No. 3 Plane
- The Ashley Planes lifted eastbound freight cars up
Blue Mountain to Penobscot (Mountain Top), PA, on a series of
three separate inclines. Passenger trains and westbound freight took the longer route
around the mountain on a loop of track known as the Back-Track.
No. 3 Plane was at the foot of the mountain and formed a wye connection with the Nanticoke Branch
on the south side of the CNJ mainline a short distance west of Main
Street grade crossing in the town of Ashley. In this view the proximity of No. 3
Plane's cable pit and counter weight rack to the Ashley Repair
Shops and engine terminal is evident. Visible in the background are the
chimney of the power house, the heavy erection shops, and the Ashley freight
house. The tower at the left controlled movement over the Nanticoke Branch
Wye onto the planes. - northwest view, Circa 1935 -
Central Railroad Company of New Jersey
No. 3 Plane
-
The east (left) and west (right) legs of the
Nanticoke Branch Wye converged below the Main Street overpass, which bears
the warning sign: NOTICE - LOCOMOTIVES MUST NOT PASS HERE. The track passing
underneath the sign is part of the Nanticoke Branch. The small shed
visible under the trestle is a footman's office (footmen worked at the foot of
each plane positioning cars over the truck pits) and the more distant
shed at the left, a latch house. The truck pits (one in each track) are on the
other side of the overpass. - southeast view, February 1947 -
Central Railroad Company of New Jersey
No. 3 Plane
- In this view taken from the No. 3 Plane truck pit area, a barney is
descending the plane back to the truck pit. It is about to enter the latches,
a series of rail guides that progressively narrow the adjustable gauge of the
barney to enable it to roll into the truck pit between the rails. The
overhead bridge in the distance carries a township road over the tracks.
- southeast view, Circa 1940 -
Central Railroad Company of New Jersey
No. 3 Plane
- This cut of four hopper cars has started up No. 3 Plane with a
worker riding to his job on the barney. The track on the right affords a good view
of the rollers that guide the heavy steel cable, as well as one of the safety
switches designed to derail a car traveling downhill (the barneys were able to
travel over the derails unimpeded due to their outside flanged wheels).
- circa 1930 - authors' collection, photographer unknown
No. 3 Plane
- A plane's power plant consisted of a boiler room and an engine house at the
head of each plane. The power plants utilized a bank of four boilers to supply
steam to a vertical, stationary, marine-type, reciprocating engine - which in
turn drove two huge winding drums at each plant. The tracks in this view running
between No. 3 boiler room (right) and engine house are the run-off from
the head of No. 3 Plane to the foot of No. 2 Plane. Run-off
sections were graded to permit the gravity operation of cars and eventually
converged into one track at the foot of each plane to expedite the flow of
traffic onto either track of the succeeding plane. - northwest
view, Circa 1935 - Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission
No. 2 Plane
- CNJ No. 60422, a World War I 55-ton hopper car design of the United
States Railway Administration, has coasted around the bend down the short
grade from the head of No. 3 Plane and now rests over the truck pit at
the foot of No. 2 Plane.
- circa 1930 - authors' collection, photographer unknown
No. 2 Plane
- In this scene looking down No. 2 Plane to its foot, the barney on the
north track has almost completed its descent from the plane's head and is about
to enter the latches where the gauge of its wheels will be narrowed
enabling it to enter the truck pit and roll under and behind the positioned cars. The
bridge marker at the right, No. 1/50, identifies a public road overpass.
Also visible at the right, strung along the row of short white poles, is an
emergency cord that runs the length of the plane and can be pulled in much the
same manner as the emergency cord on a train to shut down the plane. The No.
2 Plane was the newest plane, having been realigned during 1865-1867 from
the gradient of the old No. 2 Plane whose head had been over 3,000-feet
away from the foot of No. 1 Plane necessitating the use of locomotion to
move cars between planes. The realigned No. 2 Plane had a grade
almost double the steepness of the other planes.
- circa 1930 - authors' collection, photographer unknown
No. 2 Plane
- This close-up view of a barney was made on its descent from the head of No. 2
Plane. It is CNJ design classified as a Type C. The heavy coil
springs are to cushion the impact of a barney butting up against a car. A
solitary Type B barney designed by Bethlehem Steel operated on No. 3
Plane. - Circa 1936, Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission
No. 2 Plane
- A barney shoves a cut of mixed freight cars up the incline of No. 2 Plane.
In the distance to the left of the tracks is the No. 2 Engine House.
- circa 1930 - authors' collection, photographer unknown
No. 2 Plane
- Sitting on top of the World! Well, leaning anyway. If there is a
railroad heaven, the view must look a bit like this view from the head of No.
2 Plane. The barney operation has been stopped with a UTLX tank car
literally hanging over the edge. The easement running across the mountain face
at the left of this photograph is Pennsylvania Route No. 309 winding its
way up the mountain. It will eventually cross over No. 1 Plane.
- northeast view, Circa 1930 - Central Railroad Company of New
Jersey
This view of a barney in the latches exemplifies how
the gauge of the wheels on the axle were narrowed. Notice that the outside
flanges of the barney wheels are inside the stock rails!
- circa 1930 - authors' collection, photographer unknown
No. 1 Plane
- The No. 1 Plane lifted cars to the top of the mountain. In this view
looking up from the foot of the plane, the concrete Pennsylvania Route No.
309 highway overpass can be seen crossing over the tracks.
- circa 1935 - authors' collection, photographer unknown
No. 1 Plane
- The descending barney in this view has met the ascending barney, which
indicates that the view is looking up No. 1 Plane from a point midway to its
head. Both barneys were attached to opposite sides of the same elongated loop of
cable. - southeast view, Circa 1925 - W. R. Osborne
No. 1 Plane
- Safety switches were designed to permit passage in the uphill
direction only. If a car inadvertently rolled backwards, its inside wheel
flanges would pick the safety switch and derail the car. Since the flanges
on barneys rode outside the railhead, the safety switches did not impede
their travel in either direction. The No. 1 Engine House is barley
visible at the head of the plane. - southeast view, Circa 1930
- Central Railroad Company of New Jersey
No. 1 Plane
- The head of the No. 1 Plane was near the CNJ Back-Track and the
LV Mountain Cut-Off. In this mist shrouded view taken at the summit, the
Back-Track is a barely discernible easement running along the mountainside at the
right.
- northeast view, Circa 1930 - Central Railroad Company of New
Jersey
No. 1 Plane
- No. 1 Engine House was at the head of No. 1 Plane on the top of
the mountain in Solomon's Gap, PA. The boiler house is out of view to the left.
From this point eastward cars coasted down a run-off track that paralleled a
section of the Back-Track through Solomon's Gap into Penobscot
Yard. - southeast view, Circa 1930 - Pennsylvania Historical &
Museum Commission
The CNJ checked the three gauges used on the
planes with this adjustable gauge car. A spit of paint would squirt out of the
pressurized container onto the rails when the car ran over an out-of-gauge
section of track.
- Circa 1930, Central Railroad Company of New Jersey