• "Penitentary Switch" near Lewisburg

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in Pennsylvania
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in Pennsylvania

Moderator: bwparker1

  by 2nd trick op
 
A topic has come up over at city-data.com regarding a number of concrete bunkers located near the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary and the new "Club Fed" at Allenwood, a few miles to the north. Some RDG Employee Timetables in my possession list a point referred to as "Penitentiary Switch" a little north of Lewisburg, and I can recall a little-used grade crossing of US Highway 15, at the north end of town (not far form the International Paper plant, IIRC).

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The spur in question would have served the "Pen" (probably very little once construction was completed in the early Thirties), but Federal ownership of the land would also have made the siting of a storage and transfer facility for ammunition much easier to accomplish during both the New Deal years and the World War II defense buildup. So I'm wondering if anyone here could provide any knowledge or evidence that these facilities were ever actually used?
  by choess
 
I believe the bunkers were associated with the Susquehanna Ordnance Depot. This briefly operated as a TNT plant during WWII, was then converted to a munitions storage facility, and was decommissioned in 1950. The Federal prison at Allenwood was built on former Ordnance Depot land.
  by lvrr325
 
I would have guessed if the prison or facility dates back far enough perhaps it had a steam plant for heat, which required coal.