Williamsport and North Branch Railroad
Encyclopedia
The Williamsport and North Branch Railroad was a short line that operated in north-central Pennsylvania
between 1872 and 1937. After a long struggle to finance its construction, it was completed in 1893. It derived most of its freight revenue from logging and to a certain extent from anthracite coal traffic. It also carried many passengers to mountain resorts in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania
. With the decline of the logging industry and increased accessibility of the region by automobile in the 1910s and 1920s, the railroad's business rapidly declined. The economic blow of the Great Depression
proved insurmountable, and it was abandoned as unprofitable in 1937.
, the newly established county seat
of Sullivan County, via the valley of Muncy Creek
. Some surveying, and possibly even grading, was done, but the new corporation ran out of money around 1867 and remained quiescent for several years. Interest in the railroad did not resume until 1871, when the Catawissa Railroad
, later part of the Reading
system, completed its line up the east bank of the West Branch Susquehanna River
, passing through Muncy
and Halls. Muncy, near the mouth of Muncy Creek, was an established town and would have been the logical terminus of the railroad. However, residents of Muncy feared the railroad would compete with an existing plank road
to Hughesville
and refused it permission to enter the town. Accordingly, the railroad was built from Halls to Hughesville in 1872, but money for further work was again lacking. The railroad was extended to Picture Rocks
in 1875 using wooden rails to save money. However, the wooden rails could not withstand the weight of trains and the extension was abandoned in early 1876. The Muncy Creek Railway continued to struggle along until 1881, when the bondholders petitioned to have it placed in receivership
. It was foreclosed on August 9, 1882, and reorganized on September 1, 1882 as the Williamsport and North Branch Railroad.
at Bernice, but this could only be accomplished in slow stages. The track from Halls to Hughesville was rebuilt to make up for the deferred maintenance of previous years, and in late 1883, construction north and east began again. The new line followed a different route from the unsuccessful wooden-railed extension, following the west side of Muncy Creek through Tivoli up to Glen Mawr, which was reached in 1884. There was a picnic grove at Tivoli which was the destination of summer excursions, and a stage connection to the resort of Eagles Mere
, then called Lewis Lake.
Extension of the line continued. At Glen Mawr, the railroad crossed Muncy Creek and followed its east bank up to Sonestown, which it reached in 1885, and Nordmont, where it ended in October 1886. Here the railroad's expansion ceased again, but the sawmill
s and tanneries
of the Muncy Valley provided the revenue to keep it solvent.
In the late 1880s, the Pennsylvania Railroad
took an interest in the W&NB as a means of reaching the Bernice coalfields. The State Line and Sullivan Railroad, a subsidiary of the Lehigh Valley
, had already reached the area,and the Bloomsburg and Sullivan Railroad, backed by the Reading interest, had been chartered in 1883 to reach Bernice from the south via Fishing Creek
. The PRR backed a new syndicate which took over the W&NB in 1888, and named George Sanderson president. However, the PRR's interest in the W&NB quickly waned, especially after the Bloomsburg & Sullivan's construction halted in Jamison City
, never to reach Bernice. The failure of Sanderson's bank in 1891 resulted in the transfer of his investment in the W&NB to his creditors, including John Satterfield; Satterfield now became vice-president and Henry C. McCormick
president of the railroad. Satterfield was determined to complete the railroad, and after raising money and surveying, construction began in 1892. At Nordmont, the railroad crossed Muncy Creek on a horseshoe curve
and began climbing up the other side of the valley, then turning up Deep Hollow and crossing over into the Loyalsock Creek
watershed. The new line passed Lake Mokoma
and Laporte and descended high on the east side of the Mill Creek valley, turning and descending along the Loyalsock to Ringdale. The line from Ringdale to the summit between Loyalsock and Muncy creeks was built on a 1% grade to facilitate handling heavy coal trains from Bernice. At Ringdale, the line crossed the Loyalsock on a high trestle, 476 feet (145.1 m) long, and ran up Birch Creek. The line forked at Birch Creek Junction, with one branch going up a tributary of Birch Creek to a junction with the State Line & Sullivan at Dohm's Summit, while another followed Birch Creek to join the State Line and Sullivan at Bernice.
