Wilkes Barre & Eastern Railroad

There's this amazing internet tool you may not have heard of. It's called "google."

http://www.google.com/search?q=wilkes+b ... 8&oe=UTF-8

The stuff you're likely looking for starts on the second result's page.

Couple of tidbits about the WB&E:
Several buildings of the its shops at Stroudsburg still exist today as part of a scrapyard complex and can be seeen from Interstate 80.

Part of its ROW isutilized today as a maintenance road by Camelback Ski Area

The Wilkes-Barre Connecting RR bridge across the Susquehanna River between Wilkes-Barre and Kingston (Now part of CP Rail's D&H Sunbury Main) was originally built by the WB&E.

Sadly, there are no longer any original building left at Shops. The scrap yard owners demolished the last two structures about two years ago.

First, the Stroudsburg station has been preserved/renovated, and you can see it on one of the streets paralleling I-80 on the south side of town. (paralleling Main St., same street as the Post Office) They have the only Chestnut Ridge caboose next to it. Also in Stroudsburg, just as you cross over the river from East Stroudsburg, near a shopping center, is a coal yard that sure looks like it was served by rail.
I think someone said that the shopping center was where the roundhouse was.

Roadbed remnants:

On I-380 southbound, just before it intersects with I-80, you can see roadbed in the middle between northbound and southbound lanes. (I'll have to get the milepost next time I get by there)

On the PA turnpike, (I-476) southbound, the roadbed crosses at an angle at milepost 100 . You can see it on the east side of the road (best seen when there's snow on the ground) You can also see roadbed paralleling
the turnpike on the west side heading north, again, best in winter w/snow.

xXwelderXx wrote:Any webpages on this railroad? Ho many miles of track did they run? What was the last year of operation? Any other info on the railroad would be great.

Far as I know, no web pages are devoted specifically to the WB&E. The RR was a subsidiary of the Suzie-Q and filed for abandonment in 1937, effective 1939.

In addition to the surviving ROW already mentioned, there is a substantial portion on the south face of Camelback Mtn., accessible via Railroad Av in Reeders. The grade climbs steadily from its intersection with the road (they pulled only empties uphill, coal loads were hauled downhill to Stroudsburg), then turns sharply at a rock cut and proceeds north around the mountain. This turn was once the site of Tannersville station, a small passenger shelter, freight depot, and siding. Nothing of those structures remains today, however, I am attaching a before-and-after pic to give you a better idea of what was there, and what the spot looks like now.

See image...



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There is also evidence that the RR hauled cut ice from Mtn Spring Lake and Trout Lake at the foot of Camelback Mtn. Old topo maps show spurs and what seem to be icehouses at those locations, and current aerial photos still bear evidence of the ROW

See image...

I was up there today picking a kid up from camp and wondered where the WB&E crossed the road that turns off from Sullivan Trail and goes up to Camelbeach. Maybe I didn't go up far enough, I went about 1/4 mile past Camelbeach.

Looking at that same 1921 Topo map but further north, I see that the WB&E was only a couple of miles from the DL&W and, in fact, there was track connecting the WB&E just east of Pocono Pines and the DL&W at Pocono Summit. Where that track connected with the WB&E there was a wye. Anyone know what the purpose of that track was?

Had I seen your post earlier, I would have driven up to the site of the Tannersville Station.

The New Jersey Midland Railroad Historical Society has decided to reprint, revise and expand the WB&E book done by Harold Fredericks in the early 1980's and published by the Railroadians of America (which merged into the NJMRHS). We would be interested in any period photos, timetables, letters, etc. that we could use for the book.

Tim Stuy
President, NJMRHS

Getting in a little late here, but the Penn Pilot aerials (1939) show some great WB&E stuff.

http://www.pennpilot.psu.edu/selectcounty.html