Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad
The Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad was a shortline railroad subsidiary of the historically important Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (LC&N) that originated under an 1837 act of the legislature of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to connect coal loading facilities along the Navigations improving the Susquehanna River (acting as the Pennsylvania Canal) to connect the Northern Coal Region at Wilkes-Barre (elevation ca 690 feet (210.3 m)) via their local funicular railroad leg known as the Ashley Planes to the standard railroad trackage and rail yard nearly a 1,000 feet (304.8 m) above[1] in Penobscot, PA (Now Mountain Top, Pennsylvania in Fairview Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania).
In a second phase of construction, the railroad completed a double-tracked route descending to Ashley via a more circuitous and winding route up the difficult grade from the north end of the Solomon Gap. Both branchlines transited the gap to the Mountain Top railroad staging yard that the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad established in the flat terrain of the saddle about two miles from the mine's incline plane rail road. This roadbed is paralleled by Pennsylvania Route 437, and the road was extended to White Haven, Pennsylvania where northern construction was held off while the lines' trackage from Easton on the Delaware to Mauch Chunk below the Lehigh River Gorge was assayed. With the ability to reach their canal head, the railroad was in no hurry to connect its two halves by construction of trackage along the Lehigh gorge until the upstart Lehigh Valley (LV or LVRR) pushed into East Mauch Chunk (now part of Jim Thorpe) and began building up through the gorge on the left bank. Centered in the right bank town of Mauch Chunk the L&S finally moved with alacrity to connect both its halves. The trackage established by the railroad was double-tracked in the severe gradient from the Mountain Top Yardto Laurel Run, and other early trackage extended to Hudson Junction at Miner St. Jct. 1st St in Wilkes-Barre—which connected other railroads and to the Tayor yard and Scranton, Pennsylvania, as well as lower Eastern New York State. The LVRR followed a right away just upslope of the competing line from the exit from the Lehigh Gorge at White Haven all the way northwest to Avoca/Dupont crossing the LH&S near Hudson Junction to its mainline descent along Railroad St., Pittston/Duryea to the Duryea yard but also had a connecting spur which joined the LH&S at Hudson Junction which gave access to both southern lines to the Delaware and Hudson and Erie Railroads operations via the Taylor yard wye.
The famous Summit Hill and Mauch Chunk switchback railway, North America's second operating railroad was transferred to the control of the LH&S by the LC&N parent company in the 1850s along with other southern trackage owned by the mining company, and the whole of LH&S's operations were leased to the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ, also Jersey Central') in the early 1870s. LH&S since has been a holding company, but LC&N/LH&S maintained ownership of the trackage rights until the Conrail consolidations in the 1970s, and the operator throughout was the CNJ. Excepting for its two steep specialty coal railroads: the Ashley Planes and the switchback railway, the routes and road bed established by the line are still in use today in the mountainous terrain of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Both the specialty railroads lived well into the 20th century, with the switchback road being credited as being America's first roller coaster after it was abandoned as a coal haul road but converted to a tourist attraction— a role it had played from its inception.
References
- ↑ GoogleEarth puts trackage through Solomon Gap and Mountain Top Yard at 1634 ft, base at 650-690ish feet. Path and Right of Way compared to 1892 Wilkes-Barre Quadrant USGS maps from http://historical.mytopo.com
- Clint Chamberlin. "LEHIGH AND SUSQUEHANNA DIVISION". North East Rails. Retrieved 14 September 2013.