RE: (erielack) Erie Wyoming Division

["Schuyler Larrabee" <schuyler.larrabee_@_verizon.net>]

If you want to follow the line along on old USGS maps, go to
 http://historical.maptech.com/quadlist.cfm?stateabr=PA

Pick the Hawley quad, and start with the north west part of that map.  You can
follow it along by clicking appropriately.  All the way to Scranton, I imagine.

SGL

> -----Original Message-----
> From: erielack-owner_@_lists.railfan.net 
> [mailto:erielack-owner_@_lists.railfan.net] On Behalf Of 
> gjokra_@_comcast.net
> Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 10:32 PM
> To: Henry W Jarusik; erielack_@_lists.railfan.net
> Subject: Re: (erielack) Erie Wyoming Division
> 
> 
> Henry,
> I too, lived along the line, however, later in the early 
> eighties, in Wimmers, near Mt. Cobb. I don't have a good map 
> of PA handy but I know where most of the line went. If you 
> were in Lake Ariel, you were on the branch that ran just a 
> few miles from the main. (2 point something miles) The line 
> came up from Scranton through Cobb's Gap and crossed the DL&W 
> and Roaring Brook at "Nay Aug". This is just under the I-380 
> bridge outside of Dunmore. The tracks followed Roaring Brook 
> across from the DL&W to just before the Elmhurst Reservoir 
> where it ran along side RT 590 to the top of the "Saddle". at 
> which point it went across the small valley to 
> Wimmers,(Passing under I-84 first) then around the hill to 
> Saco. Saco is on RT 348 and the tracks crossed at DeLeo's gas 
> station. There was a small yard here. Next it went through 
> Maplewood, near Lake Henry and crossed RT 196 near Varden. I 
> remember a small village called Gravity which had a grade 
> crossing but my map doesn't show it. This is where I lose the 
> tracks until they surface near Hawley and connect with the 
> Honesdale branch and follow the Lackawaxen river to 
> Lackawaxen and the juction with the Main Line. The last train 
> through this line was in 1969. There are very few pictures of 
> this area as it was still very r!
>  ural and traffic was fairly light by the late fifties. I 
> know that the line followed the path of the Pennsylvania Coal 
> Co. gravity railroad right of way for much of the way. If I 
> get a chance to look at a better map online some more of the 
> little villages along the way will jar my memory. The man I 
> bought my house in Wimmers from was a retired conductor for 
> the Erie. He passed away not long after I moved in so I 
> didn't have a chance to get more stories from him. He did say 
> that later on, because traffic was so light here that he 
> would get off the train at his house and they would pick him 
> up the next day. The crew would cover for him so he didn't 
> have to drive to and from Dunmore so often. His wife was a 
> Hollister, an early settler family.
> If anyone has more to offer about this end of the division it 
> would be great to know more.
> Greg Okrasinski
> ELHS #2887
> -------------- Original message -------------- 
> 
> > List: 
> > 
> > Was this the line that ran from Hawley, Pa. over to the 
> Scranton area? 
> > Can someone give me the general path it followed, and any 
> other details? 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Our family farm [Lake Ariel Post Office] is along this now 
> abandoned 
> > right-of-way. The line was active and then removed in the 
> early 1960s.
> > I was too young to ever see any railroad activity on the line but 
> > remember the rails being there looking functional and in service.
> > 
> > The Erie burned down the farm house in the early 1930s from the 
> > exhaust cinders igniting the roof. As my father told it, 
> everyone came 
> > home from church one Sunday to see the house burning down. I don't 
> > know how it was resolved, but they did build a new house on 
> the old foundation.
> > 
> > 
> > Henry Jarusik
> > New London, Pa
> > 
> > 
> > --
> > Henry W Jarusik
> > hwjpa_@_fastem.com
> > 
> 

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