Re: (erielack) Erie Wyoming Division

["Russell Hallock" <rhallock_@_frontiernet.net>]

The Canal museum in Honesdale has or at least had an excellent map for sale 
showing the location of the gravity railroads and the later Wyoming 
division.  Mostly it was built on separate right of way from the gravity 
lines.  I believe the line was permanently broken by the great flood of 
1955.
- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: <gjokra_@_comcast.net>
To: "Henry W Jarusik" <hwjpa_@_fastem.com>; <erielack@lists.railfan.net>
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 10:32 PM
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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