Pumpers wrote:
The remaining 1 mile stub in Catawissa was abandoned in 1943: http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1943%20Aug%2004.wd.pdf
There may be a bit more to the story than that. Wilkes-Barre Division ETT's from the
late 1940's still showed a short segment of the Catawissa Branch, (now downgraded to a Secondary Track, but still described in full, that is, with stations, sidings, etc.) running from CA Junction to an interlocked crossing with the Reading at REDPEN. According to a former "op" with whom I was acquainted, this tower survived until around 1950, but was in service only when opened by General or Train Order, the justification being a once-a-week interchange move. Those same ETT''s also make reference to a "Scotch Valley Industrial Track", without further details.
In the years following the Civil war, The F. W. Beers company produced very detailed atlases, on a county-by-county basis, for many parts of the Northeast. The 1873 Luzerne County Atlas shows a "Wilkes Barre, Hazleton and Danville" railroad following the grade of the Catawissa Branch as far as Hazleton. The same atlas shows no rails on the east side of the North Branch of the Susquehanna south of Nanticoke, save for some local trackage serving a DuPont powder mill at Wapwallopen.
Around 1880, the PRR decided to invade the anthracite fields, and chartered both a "North and West Branch" and a "Nescopec" (sic) Railroad, one to build north along the east side of the North Branch, the other to follow Nescopeck and Black Creeks from Nescopeck to what became Glen Junction on the Catawissa. And for some time, the Pennsy entertained ideas of routing overhead traffic from the Wilkes-Barre gateway to the west via Selinsgrove and Lewistown, rather than the heavier Bald Eagle Branch via Lock Haven and Tyrone. This would account for the inclusion of the Selinsgrove Branch in the former Wilkes-Barre Division at one time.
http://www.scripophily.net/norandwesbra.html#
The seventh volume of the Barnard, Roberts
Triumph series contains a photo of REDPEN. My personal guess is that another industry some distance to the north lasted until 1943, and the line was cut further back to REDPEN at that time. Also take note that while both the RDG crossing at REDPEN and that with the LV at GUM RUN were interlocked and (presumably) manned, the two ends of the branch at CA Junction and Glen Junction were not, nor were the PRR/LV junctions at Tomhicken and New Boston, presumably because the agreements between roads crossing at grade mandated more positive protection.
Links to a 1947 ETT for the LV are posted below:
http://www.lvrr.com/index.php?album=%2F ... e05-06.jpg
http://www.lvrr.com/index.php?album=%2F ... e07-08.jpg