Main to Williamsport, Pa.

Hello All:

When was the mainline to Williamsport single tracked? In the past, I always was interested in the NYC and PRR.

The Pennsy main crossed the Reading in Sunbury and just south of Montgomery and also in Williamsport.

I remember at least twice while riding on #571 The Buffalo Day Express seeing freights waiting for us to pass.

I know the Reading had at one time fine passenger service to and from Williamsport and also provided sleeping and food service.

Anyone who remembers what I have typed please enlighten me as the Reading was a key player in Williamsport and Newberry Yard.

Best,
Craig Johnson

JJJeffries wrote: When was the mainline to Williamsport single tracked?

Summer of 1960.

Contact the RR Museum of Pennsylvania they might know.

Len.

http://www.rrmuseumpa.org

The Reading had two routes between Pottsville and Williamsport. Most of the through freight traffic followed the Catawissa Branch, which diverged from the Main Line north of Tamaqua, crossed the Pennsylvania's Wilkes-Barre Branch north of its namesake community, and rejoined it at Milton. The passenger line (Willy and Philly) ran via Shamokin and Sunbury.

To the best of my knowledge, the Catawissa line was always single-tracked, and one Iron Horse Ramble scheduled over it during the early 1960' s had to revert to diesel power because the Catawissa couldn't handle T-1's. In the mid 1960's the Catawissa saw three daily freights in each direction, but one pair ran only btween Newberry and a CNJ interchange at Haucks, Penna. The Shamokin Line once generated a lot of anthracite traffic, with the operation centered around Gordon, Penna, and the T-1's ran some of their last revenue-service miles there.

I believe the 1960 date in a prevous post was actually a reference to the PRR's removal of double track on its Harrisburg-Buffalo Northern Region Main which reached Northumberland in 1958, and was extended to Williamsport, with a rebuilt NEWBERRY Block Station and the truncation of the old passenger main in favor of the Linden Branch to the south of the city, two years later.

The Sunbury line croseed the PRR at SF Tower in Sunbury, and the Catawissa diverged and crossed it at MU in Milton. Both towers survived until the emergence of Conrail in 1976, and MU featured a GRS CTC machine which dated from some time in the 1950's.

Incdentally, the calendars issued by the North Shore line at Northumberland have featured a number of photos of the local Reading lines in the steam era, most from the collection of the late Clarence Weaver, the area's most prominent rail photographer.

2nd trick op wrote:I believe the 1960 date in a prevous post was actually a reference to the PRR's removal of double track...

The PRR's second track between Milton and Muncy came out in April 1959. The Reading single track happened a year later.