This is alongside the Central RR of New Jersey main line, the CNJ Bethlehem station is immediately behind the photographer. CNJ's JU tower is visible in the background.
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A lot of LNE equipment was stored in Bethlehem (note spelling) after the shut down. The steel cabooses were purchased by Nelson Blount but not all made it to Steamtown. They are no scattered around the northeast along with a surprising number of wooden LNE hacks.
The LNE owners did not get out of the railroad biz due to the issues with coal. The book "Death of a Great Company" goes into detail on how junk trading and other issues ruined the LNE's value almost overnight.
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I read Julian Parton's book and that was not the message I heard. Yes, the LC&N stock was severely undervalued, and investors bought enough of it to warrant representation on the board. President White was delusional in his belief that the anthracite market was not trending downward, and when it was extremely clear that oil and gas were killing anthracite in home heating, and that the ICC was giving trcuks inroads to cement, powerful voices on the board made the move toward liquidation before the value of the assets eroded any further. What sections of the L&NE would have been included in Conrail that were not sold to CNJ? Did they not spare themselves from the conveyance chaos that was a decade ahead?
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