The line was completed into Laporte in August 1893, and to Dohm's Summit in September. The latter was renamed Satterfield in honor of the promoter who had completed the W&NB. Construction of a depot at Satterfield began in October, but a dispute with the Lehigh Valley over property ownership resulted in its demolition, and it was relocated in November. The W&NB did obtain trackage rights
over the State Line & Sullivan to Towanda
for its passenger trains. The branch to Bernice was finished in 1894.
) in 1893, using hemlock bark supplied by logging. In the late 1890s, a chemical company was built at Nordmont which made charcoal
, acetic acid
, and wood alcohol from wood. Attempts to develop Lake Mokoma for ice harvesting were largely unsuccessful. Finally, anthracite coal mined around Bernice supplied some of the railroad's freight traffic.
Passenger service was also important to the railroad's revenue. Several hotels around Highland Lake were connected by stage to the railroad's station at Chamouni (later renamed Essick and Tivoli). The opening of the narrow gauge
Eagles Mere Railroad on July 1, 1892 provided additional passenger traffic. The narrow gauge interchanged with the W&NB at Sonestown, providing passenger service to the many hotels at the resort of Eagles Mere.
After 1900, a lime-burning business began to develop on the south end of the lime, using local limestone
deposits and coal shipped south from Bernice. In 1901, the Eagles Mere Railroad was leased to the W&NB for $5,000 a year. This proved to be a fortunate decision, for in that same year, Union Tanning decided to log large tracts of forest to the north and west of the line. Charles W. Sones contracted to do the logging, and built a sawmill at Kettle Creek, and a logging railroad to connect it with Eagles Mere. The lumber was shipped down the Eagles Mere Railroad to Sonestown and then over the W&NB; a narrow gauge rail was laid from Sonestown to Muncy Valley to allow Eagles Mere trains to haul bark directly to the tannery there. About this time, the Northern Anthracite Company built its Murray coal breaker
two miles west of Bernice. The W&NB was given exclusive rights to serve it, operating via trackage rights over the Lehigh Valley to a new spur to the mine. At 169 feet (51.5 m) high, the breaker was the tallest structure in central Pennsylvania. When the Coal Strike of 1902
paralyzed many of the mines on the Reading, Northern Anthracite experienced a boom in business, and for a short while, the W&NB was shipping a thousand tons of coal per day to Halls for interchange with the Reading.
The rosy prospects of coal traffic proved illusory, however. After the strike ended, coal traffic rapidly fell off. A further blow occurred in 1906, when Sones' logging railroad (incorporated in 1904 as the Susquehanna and Eagles Mere Railroad
) was extended to Masten
and a connection with the Susquehanna and New York Railroad
, owned by Union Tanning. The Laporte tannery closed about this time, and Sones' lumber traffic was diverted to move through Masten rather than Sonestown. The closing of the Muncy Valley Tannery in 1908 effectively removed Union Tanning's traffic from the railroad. However, wood products traffic was still generated at Nordmont. Sutton Peck Chemical had built a standard gauge logging railroad up Cherry Run and down Painter Run in 1900. Sutton Peck became Nordmont Chemical in 1904, and in 1908, it removed the Cherry Run–Painter Run line. A new line was incorporated by the chemical company as the Wyoming and Sullivan Railroad, and built several miles up Muncy Creek to continue supplying wood to Nordmont Chemical.
. The company laid a standard gauge rail a short distance on the Eagles Mere Railroad, and then turned up Big Run to collect timber. This line was removed around 1917 or 1918, and a new line was laid on part of the old Nordmont Chemical grade from Nordmont up Cherry Run. Logging trains originating on this line operated over the W&NB from Nordmont to Sonestown until 1922, when the stave mill was closed and its logging line abandoned.
