No thru trains from Sayre/Waverly anymore

[gearhead]

I talked to the NS conductor at the station in Sayre and he told me that NS does not route any trains thru to Allentown anymore that its a succesion of short lines. So would that count out any thru traffic at all on this route as one short line hands off to another in a ABC alpapet routing fasion?

[lvrr325]

I'm not sure where you've been, but this dates to before the Conrail split, to roughly 1995 or 1996. Even before that, they eliminated ALCG/CGAL in favor of two pair of locals that each turned at Coxton.

Reading & Northern owns from Mehopany down to I forget just where (Coxton), part of it is split up so NS has one track and R&N the other, but only one track is in service with both using it. For a while the tunnel at Mehoopany was closed entirely due to a collapse.

NS since has leased the LV main from Athens to Mehoopany to the Lehigh Railway, which is affiliated with the Owego & Hartford, Luzerne & Susquehanna, and one of the principals is also involved with a shortline in the south.

CP Rail still excercises it's trackage rights below Dupont, so the line does see some through traffic, including stack trains.

It's possible since both the Lehigh Railway and R&N work at Mehoopany there is some interchange of cars there, and the R&N bought out the Towanda-Monroeton Shipper's Lifeline in a failed attempt to also get rights up to Sayre, so the Lehigh would handle occasional moves between Towanda and Mehoopany for them.

[EMDSD40-2]

Reading & Northern owns from Mehopany down to I forget just where (Coxton), part of it is split up so NS has one track and R&N the other, but only one track is in service with both using it. For a while the tunnel at Mehoopany was closed entirely due to a collapse.

Everything about your post seemed right except for this part. You were right saying that NS leased the ex-LV from Sayre to Mehoopany to the Lehigh Railway with the R&N owning from Mehoopany to Coxton. But that entire stretch is single track railroad with no real passing sidings in existence. The R&N also owns from Coxton to Dupont to Lehighton. Two NS and two CP trains operate over the R&N from Dupont Jct. to Lehighton every day with the R&N Lehighton Turn operating six to seven days a week. NS and the R&N operate parallel tracks through the Lehigh Gorge from M&H Junction to Lehighton. At M&H Jct. the NS Ashmore Secondary branches off and heads to Hazelton. The R&N owns track 1 and NS owns track 2. Both of the tracks are used by the thru trains to help facilitate the moves through the gorge. NS then owns the remaining stretch from Lehighton to Allentown.

Outside of that your post seems quite accurate.

[lvrr325]

I did not say there were two tracks at Mehoopany, but somewhere here I have the Railpace with the article on these lines (predates Lehigh Railway) and it notes a portion of the line is two tracks with NS owning one and R&N the other, but the NS one is not being used. Comments here in threads on the PRR forum back that up. As I already noted I didn't have exact details on beginning and end of just where that is, only that it's presumably west of Allentown and east of Mehoopany.

[rwk]

Reading and Northern should have bought the track to Sayre from NS. Then they would own the entire ex-LV in PA north of Lehighton. (and ex-CNJ from north of White Haven to Laurel Run - LV is abandoned and gone between those two points) That would also give them more excursion opportunities, run excursions from Pittston to Sayre! Tunkhannock is as far north as they have gone so far with excursion trains. Now they own the 4-5 mile branch in Towanda, but there is no direct connection to track that R&N owns, movements have to go through Lehigh Railway between Mehoopany and Towanda. I heard that Andy didn't want the section past Mehoopany when Conrail sold him the line in 1996. Probably due to very little on line freight customers. There are only two customers north of Pittston, a company few miles past the yard, and P&G at Mehoopany. Oh, and don't confuse Lehigh Railway with Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway, Reading and Northern's regularly scheduled tourist railroad in Jim Thorpe, PA.

[rwk]

The section with two tracks R&N/NS is between Lehighton and Old Penn Haven in the Lehigh Gorge where the lines split to Hazelton and White Haven. The Lehigh Gorge/Reading and Northern tourist train runs on this section track 1 between Glen Onoko and Old Penn Haven and sometimes further toward White Haven. Essentially NS owns from Allentown to Hazelton, and R&N owns from Lehighton to Mehoopany. NS owns no track in the Scranton area it seems but they do from Binghamton, NY westward. The lines north and southeast of Binghamton toward Syracuse and Port Jervis are owned by NYSW, and the track south to Scranton and Sunbury is owned by CP.

[pumpers]

..., and the track south to Scranton and Sunbury is owned by CP.

A good summary. One more is north/northeast of Binghamton is CP to Schenectady and then up to Canada. And all of the 5 or so lines out of Binghamton might be out of commission for a while, unfortunately (especially CP to Schenectady). JS

[rwk]

How is NS routing its traffic north of Allentown, then if it can't get into Binghamton on CP? Is there a different routing, perhaps via Harrisburg, Sunbury, and Williamsport? I'm from Allentown area. NS has a huge yard there along the Lehigh River which was a former Central New Jersey yard.