Wanamaker, Kempton and Southern Railroad

Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern Railroad

Reporting mark	WKS
Locale	Pennsylvania
Dates of operation	1963–present
Track gauge	4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Headquarters	Kempton, Pennsylvania

The Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern, Inc. (WK&S) is a privately owned heritage railroad company in Kempton, Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1963 and operates over a landlocked remnant of a former Reading Company line. Its nickname is the "Hawk Mountain Line" due to its proxomity to the Hawk Mountain range.

Operations

The WK&S operates tourist trains on a standard track of about 3 miles between Kempton and Wanamaker regularly on weekends between May and November as well as on special occasions using either diesel or steam engines. Its Kempton station is not the original one, but consists of buildings from the Reading Company that where brought to their current location. The ticket office was the original station at Joanna, Pennsylvania.

The company owns a shop building and an additional 1.5 miles of track south of Kempton.

History

The beginnings of the Wanamaker Kempton & Southern started in 1870 with the charter of a new railroad, the Berks County Railroad. In a very short time the new line was bankrupt and it went to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and was renamed the Schuylkill and Lehigh line; a small branch line from Reading to Slatedale where the Reading connected with the Lehigh Valley Railroad. With the decline of railroads the Reading Company filed abandonment of the Schuylkill and Lehigh line. In 1963 a group of volunteers founded the Wanamaker Kempton & Southern Railroad its main purpose was to preserve railroad history. The original plan for the line was to operate 11.5 miles of track from Kempton to Germansville. However this did not happen because in the event of an uncooperative land owner the new railroad would have to stop where the owner's land started. This event did happen, that's why the railroad stops just a shy north of Wanamakers along Rt. 143. The new railroad purchased 3 miles of track for $65,000. After the rest of the line was abandoned the tracks south of Kempton was next on the list to be scrapped, sadly the WK&S had no money to purchase the line but the scrapper donated 1.2 miles of track south of Kempton. The end of the line to the south became N. Albany. The railroad now was landlocked. H.K Porter #65 was the last piece of equipment to arrive at the WK&S by rail before the line south was scrapped.

Motive Power

Steam

0-6-0 H. K. Porter steam engine #65 (1930) At this moment in time she is being rebuilt to be brought up to FRA code. Will return to service within a couple of years.
0-4-0 Porter steam engine #2 (1920) No future plans.

Diesel

General Electric diesel-electric engine #7258 (1941)
Whitcomb diesel-electric #602 (1944)
General Electric diesel-electric #734 (1956) restoration completed in 2010. Received as result of a trade with Railway Restoration Project 113 for Jersey Central business car 98

Not Restored or Gone

2-6-2 Baldwin steam engine #4 (1914) Purchased in 2008. Will be restored to operation.
2-6-2 steam Baldwin steam engine #250 (1914) She is no longer on the line. She is now at the Edaville USA, South Carver, MA

Gallery

0-6-0 H. K. Porter locomotive, #65
'#65, inside
Whitcomb engine
Wanamaker Station
1966 GMC Hyrail truck

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wanamaker Kempton and Southern Railroad.