The W&NB went into receivership in 1917 due to its inability to pay off its bonded interest, and the lease of the Eagles Mere Railroad was canceled in 1920. The W&NB was reorganized as the Williamsport and North Branch Railway on May 1, 1921. In addition to the closing of the Sonestown stave mill, Nordmont Chemical sold out to Charles Sones in 1924. He closed the factory, replaced it with a sawmill, and continued to haul logs on the Wyoming & Sullivan until 1930. With local traffic falling off, the W&NB depended on the small amount of bridge traffic allotted it by the ICC
to help sustain it. It was only allowed freight traveling over the Grand Trunk Railway
and the Lehigh Valley which was destined for the Reading. In practice, this amounted largely to automobiles and grain.
It was the Great Depression
that ultimately finished off the Williamsport and North Branch. The Eagles Mere Railroad had been abandoned in 1926 after flood damage, but it no longer supplied any significant traffic for the W&NB. After 1930, the logging and wood products industry had essentially shut down, leaving only the coal mines as regular generators of freight traffic north of Picture Rocks. The furniture factories lower in the valley also suffered during the Depression. During the 1930s, the railroad just scraped along, able to pay its operating expenses but unable to maintain track or equipment. By 1937, it was in so decrepit a state that the owners decided to abandon it. The last train ran on October 11, 1937, and tracks were removed by summer 1938.
Little remains of the railroad, although the Pennsdale and Sonestown stations are now private residences, the Nordmont station stands vacant, and part of the grade has been incorporated into the Loyalsock Trail
.
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
between 1872 and 1937. After a long struggle to finance its construction, it was completed in 1893. It derived most of its freight revenue from logging and to a certain extent from anthracite coal traffic. It also carried many passengers to mountain resorts in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania
Sullivan County, Pennsylvania
Sullivan County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of 2010, the population is 6,428. Sullivan County was created on March 15, 1847, from part of Lycoming County and named for Charles Sullivan, leader of the Pennsylvania Senate...
. With the decline of the logging industry and increased accessibility of the region by automobile in the 1910s and 1920s, the railroad's business rapidly declined. The economic blow of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
proved insurmountable, and it was abandoned as unprofitable in 1937.
Muncy Creek Railway
The railroad was originally chartered as the Muncy Creek Railway on May 21, 1864. It was intended to provide a railroad outlet for LaporteLaporte, Pennsylvania
Laporte is a borough in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 316 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Sullivan County. Laporte is surrounded by Laporte Township. It was named for John Laporte...
, the newly established county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
of Sullivan County, via the valley of Muncy Creek
Muncy Creek
Muncy Creek is a tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River in Lycoming and Sullivan counties, Pennsylvania, USA. Little Muncy Creek is its major tributary.-Course:The creek is long. For much of its length, U.S. Route 220 runs parallel to Muncy Creek....
. Some surveying, and possibly even grading, was done, but the new corporation ran out of money around 1867 and remained quiescent for several years. Interest in the railroad did not resume until 1871, when the Catawissa Railroad
Catawissa Railroad
The Catawissa Railroad was a railroad that operated in Pennsylvania between 1860 and 1953. For most of its lifespan it was leased by the Reading Railroad, and was subsequently merged into the Reading.-History:...
, later part of the Reading
Reading Company
The Reading Company , usually called the Reading Railroad, officially the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road and then the Philadelphia and Reading Railway until 1924, operated in southeast Pennsylvania and neighboring states...
system, completed its line up the east bank of the West Branch Susquehanna River
West Branch Susquehanna River
The West Branch Susquehanna River is one of the two principal branches, along with the North Branch, of the Susquehanna River in the northeastern United States. The North Branch, which rises in upstate New York, is generally regarded as the extension of the main branch, with the shorter West Branch...
