Lehigh Valley Coal Company 123: Pioneer Tunnel Photo Charter

The Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine & Steam Train is a 3/4-mile long 42 inch narrow gauge railroad that operates in Ashland, Pennsylvania. Powering trips along the line is Lehigh Valley Coal Company 123, a 1927 Vulcan-built 0-4-0T, also known as the Henry Clay. For many years, the locomotive wore a vibrant scheme with the name Henry Clay being a prominent feature. In early 2024, the railroad announced the locomotive would be repainted into its original livery. Shortly after, MPT Photography and Dak Dillon Photography announced a small evening photo charter featuring the 123 in its new paint scheme.
For the event, the 123 pulled its typical excursion consist and performed numerous photo runbys along the line, allowing for photographers and videographers to capture to locomotive in its new appearance. This event marked the first time any photo charter operated at the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine & Steam Train since its founding in 1962. So sit back, relax, and enjoy 123 performing photo runbys for the first time in its 97 years of existence.
A special thanks goes out to the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine & Steam Train for allowing this historic event to take place along with the participants who signed up for the event.
This video was filmed on Friday, May 10, 2024.
Filmed & Edited by Mark Turkovich
This film may not be reproduced or redistributed in any manner.
©MPT Productions 2024

[@nathancorcoran5347]

Great video of 123.

[@MPT_Productions]

Thank you!

[@bengone3349]

The black and white shots were the best, especially those with back lighting, reminnesant of O Winston Link.

[@MPT_Productions]

Thank you! We wanted to try and make the night scenes as dramatic as possible. Glad you enjoyed.

[@JLIRailPro]

Very nice video Mark!

[@MPT_Productions]

Thank you!

[@TrainChamber]

Cool stuff bro! Finally some decent coverage of this line is starting to come out lol

[@MPT_Productions]

Thanks, Joe! We are glad people are happy with the photos and videos they captured. You will have to consider joining us on the next one :)

[@rainpain3655]

I don't know why, but theres something so haunting and scary about these old trains. They look so intimidating 😂

[@overpoweredsteamproduction513]

They know you left them behind.

[@edlrailfanproductions3984]

They are! If the engineer and fireman don’t work as a team mostly (fireman) don’t do his job properly things could get very scary

[@brianhubbard7133]

Just stumbled across your channel by pure coincidence and have been utterly blown away by your quality of work. Not only do your videos look incredible, but they also SOUND incredible. In fact it sounds SO good that initially I thought you were doing sound design in post because there was just no way that the recordings captured on the day were that full body and clean, right? I can hear the rumble of the rails! But as I listened further, I realized that those were indeed the sounds captured on the day. Truly immaculate. I don't think I've heard another steam railroading channel that sounds this good. If you're open to sharing, I'm deeply curious what equipment you're using to capture these fantastic pictures and sounds.

[@MPT_Productions]

Thank you very much, Brian! I am thrilled to read such a thoughtful comment, and I am glad you enjoy the quality of content I produce. While I believe the video quality is very important, strong audio is what makes a video, and I try my hardest to make both as good as they can possibly be. Almost all of my audio is captured with a Zoom H8 recorder, and the camera I use is a Canon EOS R with a variety of lenses. Thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoy the rest of my channel!