also trained to fit wheel and axles to the coal
cars. When Joseph Barker left the company, he was succeeded by Jonathan Moore
who built a foundry for the shops.
The first coal was hauled by wagons from
Leviston to the railroad at Beaver Meadows. From the new shops, the railroad
was built along the south side of the present main street in Beaver Meadows,
crossing Route 93 entering the community from the south. It followed the course
of Beaver Creek through the valley to about halfway to Weatherly, where it
continued along the side of the mountain while Beaver Creek cut through the
ravine to empty in to Hazle Creek at Hazle Creek Junction.
Planes needed on
hills
At the top of the hill above Weatherly, the
railroad had to build a series of railroad planes to get the railroad down into
Weatherly. The first plane was built from the top of the hill down to a point
near the Hillside Garage and the second plane began a few hundred feet east of
the first plane down to the site of the Wagner Electric plant. The length of
the planes was 220 feet and they rose in height one foot every 11.20 feet. They
were self-acting gravity planes, built by men like John Lomison and Joseph
Buck. Buck built his home between two planes and it is still standing.
After the planes were finished, Joseph Buck was
put in charge of the upper plane and David Petry had the lower plane. They
managed these planes with great care and economy. Joseph Buck had the honor of
running the first coal train down the planes.
The present highway into Weatherly was built on
this old railroad grade and is called Plane Street. At the bottom of the hill,
or plane, the railroad paralleled Hazle Creek on the west side, continuing
along the creek and crossing to the east side slightly above the present
Weatherly Steel Co. office. Here, the old grade of the BMRR is still being used
by Conrail to Penn Haven and Mauch Chunk. The railroad was laid with wooden rails
and ties were notched for the rails to slip in. The inside of the notch was
beveled to drive in a wedge to keep the rails in place.
Later, straps of iron were installed over the
wooden rails. Iron straps were spiked to the rails. Where there were soft
places in the wooden rails, the weight of a locomotive passing over these
places, would press the iron into the wood. Where there were hard places such
as knots, bumps wold result, causing resistance to the pressure which would
make the engine and cars bob up and down. The strap iron used ranged in size
from one‑half inch thick to two inches wide on the rails above the planes
while it was 2-1/4 inches by five-eighths of an inch below the planes.
The Route of the Beaver
Meadow R. R. Courtesy of J. S. Koehler
BMRR was finally opened for transportation of
coal in the fall of 1836. Their first two locomotives, S.D. Ingham and Elias
Fly, were built by Garrett and Eastwick of Philadelphia in 1836 and delivered to
the BMRR Co. at Parryville in October, 1836.
The BMRR Co. was the first railroad to use steam
for motive power in Carbon County, then part of Northampton County. The two
engines made a test run to Weatherly from Parryville, where they were to await
the first shipment of coal from the mines.
On Saturday, Nov. 5, 1836, two trains of 16,
three-ton coal cars were hauled by mules from the mines to the head of the
planes and lowered down the planes by mules to the waiting engines which would
make the first coal hauling test run to Parryville. On Monday morning, Nov. 7,
1836, after everything was ready and the engines had a full head of steam, they
glided down grade from Weatherly to Penn Haven. Everything had gone smoothly
until below Lehighton, when Eastwicks' engine (Eastwick was a member of the
engine builders Garrett and Eastwick) ran low on water in the boiler, causing
the tubes to burn out.
Eastwick's engine being the lead engine, Hopkin
Thomas's engine had to push him to Parryville. Eastwick and Thomas were
engineers in charge of the trains that made test runs on Saturday and remained
for the coal hauling test runs to Parryville.
The S.D. Ingham was put in the shops for a few months
for repairs and then later assigned to run from the top of the planes to Beaver
Meadows. Following the test run of the first coal train, two more engines were
delivered to the BMRR Co. the Quakake in April 1837 and the Beaver in August
1837. Both were built by Garrett and Eastwick.
First four-wheeled
engine
The Beaver was thought to be the first
four-wheeled engine built in Pennsylvania. According to a U.S. report for 1838,
the Beaver was a 26-horse-powered locomotive, while the first three engines
were only 18 horsepower.
In the BMRR shops at Beaver Meadows in 1837-38,
Hopkin Thomas built a new, six-wheeled locomotive named the Nonpareil. Later,
through one of Thomas's inventions, anthracite was made available as fuel for
use in locomotives. He also invented and successfully used the chilled cast
iron car wheel.