, passing through Muncy
Muncy, Pennsylvania
For other places named 'Muncy', please see Muncy .Muncy is a borough in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The name Muncy comes from the Munsee Indians who once lived in the area. The population was 2,663 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Williamsport, Pennsylvania...
and Halls. Muncy, near the mouth of Muncy Creek, was an established town and would have been the logical terminus of the railroad. However, residents of Muncy feared the railroad would compete with an existing plank road
Plank road
A plank road or puncheon is a dirt path or road covered with a series of planks, similar to the wooden sidewalks one would see in a Western movie. Plank roads were very popular in Ontario, the U.S. Northeast and U.S. Midwest in the first half of the 19th century...
to Hughesville
Hughesville, Pennsylvania
Hughesville is a borough in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,220 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Williamsport, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
and refused it permission to enter the town. Accordingly, the railroad was built from Halls to Hughesville in 1872, but money for further work was again lacking. The railroad was extended to Picture Rocks
Picture Rocks, Pennsylvania
Picture Rocks is a borough in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The population was 693 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Williamsport, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
in 1875 using wooden rails to save money. However, the wooden rails could not withstand the weight of trains and the extension was abandoned in early 1876. The Muncy Creek Railway continued to struggle along until 1881, when the bondholders petitioned to have it placed in receivership
Receivership
In law, receivership is the situation in which an institution or enterprise is being held by a receiver, a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights." The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in...
. It was foreclosed on August 9, 1882, and reorganized on September 1, 1882 as the Williamsport and North Branch Railroad.
Completion
The new owners still intended to extend the railroad towards Laporte and the coalfieldBernice Coalfield
The Bernice Coalfield is in Cherry and Colley Townships of Sullivan County, Pennsylvania. The villages of Mildred, Lopez, Murraytown and Bernice surround the Coalfields. Primarily bituminous coal was mined here. Both strip mining and deep mining was done....
at Bernice, but this could only be accomplished in slow stages. The track from Halls to Hughesville was rebuilt to make up for the deferred maintenance of previous years, and in late 1883, construction north and east began again. The new line followed a different route from the unsuccessful wooden-railed extension, following the west side of Muncy Creek through Tivoli up to Glen Mawr, which was reached in 1884. There was a picnic grove at Tivoli which was the destination of summer excursions, and a stage connection to the resort of Eagles Mere
Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania
Eagles Mere is a borough in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, USA. The population was 120 at the 2010 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water....
, then called Lewis Lake.
Extension of the line continued. At Glen Mawr, the railroad crossed Muncy Creek and followed its east bank up to Sonestown, which it reached in 1885, and Nordmont, where it ended in October 1886. Here the railroad's expansion ceased again, but the sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
s and tanneries
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
of the Muncy Valley provided the revenue to keep it solvent.
In the late 1880s, the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
took an interest in the W&NB as a means of reaching the Bernice coalfields. The State Line and Sullivan Railroad, a subsidiary of the Lehigh Valley
Lehigh Valley Railroad
The Lehigh Valley Railroad was one of a number of railroads built in the northeastern United States primarily to haul anthracite coal.It was authorized April 21, 1846 in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and incorporated September 20, 1847 as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad...
, had already reached the area,and the Bloomsburg and Sullivan Railroad, backed by the Reading interest, had been chartered in 1883 to reach Bernice from the south via Fishing Creek
Fishing Creek (North Branch Susquehanna River)
Fishing Creek is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, in the United States.Fishing Creek joins the Susquehanna River near the village of Rupert, just southwest of the town of Bloomsburg.-Tributaries:travelling upstream...
. The PRR backed a new syndicate which took over the W&NB in 1888, and named George Sanderson president. However, the PRR's interest in the W&NB quickly waned, especially after the Bloomsburg & Sullivan's construction halted in Jamison City
Jamison City, Pennsylvania
Jamison City is a census-designated place in Sugarloaf Township Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 102 at the 2000 census...
