Passenger Station, Footbridge, and Black Diamond

Passenger Station, Footbridge, and Black Diamond. . , Sayre's Lehigh Valley Railroad Passenger Station (Image No. 1) was built in 1881 in the heart of early Sayre. Sayre was on the Lehigh's 448-mile mainline route between New York City and Buffalo. Both the passenger station and the railroad yards (Image No. 1) servicing it, were very busy with hourly arrivals and departures of passenger and freight trains. Crews were changed as were the engines pulling trains. As many as 50 steam locomotives were fired and awaiting assignment on the ready tracks of the Sayre Yards. At its height, the Passenger Station included a ticket booth, separate waiting rooms for men and women, baggage area, and a restaurant. The second floor was used for offices and included a fireproof safe. Today the entire building is the museum of the Sayre Historical Society. The Footbridge, seen in the background near the steam locomotives, was built in 1896 replacing a grade crossing. The bridge was needed to provide the heavy pedestrian traffic with safe passage from downtown Sayre to Sayre's East Side over the very wide and active rail yards. Until its removal in 1987, by which time it had deteriorated to the point of being hazardous, it was a favorite site for rail fans to take photographs of trains and the Lehigh facilities in Sayre. Additionally, a tunnel under the Westbound Yards was built to provide hundreds of workers with safe crossing under the 14 sets of tracks between North Lehigh Avenue and their jobs in the Sayre Shops. The LVRR in Sayre was nearly a self-contained community. It had its own police department, a three-company fire department, generated its own electricity, operated its own water system with water from the Susquehanna River and its own reservoir on Sayre Hill, had a band and orchestra, sponsored athletic teams, and had a building for meetings, dances, dinners, and bowling alley., Images No. 2 and No. 3 show the famed Lehigh Valley Railroad's crack Black Diamond Express, a passenger train pulled by a steam locomotive, likely built in the Lehigh's Sayre Shops. The "Diamond" passed through Sayre daily from its inception on May 18, 1896, until its last run on May 11, 1959, by which time diesels were powering the engine. The route of the Black Diamond was from New York City to Buffalo, New York. During its heyday, it was considered the epitome of comfort and personal service in travel on railroads. , The classification of steam engines is by the arrangement of its wheels. (Image No. 4) At the front of the engine are smaller "leading wheels." At the back of the engine are the "trailing wheels." Between these wheels are the "driving wheels." In Image No. 4, Lehigh Valley Railroad engine number 5210 is classified as 4-8-4. More drive wheels mean more power. The classification ended with the development of diesel engines such as in Image No. 5 seen leaving Sayre over the Southern Central Railroad Bridge on the Lehigh's Auburn, New York Branch. , Working in heavy industries such as the Sayre shops or around the train yards was dangerous. Safety was stressed, but accidents in the various shops and in the yards were frequent and sometimes deadly. In addition, there were accidents involving trains as seen in Image No. 6. The need for medical treatment for railroaders resulted in the Robert Packer Hospital being established in 1885. It was partially funded by the Lehigh employees in Sayre giving the hospital a day's wages each year. , (For the rest of the story visit the Sayre Historical Society Museum.).