When this view was made of the "Low Grade," line looking south at Marietta in the 1920's, the Pennsy's passenger line that abutted Marietta's Front Street was similarly double-tracked.
Provenance
From box labeled Pennsylvania RR Main Line, Columbia Br., A & S Br.
From the vantage point of the top of Chickies Rock, a steam powered freight is caught headed southward over the "Low Grade". The lower end of Marietta is in the distance. Courtesy John D. Kendig, Manheim, Pa.
Provenance
From box labeled Pennsylvania RR Main Line, Columbia Br., A & S Br.
Taken in 1936, this view shows a columbia bound freight, a few minutes out of Marietta, about to enter the norht portal of the old Chickies Tunnel. In the background is man made Kerbaugh Lake created when the P. R. R., built the "Low Grade," freight line in 1906. the lake, since filled in, was namde for H. S. Kerbaugh, one of the contractors on the project.
Provenance
From box labeled Pennsylvania RR Main Line, Columbia Br., A & S Br.
Although known as Rowenna on today's PA Route 441, it was in the annals of the Pennsylvania Railroad known as "Shoch's Mills," just north of Marietta. This shows the rather simply constructed block station with its telegraphic call letters "SD" with its small passenger station immediately to the left with the rails of the Pennsy's river line to Middletown in the foreground wich saw regular passenger service up into the 1930's.
Eli Stoner was a railroader who lived at Shoch's Mills and dabbled in early photography which preserved much of the railroad history of the area. With the window shades drawn to block out the sun, Stoner using primitive flash photography caught the operator at Shoch's "SD" block station posed with his hand on the telegraph key. Photo, late Eli Stoner/John Denney Archives.
The Columbia Branch was still double tracked north of Columbia when this shot was taken of a Pennsy freight heading north towards Marietta thru the old Chickies Tunnel about 1930. Photo courtesy John D. Kendig, Manheim, Pa.
The famous trestle on the Reading's line into Chickies disappeared in 1930. This view shows the wrecking crew diamantling the structure as they work eastward toward Marietta Junction. Photo, late H. B. Baughey.
