Aerial View Of PP& L Plant Construction in Shamokin Dam

Construction of the PP& L Plant in Shamokin Dam, Summer of 1948

 The completed PPL plant in Shamokin Dam went into service on August 17 1949 , becoming the world's largest anthracite-burning steam-generation power plant.

The above photo from Charles Fasold collection is an aerial view, from the summer of 1948, looking across the Susquehanna River at the construction of the P P & L plant in Shamokin Dam. Both the Old Trail and the newly completed U.S. Route 11-15 can be seen proceeding north toward the old Shamokin Dam traffic circle.

See more views of the traffic circle here:
https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2019/12/moving-guyer-house-from-dumb-built.html

Another view of the construction of the plant

This photo was taken a year prior, in August of 1947, looking from Selinsgrove up river.The homes on the lower left of the photo are on the Isle Of Que. The railroad bridge shown crosses from the Isle of Que to Selinsgrove Junction.  Shamokin Dam and Sunbury can be seen on opposite sides of the photo, at the top [or North]

This 2015 Drone Photograph By Ken Knapp shows the same bridge, but the view is concentrated more to the south

Another view of the construction progress, summer of 1948 or 1949.

View is looking north, with the plant on the west side of the river ( to the left.)

Many advertisements mentioned that the new steam power plant would be located where Edison's  electric station in Sunbury had been located.  

Construction of the PP&L Plant, July 1948

Completed Plant, as shown in their brochure

  

Although labeled as "Selinsgrove", this photo is of the PP&L plant at Shamokin Dam.  Approximately 1950.

October 1949

The plant was imploded on 10/16/2020.

Brian Benfer captured it on video - see it come down at the 5 minute mark in the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZC79YPlWHk

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Booklet From The Opening 

Of The Plant in 1949

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Shown in the upper left hand corner is Edison's Central Station, built in Sunbury

Read more about when Thomas Edison came to the valley, here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2019/10/when-edison-came-to-our-valley-shamokin.html

1. 20-car capacity coal throwing sleds
2. Car dumper, where coal enters the conveyor system
3. Crusher House - where large lumps of fuel are ? and trump metal and trash are removed
4 Starker runway
5 conveyor system for transporting coal to the plant
6 coal storage areas
At the time this photograph was taken, over 700,000 tons were in storage.

Newspaper Ad, 1949

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1948