NKP 765 Lehigh Gorge Special Route/Railfan Spots?

Hello all,

I am trying to find some good spots to get nice video/pics of the 765 trips this weekend. Does anyone know where some good places might be? As far as I know, the 765 starts at Bethlehem, PA, heads to M&H Juntion where it gets on the RBMN Lehigh Division, but I am not sure how it gets to the scenic railway in Jim Thorpe and Pittson, PA. Can anyone elaborate on its route?

Thanks so much

I had the same question about the route for the 9/5 Phoebe Snow special. Can anyone link to a rail map of the area please?

blownb310 wrote:I had the same question about the route for the 9/5 Phoebe Snow special. Can anyone link to a rail map of the area please?

I believe it runs along the mainline of the former Delaware Lackawanna and Western RR (later the Erie Lackawanna), from Steamtown in Scranton in a general southeast direction to Delaware Water Gap, which is between East Stroudsburg and Slateford Junction (the latter a bit further south along the Delaware, north of Portland PA. (The Phoebe Snow was the DLW's crack passenger train)
You can look at your favorite on-line road map which shows RR lines: - the main towns it goes through are Scranton, Moscow, Gouldsboro, Tobyhanna, Pocono Summit, Cresco, Analomink, East Stroudsburg, and then Delaware Water Gap. Or , look at this PA RR map posted in the link on the main RR.net PA railfan page: viewtopic.php?f=130&t=43605" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; -- the line is labelled DL for the current short line Delaware Lackawanna that operates it. But this map doesn't show roads or many towns.
Good luck, JS

Excellent, thank you JS. Lets hope for good weather this Saturday.

Mike

I am a bit confused about the exact stopping point for lunch (for at least 2 hours according to the schedule). It is supposedly at "Delaware water gap". The old DL&W Delaware Water Gap station still stands (just east of the toll plaza for the bridge on Route 80 over the river) , but it is a good 1.5 miles or so north of the actual scenic water gap itself.
The park service(?) has a major parking lot for cars on Rte 611 right at the gap, directly adjacent to the tracks, so that might make a good spot. But the ticket web site says "lunch is on your own" while the engine is serviced, and there is nothing for food there - unless a lot of lunch trucks are brought in!

A few miles south at Portland PA there is a wye which could be used to turn the engine for the return trip. But unless the engine is going to push the train back, they need a siding long enough for the engine to get by the train. THere a small yard at Slateford, just north of Portland, but I don't know if it is long enough, it is only ~1000- 1500 ft I guess. - the videos I have seen of the 765 train show it to be pretty long!

Anybody know what the real lunch stop plans are, and the plans for turning the engine (if they are going to do that)??

JS

Lunch stop is indeed going to be at the old Delaware Water Gap station. The train will be wyed in Portland. Fort Wayne's site says that we are going to arrive at the DWG at 12:00. Don't count on that. The majority of the posts are saying around 1:00 and that is more realistic.

Thanks NJT.
I saw on another web site late last night that the town will be providing entertainment and food options at the DWG station.
South of the wye by the power plant yard in Portland (including the DLW Old Road) it looks like there enough tracks for the engine to run around a train at least a mile long (unless they are actually wye-ing the whole train - which in principle would be possible.) - don't know why I didn't see that earlier.
JS

Any idea why the one trip goes to the DWG station, but the other only goes to (East) Stroudsburg?