I saw a note in the recent Railpace magazine and then just now found it at the STB site. The former CNJ Tresckow branch is being formally abandoned. I didn't read all the details yet, but it seems the tracks were pulled up 40 or 50 or so years ago. If you go to the STB site https://www.stb.gov/proceedings-actions/filings/ and then search for Filing number 303208 from Nov 12, 2021, you find the whole pdf to look at, along with maps.
It was a bit of an odd duck - a short anthracite branch (about 7 miles long) which was disconnected from the rest of the CNJ system, and reached from a connection to the Reading branch to Silver Brook Mine branch which itself was only a mile or so long, coming off the old Reading Catawissa line short of the tunnel at Lofty, PA. The Tresckow branch went sort of north a mile or so to just south of McAdoo, veered northeast a mile or so, and then south of the town of Tresckow it did a U turn and went back west just north of McAdoo, crossing the LV line to Hazelton (which is still operated by R&N) and then ended a mile(?) farther west where the mines were. It dated to ~1870 was part of the L&S before the CNJ leased the whole L&S to get into the anthracite region a year later (see below). The Catawissa line itself is also operated by the R&N, up to a point about a mile south (timetable east?) of Lofty. I am not certain but I believe CNJ reached this branch from their PA main line (also ex L&S) by using their Nesquehoning branch just north of Jim Thorpe to get to the Catawissa and then with rights on the Catawisssa. Or maybe the Reading delivered the loads to them .
From the STB Filing: The Line, which extends approximately 7.7 miles from Silverbrook Jct., PA, to Audenried, PA, was built in 1870 by the Tresckow Railroad, which was controlled Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (“Lehigh”). See Central R. Co. of N.J., 149 ICC 659, 826 (1929). In 1871, Lehigh leased the Line, which was part of a collection of railroad properties known as the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad System (“L & S System”), to the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey (“CNJ”) for 999 years. In 1963, the Interstate Commerce Commission (“ICC”) authorized the Reading Company (“Reading”) to purchase the L & S System from Lehigh, subject to CNJ’s rights. See Reading Co.—Purchase—Lehigh & S.R. System, 317 I.C.C. 633 (1963). In 1971, the ICC authorized CNJ to abandon the Line. See R.D. Timpany, Trustee of the Property of the Central Railroad Co. of New Jersey Abandonment of Its Tresckow Branch, In Carbon County, PA, FD 26659 (Sub-No. 7) (ICC served Aug. 24, 1971). The Line was apparently taken over by the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company in 1972. See United States Railway Association, Final System Plan, Vol. II, p. 504 (1975). The Line, which was identified in the records of the United States Railway Association (“USRA”) as Line Code 0523 and USRA Line No. 1030, was not designated for transfer to Conrail in the USRA’s Final System Plan. In 1976, Conrail acquired the property associated with the Line from the Trustees of the Property of the Reading Company, pursuant to the Order of the Special United States District Court established pursuant to Section 209(b) of the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, Pub. L. No. 93-236, by conveyance document RDG-CRC-RP-17.
It was a bit of an odd duck - a short anthracite branch (about 7 miles long) which was disconnected from the rest of the CNJ system, and reached from a connection to the Reading branch to Silver Brook Mine branch which itself was only a mile or so long, coming off the old Reading Catawissa line short of the tunnel at Lofty, PA. The Tresckow branch went sort of north a mile or so to just south of McAdoo, veered northeast a mile or so, and then south of the town of Tresckow it did a U turn and went back west just north of McAdoo, crossing the LV line to Hazelton (which is still operated by R&N) and then ended a mile(?) farther west where the mines were. It dated to ~1870 was part of the L&S before the CNJ leased the whole L&S to get into the anthracite region a year later (see below). The Catawissa line itself is also operated by the R&N, up to a point about a mile south (timetable east?) of Lofty. I am not certain but I believe CNJ reached this branch from their PA main line (also ex L&S) by using their Nesquehoning branch just north of Jim Thorpe to get to the Catawissa and then with rights on the Catawisssa. Or maybe the Reading delivered the loads to them .
From the STB Filing: The Line, which extends approximately 7.7 miles from Silverbrook Jct., PA, to Audenried, PA, was built in 1870 by the Tresckow Railroad, which was controlled Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (“Lehigh”). See Central R. Co. of N.J., 149 ICC 659, 826 (1929). In 1871, Lehigh leased the Line, which was part of a collection of railroad properties known as the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad System (“L & S System”), to the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey (“CNJ”) for 999 years. In 1963, the Interstate Commerce Commission (“ICC”) authorized the Reading Company (“Reading”) to purchase the L & S System from Lehigh, subject to CNJ’s rights. See Reading Co.—Purchase—Lehigh & S.R. System, 317 I.C.C. 633 (1963). In 1971, the ICC authorized CNJ to abandon the Line. See R.D. Timpany, Trustee of the Property of the Central Railroad Co. of New Jersey Abandonment of Its Tresckow Branch, In Carbon County, PA, FD 26659 (Sub-No. 7) (ICC served Aug. 24, 1971). The Line was apparently taken over by the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company in 1972. See United States Railway Association, Final System Plan, Vol. II, p. 504 (1975). The Line, which was identified in the records of the United States Railway Association (“USRA”) as Line Code 0523 and USRA Line No. 1030, was not designated for transfer to Conrail in the USRA’s Final System Plan. In 1976, Conrail acquired the property associated with the Line from the Trustees of the Property of the Reading Company, pursuant to the Order of the Special United States District Court established pursuant to Section 209(b) of the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, Pub. L. No. 93-236, by conveyance document RDG-CRC-RP-17.
