[PRCo] Re: Pennsylvania Turnpike

[Jerry MATT Matsick]

An early (1950s) Turnpike "Memory" for me was the great Turnpike Rest Stops, I believe they were run by the Turnpike Authority and by today's standards they were fantastic, they were clean, efficient and you looked forward to stopping for Rest!   Today the rest stops sure have gone to the dogs as the last time Mark M and myself were up to visit PTM  in 2005 I was amazed at the poor condition.!
--
From: Jerry "Matt" Matsick "PHD" 
Living without trust in God is like driving in 
the fog.
-------------- Original message from Schneider Fred <fwschneider at comcast.net>: -------------- 


> There are two bores that are still very easy to see. 
> 
> Several miles west of Somerset ... Quemahoming Tunnel is right on the 
> north side of the present highway ... you can spit into it from a 
> passing car but it is slightly lower than the highway and most people 
> would not recognize it. This is the only one that was actually used 
> as a completed railroad tunnel ... it was the line from Somerset to 
> Ligonier that fell into the control of the B&O which is probably how 
> it came to be that the whole Vanderbilt South Penn Railway project 
> was in B&O hands when sold to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission 
> circa 1937. 
> 
> Allegheny Mountain tunnel was realigned. The west end is on the 
> railroad alignment. The east end railroad tunnel is slightly above 
> and to the north of the highway tunnel. If you park your car at the 
> east end of the tunnel and walk up the dirt road to the ventilating 
> shaft (or even drive up), the original tunnel is just to right. 
> 
> Negro Mountain tunnel (just west of the state police barracks, west 
> of Somerset) is actually under the turnpike. They may have caved it 
> in. I don't know for sure. The railroad crossed the highway 
> alignment at about a 15 to 20 degree angle here and about 15 to 20 
> feet lower than the highway cut. You can see the tree line trending 
> slightly northwest of the roadway east of Negro Mountain cut, and 
> slightly southwest on the east side of the cut .... that's the 
> railroad right of way. 
> 
> Chick Siebert, the chap who built those beautiful O-gauge models and 
> wrote the Valley Railways and Northwestern Pennsylvania Railway 
> books, went into some of those tunnels in the middle to late 1930s 
> with a young friend of his. He had or has negatives of them ... not 
> sure if they wound up at Arden with some of his other negatives or 
> where they went. 
> But I've seen his views of Blue Mountain and Kittatinny before the 
> PTC began to expand it for the highway. 
> 
> 
> On Feb 19, 2009, at 11:49 AM, Dennis Fred Cramer wrote: 
> 
> > My dad also used the turnpike before it was finished and opened to the 
> > public. It was the most convenient way to get from Fort Indiantown 
> > Gap and 
> > little Washington when he was in the Army. 
> > 
> > he also claims to have seen some of the original bores in Somerset 
> > County 
> > when he was in the CCC during the 30's as a teenager. 
> > Dennis F. Cramer 
> > Trombone 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
>