SHENANDOAH - More than 25 people attended a presentation Tuesday on railroad history in the coal region, and Shenandoah in particular, at the Greater Shenandoah Area Historical Society headquarters.
The Rev. Philip K. Smith, pastor of Mount Zion Lutheran Church, Zion Grove, and Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Nuremberg, is a railroad and train aficionado, and he spoke for almost an hour about railroad companies, trains and anything else that dealt with transporting coal, passengers and other commodities by rail.
Anthracite coal mining operations needed a way to get their product to their customers, and railroads became the most economical and fastest way to get the coal region's "black diamonds" to customers.
With anthracite coal mining dominating the economy in Shenandoah in the late 1800s and 1900s, the borough became a hub for railroad companies.
In May, the historical society hosted Bruce Wesner, Wayne Township, who spoke on railroad history in Schuylkill County from 1825 to 1900. Smith focused on history after 1900s.
Shenandoah's first colliery began operations in 1862. It was two years later that the first rail shipments of coal began in 1864, two years before Shenandoah was incorporated as a borough. Meat packing and textile factories were also major industries that needed rail service.
"Bruce Wesner said last time that it is easier to tell where the railroads in Schuylkill County weren't than where they were," Smith said. "The Reading and Lehigh Valley railroads were always friendly competitors. So how did the Pennsylvania Railroad get up here?"
Smith said the Reading Railroad president's antagonism with the Pennsylvania Railroad was a major reason the PR's entrance into the region.
"That (Pennsylvania Railroad) came up here thanks to the colorful and controversial Reading president, Franklin B. Gowen," Smith said. "When he became a railroad manager, he was out of his element and got the Reading into a ruinous debt. In fact, two of the company's bankruptcies are attributed to him. So the 'Pennsy' out of sheer spite started to invade his territory with a line from Philadelphia at the Broad Street Station, to Reading, and when that didn't work, they went to Pottsville and kept going up through here in Shenandoah and all the way up to Wilkes-Barre."
Smith said Shenandoah had a major distinction in the railroad industry. Depots were located in the borough by the Reading, Lehigh Valley and Pennsylvania railroads, making it the only town in Pennsylvania with depots for three major rail companies.
Of the three train stations, the Pennsylvania Railroad's building is the only one that remains.
Joseph Anczarski, owner of Mark's Supply Co., Shenandoah, purchased the former freight station, located at the south end of Shenandoah near the Gold Star Bridge, in 1963 as a warehouse. The station was constructed in 1910. Anczarski recently conducted a facade improvement project to restore the exterior of the historic building, which is used as a warehouse.
There were three railroads coming into Shenandoah in the area near the station. The Reading Railroad lines were located under the nearby bridge, the Pennsylvania Railroad line came to the station and the Lehigh Valley Railroad came into town just north of the station.
Smith's presentation provided an overview on how materials were moved from place to place in the early years, first by horses only, then teams of horses and mules hitched to wagons, and later hitched to canal boats. Those ways of shipping had limitations, which led to the development of railroad systems and many companies.