Report on the 1998 ARHS Convention in Bethlehem, PA

by Jeff Jordan, TrainNet Staff Member


The Anthracite Railroad Historical Society held its 1998 annual meeting in
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  This year's topic was the cement and steel industries
in the Lehigh Valley.

The convention began on Friday evening, October 23 with a series of video tapes
on the steel industry, including tapes showing historical footage on operations
in the Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem.  The process was remarkable for the
immense amount of work involved, requiring 100's of men and huge machinery. It
was also clear that the work was hot, dirty and difficult.  But it did pay
well.

Also on Friday night, the sales room was set up, with the ARHS's entire
inventory of books, magazines, video tapes, drawings, decals and modiels
available. In the adjacent room, the model contest display began and a local
modular railroad club set up a large HO scale modular layout based on the
Lehigh Valley Railroad. I also took this time to discuss a year's worth of
model railroad construction with friends I had not seen since last year's
convention in Newark.

On Saturday the convention began in earnest.  After breakfast and a short
business meeting, the first presentation began, with a thorough review of the
cement mills in the Lehigh Valley given by Dave Drinkhouse.  He showed a number
of slides, reproducing historical photos of many famous plants, including the
Atlas, Alpha and Whitehall plants.  He explained the history of the industry,
the production process and machinery and the interface with the railroads. 
Dave Augsburger then followed with a presentation on the railroad operations,
with many slides of the railroads serving the(R) cement plants, including the
Lehigh Valley, the Lackawanna, the Lehigh and New England and the small roads,
like the Northampton and Bath.  Then Jim Rowland presented slides on recent
Conrail operations on the "cement secondary," the remains of these roads now
operated by Conrail. Finally, Mike Bednar finished up with a discussion of
railroad operations around the area.

During the Saturday morning presentations, I was pleased to meet Frank
Peragine, a fellow member of the TrainNet. It's really fun to meet members
who you have only previously talked to online. We should all try to do it more
often!

A short auction was held of extra copies of collectible issues of Flags,
Diamonds and Statutes (the ARHS's magazine). Would you believe one copy went
for $25?

After lunch and a break to visit the sale room and to review and vote on the
model contest entries, the presentations resumed with a thorough presentation
by Bob Wilt on Bethlehem Steel operations. He displayed a tremendous
number of slides showing areas of the plant never visible to the public.  These
included many photos of operations on the plant's own railroad equipment and
the plant's associated railroad, the Philadelphia, Bethlehem and New England
(know to the plant's employees as the "poor brakeman and nearsighted
engineer"). These photos showed the many different locos and paint schemes
used by the PB&NE and also the various plant switchers (including remote
control units), the extensive narrow gauge operation in the plant and also the
unique 7 foot 8 inch gauge self propelled ore carriers. Lance Metz then talked
about the actual steel making operations and the current efforts to preserve
portions of the plant as a museum of steel making. 

The model contest included an interesting variety of equipment, including HO
models of the Reading Crusader steam locomotive and streamlined cars, a
heavy weight Erie Lackawanna business car, a Lehigh Valley "hammerhead" RS-3, a
pair of new EMD's (SD-70's?) painted for the Erie Lackawanna and a small
diorama (built by yours truly) of a Lehigh Valley doodlebug passing the
Lehighton, PA interlocking tower.

Saturday evening wrapped up with the convention dinner and two after-dinner
speakers, Philip O'Rourke, who served as the vice president of traffic
(marketing) for the Lehigh Valley Railroad from 1971 to 1976 and Donald Young,
who talked about his many years as an engineer (chemical, not railroad) at
Bethlehem Steel. In particular, he told a number of fascinating stories about
running the alloy melt shop, including instances of spotting railroad cars with
cranes (a no-no because of the risk of pulling the car off its trucks, as
he found out!) and adventures in lifting 450 tons of steel with cranes rated at
250 tons (yes, you read that right).

And, oh yes, door prizes were given out and prizes were awarded for the models.
Prizes went to the Reading Crusader, the hammerhead RS-3 and the Lehighton
tower (an easy win, since it was the only entry in the structure category!).

Sunday morning began early with a quick breakfast and then everyone being
equipped with hard hats and safety glasses as they boarded two yellow school
buses.  We toured the Hercules cement plant, which was in full operation, from
an overlook by the quarry to the top of the nine-story tall preheater tower
(now that was a view of the Lehigh Valley!).  After a lunch break, we
visited the Northampton cement museum (which contains over 900 artifacts from
the history of cement production in the Northampton area), LaFarge's Whitehall
cement plant and the LaFarge Whitehall limestone quarry, which is currently
over 450 feet deep.

With that, we returned to the motel to pack our souvenirs (including the hard
hats!), say goodbye to our friends (many of whom we visit just once a year at
this event) and headed home. I was sorry to see the convention end but was
happy to take home many pleasant memories of friendships renewed, new friends
made, more materials added to my collection of books and models and the secure
hope that this pleasant time would be recreated about a year from now at the
next ARHS convention (which may be held in Buffalo, New York).