The year is 1920, and this writer and my friend Larry Oberly are at the Lehigh Valley Railroad station in Coplay. With us is Mike Bednar, a railroad engineer and rail historian from Darktown, Whitehall Township.

We convinced Mike to flag down a Lehigh Valley passenger train so we could board the train and visit some projects that have used cement from the Coplay Cement Manufacturing Company.

We will be traveling to the Catskill Mountains in New York state to view the construction of an aqueduct that will supply fresh water to New York City.

We will also be stopping at the Central Railroad station in Rochester, N.Y., and the Pierce Arrow automobile plant in Buffalo, N.Y. Yes, there was an automobile named Pierce Arrow!

On the way back to Coplay, we took a slight detour to stop at the Pennsylvania Railroad station in Pittsburgh.

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In two weeks, our tour will continue. We will meet you at the Coplay Lehigh Valley Railroad station. Don’t be late!