LV at Dushore

Any remains of the LV trestle at Dushore?

I've seen pics of an old wooden trestle. Was it ever upgraded to an iron bridge?

Thanks,

Chris

...the LV roadbed is quite evident all the way from Monroeton almost to Dallas, if you know where to look and what you are looking at. There are seveal bridges across creeks that can be seen from the highway (220), station and box car at New Albany, row east of the hill at Ladsburg into Dushore, the station at Dushore and the abutments for the bridge in town. To the south you can see the roadbed on and off all the way to Ricketts Glen if you know where the bridges leapt across here and there. The W&N is harder to follow but there are a few stations and remnants here and there. Late fall and early spring the best times to go poking around as often the foliage coveres it all up; sometimes the snow will highlight row, sometimes mask it. I have used the maps from the Taber books on W&N and lumber plus old raod maps to try to find whatever can be found. Good luck

my father, who saw the dushore trestle within a year or two of its abandonment and dismantling said the dushore trestle was wood and was always wood.

analogue wrote:my father, who saw the dushore trestle within a year or two of its abandonment and dismantling said the dushore trestle was wood and was always wood.

Thanks for the info!

What year was line abandoned south of Dushore?

Chris

I think most of the remnants of the line were abandoned after Hurricaine Agnes in 1972, at least north of Mildred, Lopez, and Dushore. It may have been in to Noxin from Dallas until about the same time. Noxin to Dushore was probably gone befoe then. Check Archer's book or on the Lehigh Valley forum for more accurate information.

the dushore trestle was abandoned before 1972. a bridge south of monroeton was undermined in the agnes hurricane and was never repaired. the tracks remained in place down to dushore after agnes. i cannot remember when the orphaned tracks were taken up south of monroeton, but i would guess it was around 1976. i never saw any tracks in mildred or lopez and i have been going to the area on a regular basis since the 60s. there was an article about this line, which (i believe) was in the arhs publication. that article provided dates on which service was cut back on this line. if i had to guess, the line between dushore and dallas went out in the early 50s.

one can drive on part of the line west of noxen all the way up to near ricketts on 487. the roadbed is open for driving all year around (probably no winter maintenance) and is accessable off of 487 at the state gamlands sign by the gateless dirt road going off of the left side of 487 if you are driving south on 487 from lopez toward benton. another part of the line is drivable during hunting season from usually columbus day through new years day (approx) from ricketts toward lopez in sgl 13. i recall that there is a gate on the road and one cannot drive all the way to lopez. it might be possible to drive from mildred towards dushore but that is likely private property and would be gated or posted or both.

there is also a branch that went from lopez to the ghost town of thorndale, which is in the middle of sgl 13. during fall hunting season, one can drive part way to thorndale by taking sr 1004 out of lopez (it turns into T367 and then enters the gamelands). when you come to the T in the road in the gamelands (where the closed gates are in the summer), make a right and continue straight on hottenstein road. you are now basically on the old lvrr thorndale branch. about half the way to thorndale, there is a second gate that is always locked. you can walk past this gate for quite a while and follow the grade down to the edge of thorndale. thorndale is an old tannery town and there are foundation remants made of stone. the entire plot was clear cut probably about 20 years ago. one cabin is on the property.

thorndale is on private property and heavily posted. please do not tresspass on this land.

I always wanted to drive the line, now I know where I can....Noxin station is in process of being preserved...driving down highway about 10 years ago from Lopez, approaching Benton I saw three fighter planes cross road quarter mile in front of me below tree tops as a touch and go practice at old AFB, surprised the )(&(*&(* out of me!...BEST story of the branch, which I have only seen in old RAILROAD MAGAZINE was that NYC's 20th Centruy detoured over the line. However no natives of the area or in Wilkes Barre area or any LV accountings can prove the story; even Dushore station owner (newspaper owner) is looking for authentication of story!

Chris.

