CNJ Union JCT to Gardners Switch Map

MP 176.15 A D&H freight train up from Wilkes-Barre, PA, passes their company's Hudson Station on its journey north. - northwest view, January 3, 1968 - A. W. Kovacs

Wilkes-Barre Connecting Railroad (Buttonwood - Hudson):

View 1 - P-Company No. 2336 has just completed delivery of a coal train to the D&H at Hudson via the Wilkes-Barre Connecting Railroad. - northwest view, December 1967 - A. W. Kovacs Views 2 & 3 - The PRR is delivering an interesting load to Hudson Yard over the Wilkes-Barre Connecting Railroad - Baldwin Locomotive Works and Vulcan industrial locomotives bound for Steamtown. The street under the plate girder bridge is Riverside Drive. - northeast view, September 1, 1966 - A. W. Kovacs View 4 - PRR No. 2336 heads a D&H bound interchange freight across the Susquehanna River on the Wilkes-Barre Connecting Railroad. The W-B Connecting crossed the mighty Susquehanna River twice - once in North Wilkes-Barre and a second time at South Wilkes-Barre.- northwest view, December 1967 - A. W. Kovacs  View 5 - D&H No. 607 is about to depart the PRR at Buttonwood Yard after delivering a train of interchange freight. The locomotive will avoid the run through downtown Wilkes-Barre, mostly on LV trackage rights, by returning to Hudson over the Wilkes-Barre Connecting Railroad. The United States Air Force Simulator Train sits on the PRR outbound track to the right. - northwest view, November 26, 1967 - A. W. Kovacs  View 6 - D&H No. 609, returning to Hudson light with several other locomotives, passes their company interchange yard with the PRR at Buttonwood, PA. The company sign at the right informs: DELAWARE & HUDSON COMPANY - NOTICE - This is not a public crossing. All persons are forbidden to trespass upon or cross railroad lands at this place under penalty of the Law. - southwest view, August 17, 1967 - A. W. Kovacs

The PRR in Buttonwood:

View 1 - This old wooden icing platform was still extant at Buttonwood Yard in 1966, hinting at a simpler era of 36' and 40' ice-bunker refrigerator cars. - June 21, 1966 - A. W. Kovacs  View 2 - Speaking of simple, the TOFC (trailer on freight car) ramp at Buttonwood Yard was as simple and ancient a design as man ever invented - a railroad tie inclined ramp backfilled with dirt! - June 21, 1966 - A. W. Kovacs  Views 3 & 4 - The locomotive sanding facility consisted of a an old shed converted to a sand house to store dry sand with pneumatic sander apparatus mounted high on a wooden pole to deliver it to the locomotives. - December 1967 & May 26, 1966 - A. W. Kovacs  View 5 - This old wooden box car at the west end of the yard, long out of revenue service, served the PRR in work train service and, finally, as a maintenance shed. - June 21, 1966 - A. W. Kovacs  View 6 - This overall view taken from the west end of Buttonwood hints at the layout of the yard. Although PRR tracks fill much of this scene with the main yard out of view to the left, tracks of the D&H's Wilkes-Barre Connecting Railroad, as well as the connection to the CNJ's Buttonwood Branch join the PRR near the small, single story, interlocking tower at the center. The PRR line into downtown Wilkes-Barre is to the left of the locomotives, which are parked on the connection to the CNJ. - northeast view, February 18, 1967 - A. W. Kovacs  View 7 - Another perspective from the west end of Buttonwood Yard reveals the classification tracks at the left of the train, which is about to depart for Enola, PA. - northward view, October 23, 1967 - A. W. Kovacs  View 8 - Buttonwood Interlocking regulated movements into Buttonwood Yard and to and from the D&H and CNJ (visible running behind the tower) - northward view, October 23, 1967 - A. W. Kovacs  View 9 - The PRR, two-story, yard office at Buttonwood was on the south side of the railroad near the point where the connecting track to the CNJ Buttonwood Branch and interchange yard diverted eastward. - northeast view, July 7, 1967 - A. W. Kovacs 

PRR Buttonwood Yard Map

View 10 - Buttonwood Interlocking Tower was modest by any railroad's standards, let alone for the mighty Standard Railroad of the World. PRR No. 90432, which appears to be a farm tractor, is parked behind the tower. - February 19, 1969 - A. W. Kovacs  View 11 - The PRR Buttonwood crew shuttle, No M-1019, was a small school bus body mounted on an International truck chassis. - April 13, 1966 - A. W. Kovacs  View 13 - By the early 1960s it had become apparent that US railroads were no longer on the cutting edge of transportation technology. This wheeled apparatus, which the photographer identifies as being used in locomotive servicing, bespeaks a much earlier industrial technology.  - July 21, 1966 - A. W. Kovacs  Views 13 & 14 - The United States Air Force Flight Simulator Train consisted of three converted railroad cars, which - in these two views - are being spotted on the outbound track. - northward view, November 26, 1967 - A. W. Kovacs  View 15 - CNJ No. 2512 has entered onto PRR rails off the CNJ's Buttonwood Branch. The crew is performing a reverse move past the PRR's Buttonwood Interlocking Tower into Buttonwood Yard to couple onto a cut of interchange cars destined for shipment on or over the CNJ. - northeast view, March 1968 - A. W. Kovacs 

MP 175.57 The CNJ's Canal Branch to Plains Junction left the mainline a short distance eastward of Miners Mills, PA. - southward view, April 16, 1966 - Charles Houser

Canal Branch MP 5.58 The Pennsylvania Coal Co. No. 14 Breaker was situated at Plains Junction, the point of connection between the CNJ's Canal Branch and the ERIE/NYS&W Wilkes-Barre & Eastern Railroad. No. 14 Breaker was later renamed Pittston No. 14 when acquired by the Jermyn-Green Coal Co.

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