By Bruce Bresee of Ulster, Pennsylvania
I have always been obsessed by trains, especially steam engines. I knew the times of day that the Black Diamond, both north and south bound, went through Ulster. The southbound passed at five after two. If 1 had a study hall that period, I kept my ears open—I could hear its whistle as it approached Ulster. I would sign out to go to the restroom and get down to the stair landing with its east windows in time to see it go hissing by. It didn’t have the heavy pounding of a freight engine, it used a smaller, quieter engine.
The westbound went through at 5:30 p.m., and there were several night trains that I never saw. To watch the Black Diamond was entertaining, especially to watch it pick up a mail bag and the same time, toss one out of the mail car! A post stood near the track, 200 yards from the crossing.
Railroad station at Ulster
The post was eleven feet tall, with two arms, six feet long and four feet apart, extended toward the rails. A leather mail bag, with a ring on each end of the bag, hooked on the end of the arms. As the train approached, a man in the baggage car would extend a hook that would seize the bag. At the same time, he would kick a bag out the door. It would go bounding along for 30 or 40 yards. It was only first-class mail.
Gum Watkins, the pool room operator, would manage the whole operation and lug the incoming bag to the Post Office, even with his artificial leg!
In the early 40’s, the Sheffields owned the Ulster creamery, which was actually a receiving station for milk from the area. Milk was put in a special railcar—none was yet shipped by truck. The car was on a spur siding right by the creamery. (A spur siding is a short branch track leading from the main track, and connected with it at one end only.)
At about noon, a local train would pick up milk from Wysox, Wylausing, and other towns before getting the Ulster car. The train was headed for Sayre to join other milk cars from up the line. By late afternoon, the milk was on its way to New York City, non-stop. The show was to watch the pickup at Ulster: going north, the engine disconnected from the railcars and crossed by switches into the southbound lane. The engine would then connect, headfirst, to the loaded milk car. The engine would retrace all the way back to its original northbound track, but the only thing was that the milk car was still fastened to the front of the engine!
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So the engine would reverse and while moving maybe 10 miles per hour, a train man on the milk car would unhook the car from the engine and apply a hand brake. The engine would head for a switch that would divert it to the east, off the main line, while the milk car coasted south. The milk car would join the front o f the line of railcars, then the engine would return to the northbound lane and lead the train on to Sayre. This process took at least two switch operators, an experienced engineer, and no more than 10 or 15 minutes time.
Sayre was one of three division points on the Lehigh Valley Railroad where engines were serviced. The roundhouse was where the cleaning took place - it was a giant wheel that would rotate. It held at least a dozen spokes—slots that would hold an engine and tender (a tender is a rail vehicle attached to a steam locomotive that contains coal and water). A neighbor, Paul Allen, worked in the roundhouse, and after an engine was cleaned, he would start a fire in the firebox and slowly the iron horse would come to life and would soon be back on the main line.
During the war, it was said that 8,000 men worked at the Sayre Repair shops. Several neighbors worked there as well as keeping up a small dairy. The Sayre shops covered many acres and they were known for railcar building and repair. There were also acres of tracks. Troop trains were a daily factor. The Samson Naval Base near Geneva in the Finger Lakes sent out a train load a day. The U.S. had a canteen by the Sayre station, and they served over 800,000 military! Several farms were purchased north of Horseheads, and a huge storage area for war material was established called “The Holding Point.” Train loads from there went through Ulster, headed for New York City or Philadelphia; some trains would only be carrying tanks or field rifles, all headed east.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, formerly the Northern Central, had passenger service through from Columbia Cross Roads early in the war. This branch stretched from Williamsport, Pennsylvania to Elmira, New York; then on to Sodus Point and Canandaigua. That railroad line was older than Lehigh Valley Railroad by decades and was a major north-south link in the Civil War.
The railroad was the means of bringing southern Civil War prisoners to the camp in Elmira. Once, a train bringing southern captured soldiers en route to Elmira was wrecked near Granville Summit with heavy loss of life. Thus, another book of horror, but also of human kindness—there are stories of Elmira citizens trying to help prisoners with food or any way to show that they cared. The railroad continued to operate coal trains to Sodus Point until 1967. In 1972 Hurricane Agnes washed out the line so badly it was abandoned.
Bruce Bresee, 92, with his granddaughter, Rose Jones in 2022.