Analogue is correct on most accounts. The trestle was comprised mostly of wood and abandoned before 1972 with one exception, it had at steel girder at the center for support over the road. See attached link to scan of a post card at the turn of last century.

http://public.fotki.com/engineerpete/du ... essel.html

The scan is from a book Scenes along the Rails: The Anthracite Region Volume 1 Part 2 by Hudson and Hudson. This book is an excellent source of information documenting both the various old rail lines and industry. I don’t know if this bridge configuration lasted until abandonment and subsequent removal.

I am familiar with the area due to my parents owning a cabin near Dushore. However the trestle was slightly before my time. Based on family recollection it must have been sometime during the mid sixties. My guess it was removed when the road (487) was improved into town. The local newspaper (Sullivan Review) should have more accurate information. I do remember a few pictures and articles about the trestle appearing in the from time to time in that newspaper over the years.

Just found this site...

It was abandoned and removed in the summer of 1955. I dunno about these weight restrictions, as the line was used to haul coal. Couldn't have been that much of a lightweight. It was always wooden, but the deck was iron plates, and in some places the structure was bolstered with girders. The passage of the road was a single lane.

The State Line & Sullivan Branch between Monroeton and Bernice was restricted to J-25 steam locomotives (4-6-0) and to light diesel locomotives such as EMD SW1 and SW900m units. This was a bridge restriction.

^^Thanks for the pics!

henry6 wrote:I always wanted to drive the line, now I know where I can....Noxin station is in process of being preserved...driving down highway about 10 years ago from Lopez, approaching Benton I saw three fighter planes cross road quarter mile in front of me below tree tops as a touch and go practice at old AFB, surprised the )(&(*&(* out of me!...BEST story of the branch, which I have only seen in old RAILROAD MAGAZINE was that NYC's 20th Centruy detoured over the line. However no natives of the area or in Wilkes Barre area or any LV accountings can prove the story; even Dushore station owner (newspaper owner) is looking for authentication of story!

The problem with that story is it doesn't make much sense for NYC to detour a NYC-Chicago express train over a rickety Lehigh Valley branch line in rural Pennsylvania when there were so many easier, better ways to run a detour should one be needed. For instance, I'm aware of a time where it was run over today's Finger Lakes Railroad between Geneva and Syracuse to bypass a wreck. I'd suspect that if there's any truth to the story it's exaggerated greatly -

The story of the NYC passenger train being detoured over the Bowman's Creek/State Line & Sullivan branch lines was proven to be a myth some time ago. Been a long time, but it seems that it may have been here on railroad.net.

The Lehigh Valley Railroad employee timetables of the era, under engine restrictions, gives the lie to the story if for no other reason. As posted above, the line between Monroeton and Bernice was restricted to J-25 steam locos (1131-1165) and this was a bridge restriction. A NYC Hudson would have become a part of Dushore while attempting to cross the wood trestle there, period. The only way the detour might have been done would have been to break the train down into sections and have each section hauled by a J-25 or a light diesel such as a SW1 or SW900m. Even that may well have been impossible as there would no doubt have been equipment incompatibilities. Then too, helpers for these sections may well have been a requirement given the stiff grades encountered.

^And wasn't there a switchback at Bernice? That would have complicated things.

There was a wye in Bernice, just on the Mildred side of Murraytown. See, I never bookmark these sites, I was in fact trying to find a different site. I just began to process some old slides of the Dushore Car Co., and I was working to identify markings on a street type trolley.

Anyhoo.. Before the '72 flood, traffic on the line was pretty much limited to things being delivered to Agway. Sort of like traffic on the line from Towanda to Monroeton (before the TS Lee flood anyway-that track is badly undermined now). It was a once a month type deal between probably '68 and '72, a Saturday morning now and then. The rails were torn up from Dushore to Bernice in the early 50's, and from Dallas to Lopez later in the 50's. I don't have the exact dates in front of me. The rails were torn up from the crossing near the big stone culvert in Dushore to the end of the present line in Monroeton in 1978. The tracks at Dushore remained until the Car Co. shut down, and then they removed them to the land the Depot sits upon. Much of the trackage at Agway is still there, and what remained off the property, is piled up behind Agway.