Lehigh Valley Coal Company 123: Pioneer Tunnel Photo Charter

The Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine & Steam Train is a 3/4-mile long 42 inch narrow gauge railroad that operates in Ashland, Pennsylvania. Powering trips along the line is Lehigh Valley Coal Company 123, a 1927 Vulcan-built 0-4-0T, also known as the Henry Clay. For many years, the locomotive wore a vibrant scheme with the name Henry Clay being a prominent feature. In early 2024, the railroad announced the locomotive would be repainted into its original livery. Shortly after, MPT Photography and Dak Dillon Photography announced a small evening photo charter featuring the 123 in its new paint scheme.

For the event, the 123 pulled its typical excursion consist and performed numerous photo runbys along the line, allowing for photographers and videographers to capture to locomotive in its new appearance. This event marked the first time any photo charter operated at the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine & Steam Train since its founding in 1962. So sit back, relax, and enjoy 123 performing photo runbys for the first time in its 97 years of existence.

A special thanks goes out to the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine & Steam Train for allowing this historic event to take place along with the participants who signed up for the event.

This video was filmed on Friday, May 10, 2024.

Filmed & Edited by Mark Turkovich

This film may not be reproduced or redistributed in any manner.

©MPT Productions 2024

[brianhubbard]

Just stumbled across your channel by pure coincidence and have been utterly blown away by your quality of work. Not only do your videos look incredible, but they also SOUND incredible. In fact it sounds SO good that initially I thought you were doing sound design in post because there was just no way that the recordings captured on the day were that full body and clean, right? I can hear the rumble of the rails! But as I listened further, I realized that those were indeed the sounds captured on the day. Truly immaculate. I don't think I've heard another steam railroading channel that sounds this good. If you're open to sharing, I'm deeply curious what equipment you're using to capture these fantastic pictures and sounds.

[TrainChamber]

Cool stuff bro! Finally some decent coverage of this line is starting to come out lol

[bengone]

The black and white shots were the best, especially those with back lighting, reminnesant of O Winston Link.

[rainpain]

I don't know why, but theres something so haunting and scary about these old trains. They look so intimidating 😂