I'm having a bit of difficulty all of a sudden in posting the flyer for this trip, but...
May 3, 2014. The Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Chapter of the NRHS and Reading & Northern RR are running a diesel powered excursion with nearly 10 miles of railroad track not ridden by passengers in over 50 years or more. The track has been active for freight all along.
Starting point is Duryea, PA outside of Pittston and about 8 miles from Scranton. The SD38s (Grand Trunk heritage) will haul a mixed consist of 8 freight cars and caboose plus passenger cars on the former DL&W Bloomsburg branch north to Taylor, PA and then through the Keyser Valley section of Scranton to around Clearview St. Passenger trains never took the Keyser valley line. Rare, rare, rare. This is about 5 miles of untouched track. Return is to Duryea before the second leg.
After coming back to Duryea, the train heads up the former Lehigh Valley main line to Vosburg, PA. This is about 5 miles past Tunkhannock. R&N has run specials from Tunkhannock to Duryea/Pittson and beyond, but never ran with passengers from Tunkhannock to Vosburg. There is a tunnel on the line in Vosburg. The Lehigh Valley last ran the Black Diamond in 1961, so it is 53 years since people could ride this stretch. Train will then return to R&N's yard in Pittston.
The third leg of the trip will head on the former Lehigh Valley Mountain cutoff to Penobscot yard, which is past Mountaintop. Some of this line is former Central of New Jersey. The cutoff was freight-only in LV days, so regular passenger trains rarely took this route. Only since R&N began running trips on this line in 1998 has it come to be familiar.
Prices will be on the order form, or you can check out our Facebook event page.
https://www.facebook.com/event...oard_filter=calendar
Any questions? Hope to see you there.
