Nesquehoning Valley Branch question

I understand the CNJ built the NVB from JT to Haucks and interchanged with the RDG there. After the CNJ left PA in '72 the LVRR took over and then CR. There were so few online customers that it didn't pay for CR to serve the line from A'town Yard and they wanted to abandon the line. The online customers (namely Ametek) threw a hissy fit and then Carbon County bought the line from CR and started up a shortline.

After CR was there any activity on the line past Ametek over the high bridge or was the line oos?

I can remember in the mid-80s there was hardly any activity on the line, then in the mid-90s things really picked up. Now with everything served from Haucks end nothing goes thru Nesquehoning anymore. I also remember in the mid-80s I caught the crew from A'town parked at PQ tower drinking beers. I think this was illegal.

The grade xing signals at Marian High School Rd are ancient.

Does anyone know what town the high bridge and Marian HS are in? Is it Rush or Ryan or something?

The Nesquehoning Valley Railroad built the NV Branch. It along with numerous other LC&N properties were leased to the CNJ in 1871, becoming the L&S (later Pennsylvania) Division of the CNJ.

It wasn't just the customers who were concerned, it was Carbon County as well. This became the first county-owned line in the state of PA.

In the 80's the customer list was a bit longer than it is now.

The first customer from JT was Nescoal Corp, just a bit compass east of Ametek, they loaded Anthracite (either freshly mined or waste, not sure) into hoppers marked PVAL for the Panther Valley railroad, designated operator at the time.

The next customer is and was (since LV days) Ametek. Just a stones throw from Ametek there's a large square building, now used by Kovatch, through the early 90's it had a siding running the length of the building, I don't know the prior name or what was done there.

Over along Tonoli Road was Tonoli Corp, recycler of used batteries and I believe a former customer as well. Gone since the 80's or 90's as well.

Trans-Western Polymers in Hometown came online and had their siding built in the late 90's, if not later.

Heading west, just past the 903 bridge there was a facing-point switch diverging to the left, I remember seeing it full of tank cars when i was younger, but nothing ever moved in or out by the time I knew they were there. Even the siding itself is long gone now. East of the Hometown High Bridge is (or possibly WAS) a trailing-point switch diverging again to the left, the siding going a few hundred yards to an operation who recycled copper wire. Out of service since the early 80's. They did leave some nice mountains of 'fluff' (ground up wire insulation).

Then finally at Haucks is Air Products, which goes back to CNJ days.

Hometown is in Rush Township. Marian may or may not be as well.

MJK

The square building next to Amatek never used rail service. They did have a spur installed by the county or some quazi-gov't agency but they never used it. I think they used to make light fixtures or something. The spur was removed around 10 years ago but the bumper is still there in the woods. I remember in the '80s for several years the grade xing flashers in Nesq were always going on by themselves sometimes in the middle of the night and would drive people crazy.

The coal place Nescoal has been gones since the mid-80s the battery place just before the hometown bridge has been gone since the late 70s early 80s. The spur is still in and still goes all the way to the warehouse on the property but hasn't seen a turn of the wheel in 20 years. It is a hazmat clean up site and some other business is using the warehouse. The new garbage bag factory next to Rt 309 has spurs with very heavy lb rail.

I assume in the 80s the only thing that went over the hometown high bridge was a seldom car to Air Products. They ship sparcely by rail - only tank cars maybe once or twice a month.

carajul wrote:Now with everything served from Haucks end nothing goes thru Nesquehoning anymore.

Occasionally a train will go through to Jim Thorpe via Nesquehoning on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Plenty of light engine moves/power balancing, as well as MLEX's (main line extras) heading to JT to run-around, and also swap cars with the Lehigh Side on occasion.. It's far from dead.

My parents had a friend who just recently died. He had a house that faced the tracks in Nesq. After he was discharged from WWII service he told me that on any given day, there were 20-25 coal trains per day on that line (yes, a branch line) and interchange trains for the RDG at Haucks. It was signaled and was 2 tracks up until Hauto.

I've often wondered why the R&N doesn't re-bore the Hauto tunnel. It's 85% intact and would cut a lot of travel time off the trip from JT to Tamaqua.

carajul wrote:
I've often wondered why the R&N doesn't re-bore the Hauto tunnel. It's 85% intact and would cut a lot of travel time off the trip from JT to Tamaqua.

It's not considered good form to work on a tunnel that you don't own.. Plus, it would have to be lined from end to end, as it's been plagued with major rockfalls to this day (remember 1994 on route 54?).. It would be an nice 'cutoff' though, looking on a map it seems it would take about 20+ miles off the trip between Tamaqua and Hauto. Realize though, that if travel time were as much an issue now as it was in the 'good ol days' then track speed on the R&N (and NS for that matter) would be higher than it currently is. Perhaps if there were no NS connection in Lehighton, then getting the empties to Spring Street in Reading would be an issue, and you'd see higher speeds. For now though, 28 and 30 seem to cut the mustard just fine.