Slatington, PA branch LVRR info???

Doing some tracing on google maps and penn pilot, it appears as though a branchline left the LVRR main at Slatinton, PA by the passenger station, went westward, followed the creek and looped around town. It tapped several factories and then left town westard. Some metal bridges over the creek are still there today. Can anyone tell me about this line. I never read about it in books or anything.

carajul wrote:Doing some tracing on google maps and penn pilot, it appears as though a branchline left the LVRR main at Slatinton, PA by the passenger station, went westward, followed the creek and looped around town. It tapped several factories and then left town westard. Some metal bridges over the creek are still there today. Can anyone tell me about this line. I never read about it in books or anything.

There were actually 3 lines there. Not sure which came first.
The Berks County RR started in 1874 from Slatington to Reading -- leaving Slatington going north from the LV main, then winding around the north side of town and then finally southwest to Reading. It was taken over by the Reading RR as the Schyulkill and Lehigh branch soon after construction http://www.jeff-z.com/wks/wkshist/wkshist.html.

Then there was the the LV Slatedale Branch, about 2 miles long. It shared tracks with the above Reading line wrapping around the north side of Slatington, then around Emerald (see http://mapper.acme.com/ zoomed in about a mile west of Slatington to see Emerald), at Little Run Junction (also I have seen it referred to as Franklin) they diverged, with the LV running west to the south side of Slatedale and then a big further to Saegerville Quarries near Country Bridge Rd. There is some discussion of turning the ROW into a trail and an old timetable about 1/3 of the way down here http://thepalmertonpress.com/volume206/volume206.html

Then there was another LV branch to a quarry, which came off the same tracks on the north side of Slatington, before you got to Emerald, around modern Willow Ave. It then went north and west to end at Welshtown Rd. At maps.google.com or mapper.acme.com, zoomed in, part of the LV still shows up from the LV main to the junction near Willow Ave and a bit past on the 3rd branch, and in map mode by the property boundaries you can trace out the ROW more or less of the third branch more or less to the end, and most of the Slatedale Branch and the Readign S&L division too. The whole area was full of slate quarries, and on modern maps there are lots of small lakes in the area now from the quarries. JS

PS. In one map I have there is a traction line (LV Transit?) from Slatedale running south on the west side of Slatington down towards Allentown too

bump

The LV Slatedale Branch is partly used by a new sewer line into Slatedale and is easily followed.

The branch towards Welshtown Road was the Rextown Branch. It was relocated at least once, probably twice, over the years as the slate quarries moved around and got larger.

I'm not positive, but I think the Slatedale Branch came first. The Reading connected later at Little Run Junction. I read somewhere that the Reading or Berks wanted their own line to Slatington but used the LV as a temporary measure. The Rextown Branch was off of the Slatedale Branch.

I think the L&NE line into Slatington (the bridge piers across the Lehigh are still in) was where the Reading/Berks wanted to connect?

I think the LNE line into Slatington was abandoned by the late 1920s early 1930s. I guess traffic wasn't enough to warrant keeping a bridge like that in place. The 1938 photo on penn pilot shows the bridge gone by that time. It's kinda cool to see those bridge pillars in 1938 exactly as they are today. The ROW is cearly visible in '38 but today is all built over with houses.

Slatington (as it's name implies) used to have many slate quarries that the RRs tapped into. It was the #1 supplies of chalk boards for grade schools in the country. I don't know when the quarries closed.

You can still tell where the PP&B/L&NE crossed 145 by the hump in the adjacent field.. But I'm not gonna spill the beans as to where. Let you guys find it!

Micah