The Conrail engine backs across Walnut Street, as it delivers a flatbed of large granite slaps and blocks to the Wentz Memorial Company, by 20th and Hamilton Streets. Years earlier, the spur route extended across Hamilton Street and terminated at the building across from school district stadium, now occupied by the park department. On its run to Wentz, it went through the auto junkyard, continued on past the now closed Allentown Metal Works, and crossed the trestle in Lehigh Parkway. At Union Terrace the track was next to the former ice skating pond, behind the WPA Amphitheater Stage Mound. This photograph was taken by Dave Latshaw in the 1979, and is part of the Mark Rabenold collection. Rabenold is a local train historian, specializing in Allentown's former branch lines.
reprinted from September 2011
ADDENDUM JULY 23, 2025:In addition the little train trestle, there was also a small pedestrian bridge to Union Terrace from Walnut Street. Rather than being repaired, that small walk bridge was removed about a decade ago, isolating the park from Walnut Street. Restoring that bridge should be a priority of the park system.
The very bones of a healthy industrial economy systematically destroyed. It seems like madness.
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