For the first year ending 1837, the BMRR Co.
shipped to the Lehigh Canal at Parryville, a total of 31,500 tons of
anthracite; for the year 1838, 44,44 tons.
With the arrival of the new engines, the crews
faced many ordeals that today's crews will never see. One of the early train
crews on the Elias Fly, engineer Bill Gordon, fireman Fred Rustee, brakemen
Jacob Derr, John Edwards and Alfred Longshore, were required to make two trips
a day to Parryville. A day began at 4 a.m., requiring two hours to get steam up
in their locomotive. A run down grade to Parryville from Weatherly was fairly
easy, but the return trip often proved too much for the engine to handle the 16
empty coal cars. They often had to stop to get up steam.
The engine burned wood and water was often drawn
from the Lehigh River when the boilers went dry. When the engine would stop,
the draft was shut off and the fire would die out.
The crew would have to climb around the mountainside
looking for wood and pine knots to kindle a new fire. Often sudden storms would
strike with such force that they would almost be blinded by the rain and hail.
When the storms would be too severe, they would crawl under cliffs and rocks
along the tracks. During the winter storms, the crew would tie two husk brooms
to the frame of the engine to clear the tracks of snow.
Another thing they had to contend with were the
hot showers of sparks from the engine. The burning wood made so many sparks at
night that they fairly lit up the sky and many of these sparks landed on their
clothes which literally burned them up. Thus, the BMRR Co. was the first
railroad to design and use a caboose for the protection of its crews. Later,
Superintendent Longstreth had cabs built on the engines to protect the fireman
and engineer. In consideration for the long shift, sometimes lasting 16 to 18
hours, they received as daily wages: engineers, $2; fireman, $1.50; and
brakeman, $1 per day.
In 1839, Ingham and Weatherell, who owned land
in Weatherly from the foot of the railroad plane along the west side of the
creek, encouraged the BMRR to buy the land as it had proved very difficult to
get the engines up the planes to the shops in Beaver Meadows for repairs. Also,
if they located their shops in Weatherly, they could be operated much cheaper
by waterpower instead of steam.
Early in the summer of 1839, the company moved
the shops to Weatherly, located on the present site of a supermarket and
garage, and they were operated by waterpower. However, the operation of the
shops by waterpower proved a costly failure and they converted back to steam
power. At the close of 1839, the railroad now had five locomotives in use and
they had hauled to market 38,595 tons; for 1840, 43,707 tons.
A terrible storm in January 1841 washed away all
the bridges from Weatherly to Parryville and almost all of the railroad from
Mauch Chunk to Parryville. The company never rebuilt the washed‑out road
from Mauch Chunk to Parryville and it was abandoned. They erected new shipping
facilities for the shipment of coal at Mauch Chunk. All the bridges had to be
rebuilt, especially the very important spans across the Lehigh River at Glen
Onoko, then called Turnhole.
A. H. Van Cleve, superintendent, was in charge of
rebuilding the railroad and soon had the line open for business in August 1841.
A report submitted by the BMRR Co. said the amount of coal shipped by it to the
Lehigh Canal were as follows: 1841: 26,232 tons (flood year); 1842: 45,423;
1843: 54,729; 1844: 70,379 and 1845: 70,659 tons.
In 1849, the company decided to replace the
light wooden rails with flat iron bars fastened with t-rails. The work was done
during the winter of 1849 and completed by the spring of 1850.
Another flash flood in September 1850 hit the
region, carrying away again all the bridges along the Black and Quakake creeks.
The flood also destroyed the shops at Weatherly along with most of the railroad
to Penn Haven. This section of track was double track, one iron and one wooden.
Repairs were made immediately to bridges and rails so they could be ready for
the shipment in the spring of 1851.
This is one of the shops
of the Beaver Meadows Railroad at Weatherly at about 1855.
Photo of the Weatherly
Roundhouse from J. KoehlerÕs collection. The
roundhouse foundation stones can still be found (1997).
Click to enlarge this map of the BMRR
Weatherly shops layout. Source: J.
KoehlerÕs photo collection.
