Branch Line mystery R&N by tunnel

On the R&N mainline traveling north from Tamaqua you get to the tunnel that goes under Rt 54. I recently discovered that there was once a line that swung off heading eastward at the tunnel opening and connected with the CNJ Nesquehoning branch yard by Air Products in Hometown. You can see this branch as a dashed line on the topozone map here
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=18&n= ... ayer=DRG25

In fact it looks as though it was a wye so trains could access it in both directions. Now take a look at the pictures on Gingerbread you can see this line coming away from the CNJ yard. The photographer is actually standing on it looking toward Nesquehoning with the R&N tunnel behind him

http://www.gingerb.com/CNJ%20Haucks%20view%201.jpg

In this photo the track in question is the one that goes off to the right. The CNJ yard is behind the photographer, the R&N crosses in front.

http://www.gingerb.com/CNJ%20Haucks%20Interlocking.jpg

Does anyone know what this line was called and when it was abandoned?

Wasn't that the Lehigh and New England tunnel??

No the LNE tunnel connected Lansford and Hauto.

The line was built by the Nesquehoning Valley RR (owned by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation) in 1885. For some reason, while most of the railroad was leased to CNJ, this part was leased to the Reading instead. Still shows up on the 1955 topos (1942 survey).

I don't know any history, but the line looks like it was used for any
Reading traffic (ie. COAL)from the Mahanoy area (north/west of the tunnel) that was bound for the CNJ Nequehoning branch). From the pictures and maps
you posted, it looks like if you came South/East out of the tunnel
and did not take this cutoff, you would go down to East Mahanoy junction,
where you could then come north on the main Reading line towards
Haucks (even though no connection in that direction is shown at the
junction on the modern topo), but then from your last photo there would have been no way to get from the Reading northbound to the CNJ
Nesquehoning branch eastbound.
JS