LwS S3, E5 - “Two, Too Many in Cove, Pennsylvania - July 24-25, 1951”
On the evening of July 24, 1951, John pulled his car into Cove, Pennsylvania; a small “don’t blink or you’ll miss it” town located north of Harrisburg, and right on the Pennsy Middle Division mainline between Duncannon and Marysville. John had visited both of those latter locations at various points in his railfan days, but he wanted to make a special stop in Cove because he hoped to record Pennsylvania steam and diesel engines pulling trains at full speed; something he might not have been able to capture if trains were pulling in or out of a station. Cove was John’s first stop on this three day road trip he made back in July of 1951.
Cove was and still is a fantastic place to watch trains. To this day, railfans visit Cove to catch trains of the Norfolk Southern on what is still a very busy main line. Back in John’s day, Cove was known as “Milepost 115” on Pennsy’s Middle Division. If Cove were to have anything that could be called a “claim to fame”, it would have be the fact there was an emergency water station located there… as you can see in the above photo. But with Cove located only 5 miles west of Pennsy’s Enola servicing facility, you have to wonder why the emergency water station was built in the first place.
Next to the water station were two water towers that fed the overhead spouts. Regardless of whether or not a railfan like John considered the emergency water station a ridiculous thing to have in Cove, it was nevertheless listed in the PRR Employee Timetable.
When John stopped in Cove in the early evening, he went to have a bite to eat in a local diner while the train activity outside made him very anxious to get recording. Within minutes of setting up his wire recorder, John realized that Cove was NOT a good spot to make recordings in at all. John had parked his car on Burley Road because it crossed the PRR tracks at grade, thus forcing any engine that approached the road to sound its whistle or horn for the grade crossing. However, John’s location put him directly between the railroad tracks and the very busy US Hwy 15, which had non-stop automobile and truck traffic that was often louder than the trains!
Why John did give up and move to another location is anyone’s guess. He stubbornly stuck it out at Cove thinking that if he continued to record into the very early hours of the morning, perhaps the traffic on US 15 would be a lot less. It wasn’t, as you’ll hear.
Out of John’s entire catalog of recorded material from 1948 to 1955, the Cove wire is one he absolutely hated. In fact, he thought the wire had been thrown in the trash at some point, or at the very least, recorded over. The evening where I pulled the wire out in order to listen to it with John while he and I shared bottomless pots of coffee is one I’ll never forget. John did everything he could to talk me out of playing it. This was one of the only times I saw John very upset to the point of being angry.
As you listen to the Cove recordings, formulate your own opinion on how they sound… especially after I’ve remastered them. Initially, they were very rough and almost unlistenable. Now… I think they rank up there as some of John’s best work because unbeknownst to him, he once again captured a piece of railroad history that no longer exists.
Enjoy!
The above image, courtesy of Google Earth, shows the layout of Cove along with the railroad tracks and roads. The area is very different from when John visited in 1951 as there are now more buildings on US Hwy 15. In 1951, the area may have been considered “more rural.”
Above are three additional images of Cove courtesy of Google Earth. The first image is zoomed out to where it shows Cove in relation to where Duncannon and Marysville are located.
Clicking on any of the thumbnails will open a larger image.
Above are four images courtesy of Google Earth showing Burley Road and Railroad Street. The first image shows the intersection of Burley and US Hwy 15. The second image from the left shows Burley Road at the railroad tracks looking east. The third image from the left shows Burley Road at the railroad tracks looking west. Regardless of which direction you look, the areas on either side of the tracks are much more overgrown with brush than back when John was there. Obviously, there’s no trace of the emergency water station or the two water storage tanks. The forth image shows the view looking south from Burley Road where it ends at Railroad Street. If John had been on this side of the tracks, US Hwy 15 would have been completely blocked from his line of sight to where the sounds of the truck traffic may not have been so noticeable. Why John didn’t drive 50 feet further up the road to have better success is known only to him.
To be honest, John may not have parked on Burley Road at all. Cove looks a lot different now compared to what it did back in 1951. These days, either side of US Hwy 15 running through Cove has the empty lots, abandoned buildings, Sheetz Gas Station, tiny strip mall complete with the typical Chinese take-out, and the lonely homes littered with old cars and discarded junk thrown on the front lawn during an “annual clean out.” Of course, there’s also that one staple of the American landscape that automatically defines Cove as a “small, poor income town”… a Dollar Tree store.
Who knows how Cove looked in 1951. Tell you what… if there are any visitors to this page who lived in Cove back in 1951, please let me know. I would love to hear your story.
The graphic above is a close-up detail of the track layout at Cove. In the middle of the graphic, the location of the emergency water station is called out.
Thanks to Matthew Hurst for outlining the tracks for me.
Above are two track blueprints courtesy of the website “Jerry Britton’s The Pennsy Modeler”.
Clicking on each image will open them in a larger window.
Above are two additional images from “Jerry Britton’s The Pennsy Modeler” showing the emergency water station at Cove.
Above are two images of the water storage tanks that fed water into the emergency water station at Cove. Note the Pennsylvania Railroad ore train passing the tower.
Both images courtesy of Matthew Hurst.
Located west of the emergency water station was the distant home signal for the Pennsy’s “View” and “Banks” towers. This signal tower was known as MP 116, and you can see it in the track blueprints shown earlier.
Image courtesy of Matthew Hurst.
The above images, all courtesy of the “North American Interlocking Towers, Pennsylvania”, show “View Tower” in Duncannon, and “Banks Tower” in Marysville.
This image, from June of 1948, shows a Pennsy T1 pulling a train while it blasts its way under the emergency water station at Cove.
Image courtesy of Matthew Hurst.
A small passenger station was located at Cove up until September of 1950. It was then moved across the road and served as a residence. The above photo was shot in May of 1968 and clearly shows the building at the end of its life. This is one of those images that needs a lot of careful study. Was this station located directly on US Hwy 15 with the PRR tracks directly behind it? You can certainly look on Google Earth to try to make that determination, but how much of the area has changed from 1968 until now? Pictures like this create very deep rabbit holes, and John’s notes don’t help to answer any of the questions.
Image courtesy of Matthew Hurst.
Above is John’s page of notes for the Cove recordings. Note the two indicators where John called out the recordings he copied for Alan Botto for use on one of his Ralbar/Semaphore records releases. Click on the image to enlarge it.
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