BMRR right-of-way
purchased
The Lehigh Valley Railroad board of directors
authorized in August 1852 the purchase of the abandoned right‑of‑way
of the BMRR Co. from Mauch Chunk to Parryville for the sum of $10,000 but due
to delays in agreement, the final price came to $17,000 plus interest.
The BMRR Co. decided to abandon the incline
planes at Weatherly in 1854. The company purchased one and three‑quarters
of a mile of right-of-way from the Hazleton Coal Co. Railroad from Hazle Creek
Junction to Weatherly along the Black Creek. This line was formerly used by the
Hazleton Railroad but abandoned after the floods for a new, high level line
from Hazle Creek to Penn Haven. The BMRR rebuilt the old Hazleton grade that
became known as the Weatherly Hill. From Hazle Creek Junction in 1854, the BMRR
graded one and a half miles of new track, which paralleled Beaver Creek to
reach their railroad grade to the railroad planes. The new track was laid in
the spring of 1855 and, on Aug. 14, 1855, the Weatherly railroad planes were
officially abandoned. After the planes were abandoned, the company moved their
shops to the east side of the creek where the present Steel Company now uses
these buildings. Steel Company purchased these buildings from the Lehigh Valley
Railroad on Feb. 10, 1913, for $10,000.
A second track was laid from Mauch Chunk to Penn
Haven in July and August 1857, causing abandonment of the old Glen Onoko bridge
with its two very sharp curves. A new, double track iron bridge was built and
replaced the old structure.
Philip Hoffecker succeeded Hopkin Thomas as
master mechanic in 1852. Under his supervision, many fine engines were built in
the Weatherly shops; 82 in all. (Note by J. McVey It is almost certain that
Hopkin Thomas had left the BMRR several years prior to 1852)
Men like Daniel Rouse, who was employed n the
machine shop in 1849, built the frame of the engine Phoenix out of wood. In
1854, he built a new, five‑ton coal car and invented the cast iron brake
shoes for the coal cars. John Bloomingdale, employed on the planes in 1845,
became the night shift watchman over engines before they had roundhouses. On
July 8, 1864, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Co. assumed control of the Beaver
Meadows Railroad and, thus, this interesting little railroad became a part of
this important coal carrier.
It became known as the Beaver Meadows Branch of
the LVRR. Over the years, all of the original BMRR has been torn up, except the
piece from Hazle Creek Junction to Mauch Chunk that Conrail still operates.
This remaining piece of track is one of the oldest pieces left in the United
States.
The roster of locomotives built for the BMRR Co.
is as follows:
Built by Garrett and Eastwick: Samuel D. Ingham,
1836; Elias Ely, 1836; Hercules, 1837; Quakake, April 1837; Beaver, August 1837.
Built by Niles Locomotive Co.: Defiance, 1855;
Champion, 1855.
Built by Weatherly Locomotive Shops: North Star,
June 1854; Baltic, August 1856.
Built by Beaver Meadows Locomotive Shops:
Nonpareil, 1837.
Built by Baldwin
Locomotive Shops: Amazon, June 25, 1855; Orinoco, Aug. 22, 1855; Colorado, May
5, 1856; Alps, March 24, 1857; Messenger, Dec. 31, 1862; Meteor, Feb. 28, 1863;
Neptune, July 30, 1864; Algonquin, March 10, 1865; James M. Porter, July 30,
1855; La Plata, April 30, 1856; Paraguay, June 7, 1856; Atlas, March 30, 1857;
Mercury, Jan. 15, 1863; Vulcan, July 9, 1864; Tuscarora, Feb. 6, 1865.
Visit to the
Weatherly Shop Location – October 1997
In front of the remains
of the LVRRÕs Weatherly Shop remains are (l. to r.) Ruth McVey, A. Newton Bugbee,
Jr., John McVey and Jack Koehler. The date above the doorway is 1873. This was
the year that the LVRR built the caboose shop at Weatherly – this may be
that building.
The original shop
buildings were erected in 1839-40. These buildings are believed to have housed
the machine shop and iron foundry.
The LVRR shops employed
up to 1000 men who built 80 locomotives and repaired thousands more. The shops
were closed in 1910. The property was purchased by Weatherly business men who
operated the Weatherly Steel Co. from 1913 to 1989.
Return to the Beaver
Meadow R.R. Formation Page
About The Hopkin Thomas Project
Rev. October, 2010.