I worked as a locomotive fireman up to the mines in Oxford on the Pberger 79-66 out of Port Morris on the DL&W in the middle 1950s. We used to go up to the mines on a 3 mile branch and quite a grade it was to get the loads for Conshaocken, Pa and bring up mtys. We would use retainers on the down trip to control the brakes. Our power was usually 2 F7 and 2 Fairbanks Morse H15-44, sometimes RS3s. we would take the loads back to Washington and down to Pberg. My career was on the DL&W and The EL as a locomotive engineer and a Road Foreman of Engines working in Hoboken then on to the CRRof NJ as the General Road Foreman Of Engines up to Conrail... I am 89 now. this video was Fabolous I do have some B&W photos of the Engineers THE IRON MAJOR, WARREN LEWIS i worked with on this run ...
Interesting. I did try to trace the tracks on google maps while making this video and they went through some pretty rough terrain. Also, how were the Fairbanks Morse engines, I know that they were quire rare? I was able to visit Pberg a while back and from what I gather there was a major railroad junction there. I am planning on making a video with the footage I took while I was there. You should post your photos or put them in an archive. A lot of people would be very interested in them.
Furnace 1 (older) was blown out in 1884. Furnace 2 was built in 1871 about 2 blocks from the original. It was rebuilt in 1910 and used at full capacity during World War I. In 1921, it was blown out and dismantled in 1927.
Those concrete walls may have been supports for rail beds because oxford had railroads allover the town back in the day,if you want check out behind the welcoming sign before you get to the hill there are rail beds,they have a u shape to them and you should look up pequest viaduct,that was a rail bed and the tracks are still there on the bridge under route 31 to 46
Another viewer told me that most of this was related to the iron works and foundry in Oxford however there probably were railroads all over the place to service the mines and the foundry. I have been to the pequest viaduct and I even did a video on the Lehigh and Hudson railroad bridge beneath it. At some point I would like to do a video on the viaduct itself, but I haven't had the time.
Towards the end of the video you show where you were walking. If you kept going away from 31 you would crossed washington Ave and found more ruins including parts of furnace #2 which now is behind(and likely gone) the county road works in oxford. But that line used to go all the way around oxford and actually behind shipped manor
The vertical stonework that is shown at the beginning of the video appears to be a bridge abutment and the stone bases below and to the south look like bases for a railroad trestle. It could be that the railroad spanned the valley there on a long trestle bridge and that work on Route 31 or upgrading the road or even building the tunnel erased the south abutment of the bridge. The smaller masonry walls along the creek bed were probably built to keep the flooded creek from washing out under the trestle foundations and now have fallen over due to lack of regular maintenance.
Hiked this area a lot but never saw pictures from its heyday. I always thought it was for dumping mine cars with ore into railroad hoppers to go to Bethlehem Steel.
One of my other viewers actually identified it as a site used by the Empire Steel & Iron company for ore purification. There was a furnace operating in Oxford up until the 1920s and there were a number of iron mines up there as well.
Sir, I don't know how to contact you to give you a clear vision of what you are attempting to describe in this video. I grew up a block away in the 1950s and know exactly what everything is you are trying to explain and describe. It is nothing that you are describing.
I have tried three times to post what this site really represents. Each time my post is somehow deleted. I give up. Iif the OP can contact me some how I will explaine the site.
TH-cam is probably being difficult. You can email me if you would like (theroadbackhomeagain@gmail.com). I would be very interested to know what these ruins really were.
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I worked as a locomotive fireman up to the mines in Oxford on the Pberger 79-66 out of Port Morris on the DL&W in the middle 1950s. We used to go up to the mines on a 3 mile branch and quite a grade it was to get the loads for Conshaocken, Pa and bring up mtys. We would use retainers on the down trip to control the brakes. Our power was usually 2 F7 and 2 Fairbanks Morse H15-44, sometimes RS3s. we would take the loads back to Washington and down to Pberg. My career was on the DL&W and The EL as a locomotive engineer and a Road Foreman of Engines working in Hoboken then on to the CRRof NJ as the General Road Foreman Of Engines up to Conrail... I am 89 now. this video was Fabolous I do have some B&W photos of the Engineers THE IRON MAJOR, WARREN LEWIS i worked with on this run ...
