Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge

[TMo]

Thanks for cheering me on, Tom and Mikey!

The big flat piece of Masonite that I installed as a support for the mountains I'm currently working on was bringing me down a bit.  I'd turn around from my desk and see a big brown slab of nothing.  I inherited a couple of watercolors when my Mom moved from her farmhouse in Reeders down to Northhampton, PA.  She just didn't have room for all of the paintings in her new place.  These were painted by one of my favorite teachers in middle school, John James.  Immensely talented - I could watch him draw, sketch and paint all day.  His niche was a combination of watercolors and markers, and at the end of the year if there was a teacher in the middle or high schools that was retiring, he'd make a collage to present to them - the stuff was magic.

Anyway, the two watercolors I inherited were on the wall here in the office, but I thought maybe one of them could be mounted on the Masonite. 

   

Immediate improvement, and the subject matter is tied in a way to my model railroad.  The Erie Lackawanna mainline used to run from Scranton through Monroe County down to Delaware Water Gap.  Before it was the EL, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western (Lackawanna) ran through Cresco, PA - and I believe Mr. James got hold of an old black and white taken before 1930 as the basis for this painting - a 4-4-0 powered passenger train headed up the mountain out of the Cresco station.  This station (I believe) still stands and I used to pass it a lot on trips up to see my aunt and uncle in Mountainhome, which I believe at one time was also a stop on that same line.  I believe that a portion of that line (from Mount Pocono through to Scranton) is still in use by the Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad, which also helps service Steamtown excursion trains.


   

My other watercolor by Mr. James is another railroad-related painting, but this one is focused on the New York Susquehanna and Western Railroad, which is even closer to home for me.  Prior to 1939 there was a line owned by that railroad that ran up from Stroudsburg through the village of Reeders (where there was a branch that serviced ice facilities at Trout Lake), around Big Pocono Mountain and on to Wilkes Barre.  My aunt's father once owned the Reeders General Store, and the line ran right next to his property.  My parents also used to help an elderly woman who lived in a farmhouse that bordered the line and at her death, bequeathed her remaining property to Mom and Dad.  Most of the NYS&W's line through the Poconos was bulldozed to build Interstate 80.  This one hangs in solitary on the entry wall to my office.