Once upon a time great giants once roamed throughout our valley, giants made of iron and steel that ate black diamonds and belched fire and smoke with every step. It was the Era of the Steam Engine.

From its humble beginnings in 1864 to the sorrowful end in October of 1947, the Steam Engine Era and the engineering that encompassed it are mostly forgotten today. But for over 80 years the valley floor trembled under the weight and power of these great giants in motion.

The first known appearance of a steam engine in the valley can be traced back to 1864 when the Lehigh Navigation and Coal Company purchased a discarded wood burning locomotive in the Scranton area, shipped it south to the No. 10 Breaker near Seek and placed it on the tracks of the Panther Creek Railroad.

The engine was intended to haul coal cars from the No. 10 Breaker to the foot of the No. 2 plane near the Lansford and Coaldale border. Once at the No. 2 Plane the cars would then be hoisted to Summit Hill and onto the Switchback Gravity Railroad for delivery to the Lehigh Canal in Mauch Chunk.

The first attempts to bring steam locomotive power to the area did not go as planned.

The tracks of the Panther Creek Railroad were designed to hold the weight of coal cars, spread apart under the additional weight of the steam engine.

Because oak and other hardwoods were used as timbers in the mines, the coal company attempted to burn softwoods in the firebox. That failed to produce enough heat to operate the engine for long periods of time, and the engine would simply move a few hundred feet and then “run out of steam.”

Finally, after a number of attempts, the engine succeeded in pulling three loaded coal cars along the designated track at the astonishing speed of 3 mph, but to the company the most important success was the loaded coal cars were pulled upgrade by the locomotive.

Before 1864 the valley was crisscrossed with gravity railroads such as the Rhume Run in Nesquehoning, the Summit Hill and Mauch Chunk Gravity Railroad in Summit Hill and the Panther Creek Railroad in Lansford. Each of these gravity railroads were engineering marvels in their design and construction but all had the same drawback, coal could only be shipped downgrade.

In the case of the Panther Creek Railroad, cars were loaded with coal at the No. 5 and 6 Breakers near Andrewsville and then drifted under their own power to the foot of the No. 2 Plane in Coaldale, a total distance of 2 miles with there only being a mere difference of 200 feet in elevation from where the cars started in Andrewsville to where they stopped in Coaldale.

Following the company’s success in moving coal upgrade with the use of a steam engine, construction of railroads throughout the valley began at a feverish pace. Under the direction of company engineers John Leisenring (for whom Leisenring Street in Lansford is named after) and Robert Sayer (the town Sayersville was named after him and once stood on the mountainside behind present day Boyer’s Supermarket).

The valley was transformed into a railroad and transportation hub.

Under the direction of Leisenring and Sayer, the No. 7 mine tunnel was transformed into the Lansford to Hauto railroad tunnel. The famous Andrewsville curve which allowed steam engines to travel from Lansford up to Summit Hill was designed and built. Almost overnight the No. 1 and 2 Planes, the Switchback and even the Lehigh Canal became nearly obsolete.

Railroad Stations were built along the tracks in every small town. Once rail connections were established to areas outside the valley, coal could now be shipped year-round as opposed to only nine months a year because of the Lehigh Canal freezing over in the winter.

With the influx of people and goods the towns flourished.

Trains from New York City arrived and departed six times a day from the Lansford Station, noted watercolor artists from New York such as Riva Helfond would travel to the valley on a regular basis.

After arriving, Helfond and her entourage of aspiring artists would hike throughout the valley with paints and canvases in tow looking for scenes to capture in her paintings.

Her most famous painting portrays the former No. 6 Breaker and the former St. Michaels Church as the two cathedrals of the coal region.

During the Depression, many valley residents traveled to New York City daily to work at such jobs as flipping hamburgers at White Castle Hamburger Shops for 35 cents an hour or to work as a nanny or domestic help for affluent families.

The steam engine made it possible for people to travel to places and see things that they only could have read about before in books and magazines.

Sadly, the Era of the Steam Engine in the valley came to an end in October 1947 when the last steam engine emerged from the Lansford railroad tunnel much like a fire breathing dragon emerging from his cave in the stories of old. It traveled the length of the valley as to have one last look around, and just as in the stories, the dragon seeing that his days were over went back into his cave and disappeared forever.

Never again would the valley floor tremble under the presence of these giants. The unmistakable wail of a steam whistle from an overnight freight train coming up the valley would be silent forevermore.

Today these once giants of the valley have all but disappeared.

Three of the last of these giants sit in a field outside of Reading, slowly succumbing to the effects of weather and age.

The faded words “Panther Creek Railroad” are just barely visible through the rust and peeling paint on the cabs now.

With their great wheels still and their whistles quiet, they serve as a reminder to all who see them that great fire breathing giants once roamed the valley.