Interesting. I did try to trace the tracks on google maps while making this video and they went through some pretty rough terrain. Also, how were the Fairbanks Morse engines, I know that they were quire rare? I was able to visit Pberg a while back and from what I gather there was a major railroad junction there. I am planning on making a video with the footage I took while I was there.
You should post your photos or put them in an archive. A lot of people would be very interested in them.
That is fabulous. So much good info. Thank you 🚂👋
@@samanthab1923 Thanks, I am glad that you like it.
This site was for Empire Steel & Iron set of 6 Ore Kilns. Used for roasting impurities out of the iron ore.
That makes sense. I head that Oxford Furnace was owned by Empire Steel for a while but I didn't make the connection. Thanks for clearing it up.
Furnace 1 (older) was blown out in 1884. Furnace 2 was built in 1871 about 2 blocks from the original. It was rebuilt in 1910 and used at full capacity during World War I. In 1921, it was blown out and dismantled in 1927.
That sounds about right. I did a separate video on the furnace itself if you are interested.
100% railroad im from the area seen many old pictures floating around of it you can go on historic Ariel’s too and see your self
I will keep an eye out for these old photos, I am really interested in what this place looked like when the tracks were active.
Those concrete walls may have been supports for rail beds because oxford had railroads allover the town back in the day,if you want check out behind the welcoming sign before you get to the hill there are rail beds,they have a u shape to them and you should look up pequest viaduct,that was a rail bed and the tracks are still there on the bridge under route 31 to 46
Another viewer told me that most of this was related to the iron works and foundry in Oxford however there probably were railroads all over the place to service the mines and the foundry. I have been to the pequest viaduct and I even did a video on the Lehigh and Hudson railroad bridge beneath it. At some point I would like to do a video on the viaduct itself, but I haven't had the time.
Towards the end of the video you show where you were walking. If you kept going away from 31 you would crossed washington Ave and found more ruins including parts of furnace #2 which now is behind(and likely gone) the county road works in oxford. But that line used to go all the way around oxford and actually behind shipped manor
I wish I had seen those ruins, they sound like they could be very interesting. I will try and look for them next time I am in Oxford.
Interesting. Hear Shippen Manor is really haunted too 👻
The vertical stonework that is shown at the beginning of the video appears to be a bridge abutment and the stone bases below and to the south look like bases for a railroad trestle. It could be that the railroad spanned the valley there on a long trestle bridge and that work on Route 31 or upgrading the road or even building the tunnel erased the south abutment of the bridge. The smaller masonry walls along the creek bed were probably built to keep the flooded creek from washing out under the trestle foundations and now have fallen over due to lack of regular maintenance.
That seems like a good explanation. I wish that I could find some old photographs of the region to see what it originally looked like.
Hiked this area a lot but never saw pictures from its heyday. I always thought it was for dumping mine cars with ore into railroad hoppers to go to Bethlehem Steel.
One of my other viewers actually identified it as a site used by the Empire Steel & Iron company for ore purification. There was a furnace operating in Oxford up until the 1920s and there were a number of iron mines up there as well.
Sir, I don't know how to contact you to give you a clear vision of what you are attempting to describe in this video. I grew up a block away in the 1950s and know exactly what everything is you are trying to explain and describe. It is nothing that you are describing.
I have period photos of this site showing the trestle and ore kilns, but don't know how to upload the photo.
I saw the photos you emailed me. It was really nice to see what the place originally looked like.
This was the ore kilm
I have tried three times to post what this site really represents. Each time my post is somehow deleted. I give up. Iif the OP can contact me some how I will explaine the site.
TH-cam is probably being difficult. You can email me if you would like (theroadbackhomeagain@gmail.com). I would be very interested to know what these ruins really were.
City Slickers are funny people
Interesting . But why spoil your story with metriq gibberish?
I usually try in include both Imperial and Metric but I guess I forgot to include Imperial in this video.