York, PA: Pennsy Coaling Tower & Railyard, Lost/WM & Offices/Pennsy Depots and Pennsy Junction Tower

Coaling Tower: (Satellite)

WM Depot: (Satellite, my guess based on the photo and aerial below,)

Pennsy Depot: (Satellite)

Junction Tower: (Satellite)

Freight Houses: (Satellite)

Feed Mill: (Satellite)

Cement Plant: (Satellite)

Quarries and Lincoln Highway (US-30): (See below for satellite image)

WM = Western Maryland

Gary Pappy Heiland posted
PRR Ghost coal dock in York PA 1985.  Unlike the one in Renovo this one has been torn down.  The signal gantry is also gone in York.

Kurt Bell: Where exactly in York was this located?

Greg Halpin commented on Kurt's comment

Dennis DeBruler commented on Greg's comment
Thanks, that let me know where to look. https://maps.app.goo.gl/AFRHmtfJ2Xi2PEgZ8 Jan 1952 aerial photo

 

Greg Halpin commented on Dennis' comment

The railyard is intact because they did not remove tracks to make room for an intermodal yard. Instead, they used vacant land that was next to the yard.

1999/2001 York Quad @ 24,000

It looks like the intermodal yard is also used to transload lumber.

Street View, Nov 2021

Western Maryland Depot

𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻: 𝗣𝗲𝗻𝗻𝘀𝘆𝗹𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗮 and Ohio posted
York, PA Train Depot • Circa early 1900s!
[I'm glad that some comments indicate that this was Western Maryland or I would have made the mistake of assuming it was Pennsy.]

Pennsy served this town from all four compass points, but Western Maryland came in from the west and terminated in this town. The WM tracks joined the Pennsy near Hokes Mill, and WM must have used trackage rights to access its depot downtown.

1954 West York and Work Quads @ 24,000

This shows the branch that went to York.

wmwestsub via Dennis DeBruler

I'm sure the building west of Roosevelt Ave. and north of the tracks is a depot. I'm just not sure whos depot it is. I though the building on the right side of this excerpt was also a depot because the roofline has some character. But it is too tall, and it looks like it is an apartment building that had some style. And was that an elegant courthouse just north of the apartments? They tore it down for a few houses. 

Jan 21, 1952 @ 17,000; AR1OX0000030043

Pennsy Depot

I noticed that the above depot was in the middle of industrial buildings, not the downtown. The downtown is east of the river. So I got an excerpt of that area. The apartment building is in the lower-left corner to correlate the excerpts.

Jan 21, 1952 @ 17,000; AR1OX0000030043

While checking out the freight houses in the aerial photo, I found this depot building. This was probably the Pennsy depot. The depot is on the left and two of the extant freight house are in the right background.

Street View, Jun 2024

You know that the southern freight house was an outgoing freight house because of all of the parallel parked boxcars waiting to be loaded.

Jan 21, 1952 @ 17,000; AR1OX0000030043

The two northern freight houses are now self-storage. But the southern freight house still handles freight between rail and trucks. Although the number of tracks has been greatly reduced.

Street View, Jun 2024

1942 Pennsy Junction Tower

And while looking at the freight houses, I found an extant junction tower. There were a lot more interlocking towers than roundhouses, but they are now about as rare.

Street View, Nov 2021

yorkblog
The developer in the area plans to preserve the building.

hmdb

"The York Interlocking Tower, located in Poorhouse Yard, is the point where the Northern Central Railroad, Western Maryland, Pennsylvania Railroad, and Maryland & Pennsylvania all converged. The tower is located along York Street near N. Queen Street. The area was called Poorhouse Yard due the presence of the York County Jail and Almshouse. The tower has been abandoned; however, Poorhouse Yard is still in use. It is here where York Railway and Norfolk Southern exchange cars.

"The Emons Logistics Services maintain several bulk transfer terminals in York County. The Lincoln Yard, which operates as a bulk terminal, is located in West Manchester Township. Hanover Yard is used for storage of plastics. North George Street handles the transfer of bulk agricultural products. Poorhouse Yard in York County serves as a classification area for freight transport cars. This yard processes about 6500 cars per year.

"The large building seen on the right in the photo below [above] is the original York County Jail behind which was the York County Almshouse. In 1855, Philadelphia architect Edward Haviland designed the York County Jail. The blue limestone walled enclosure to the rear still stands today. The blue limestone came from John Winter's quarry near York. Henry Kochenour of Conewago Township provided the sandstone for the front building, now gone and replaced with brick in 1907.

"In 1857, the poor house annual report stated that its occupants included 86 males, 56 females, and 15 children under the age of 12. The Almshouse maintained an early form of workfare. Residents worked on the adjacent farm or at an associated house of employment. According to the 1857 report, they produced 987 pounds of butter; 198 pair of shoes; 27 sunbonnets and 161 petticoats in the previous year. (Marker Number 6.)"

Hoke Feed Mill

I found this Hoke feed mill while looking for the depot.

Street View, Dec 2023

Photo, Aug 2020

Photo, Aug 2020

Cement Plant

While looking at the feed mill, I spotted some tall silos, so I checked them out. They are port of a cement plant. We get glimpses of the kiln in the background.

Street View, Jul 2024

Here is a satellite view of that kiln. I included the rail loadout area.

Satellite

Quarries

The cement plant would explain this quarry, which was the first thing I noted as I followed the WM tracks into town. The aqua blue pond on the right side of this excerpt was an active quarry on the 1954 topo map.

Satellite

Zooming out, there are other quarries in the area. And then I noticed that Lincoln Highway (US-30) runs through this area. Today's US-30 is a bypass, the highway originally went through town on Market Street.

Satellite