, never to reach Bernice. The failure of Sanderson's bank in 1891 resulted in the transfer of his investment in the W&NB to his creditors, including John Satterfield; Satterfield now became vice-president and Henry C. McCormick
Henry Clay McCormick
Henry Clay McCormick was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.Henry C. McCormick was born in Washington Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. He attended the common schools and Dickinson Seminary in Williamsport, Pennsylvania...
president of the railroad. Satterfield was determined to complete the railroad, and after raising money and surveying, construction began in 1892. At Nordmont, the railroad crossed Muncy Creek on a horseshoe curve
Horseshoe curve
Horseshoe Curve may refer to:* Horseshoe curve , track layout used to reduce the gradient a train must travel uphill* Horseshoe Curve , National Historic Landmark* The Horseshoe Curve, an album by Trey Anastasio...
and began climbing up the other side of the valley, then turning up Deep Hollow and crossing over into the Loyalsock Creek
Loyalsock Creek
Loyalsock Creek is a tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River located chiefly in Sullivan and Lycoming counties in Pennsylvania in the United States...
watershed. The new line passed Lake Mokoma
Lake Mokoma
Lake Mokoma is a north-central Pennsylvania, United States, lake community that was developed in the late 19th century. Ellery Ingham and W.C. Mason wanted to take advantage of the arrival of the trains to nearby Laporte, and so they incorporated the Lake Mokoma Land Company in 1887 and built an...
and Laporte and descended high on the east side of the Mill Creek valley, turning and descending along the Loyalsock to Ringdale. The line from Ringdale to the summit between Loyalsock and Muncy creeks was built on a 1% grade to facilitate handling heavy coal trains from Bernice. At Ringdale, the line crossed the Loyalsock on a high trestle, 476 feet (145.1 m) long, and ran up Birch Creek. The line forked at Birch Creek Junction, with one branch going up a tributary of Birch Creek to a junction with the State Line & Sullivan at Dohm's Summit, while another followed Birch Creek to join the State Line and Sullivan at Bernice.
The line was completed into Laporte in August 1893, and to Dohm's Summit in September. The latter was renamed Satterfield in honor of the promoter who had completed the W&NB. Construction of a depot at Satterfield began in October, but a dispute with the Lehigh Valley over property ownership resulted in its demolition, and it was relocated in November. The W&NB did obtain trackage rights
Trackage rights
Trackage rights , running rights or running powers is an agreement whereby a railway company has the right to run its trains on tracks owned by another railway company....
over the State Line & Sullivan to Towanda
Towanda, Pennsylvania
Towanda is a borough in and the county seat of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, United States, northwest of Wilkes Barre, on the Susquehanna River. The name means "burial ground" in the Algonquian language...
for its passenger trains. The branch to Bernice was finished in 1894.
Business of the railroad
The finished W&NB enjoyed considerable business, both passenger and freight. Along the southern portion of the line, three furniture factories operated in the lower Muncy Valley. Above Picture Rocks was the Lyon sawmill, the largest sawmill on Muncy Creek. Logs were floated down the creek to the mill, and it shipped finished lumber over the railroad. Smaller sawmills were common along the line north of Picture Rocks. Tanneries at Muncy Valley and Laporte came under the control of the Union Tanning Company (a subsidiary of the United States Leather CompanyUnited States Leather Company
The United States Leather Company , was one of the largest corporations in the United States circa 1900, and one of the original companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average...
) in 1893, using hemlock bark supplied by logging. In the late 1890s, a chemical company was built at Nordmont which made charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
, acetic acid
Acetic acid
Acetic acid is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH3CO2H . It is a colourless liquid that when undiluted is also called glacial acetic acid. Acetic acid is the main component of vinegar , and has a distinctive sour taste and pungent smell...
, and wood alcohol from wood. Attempts to develop Lake Mokoma for ice harvesting were largely unsuccessful. Finally, anthracite coal mined around Bernice supplied some of the railroad's freight traffic.
Passenger service was also important to the railroad's revenue. Several hotels around Highland Lake were connected by stage to the railroad's station at Chamouni (later renamed Essick and Tivoli). The opening of the narrow gauge
Narrow gauge
A narrow gauge railway is a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow gauge railways have gauges of between and .- Overview :...
Eagles Mere Railroad on July 1, 1892 provided additional passenger traffic. The narrow gauge interchanged with the W&NB at Sonestown, providing passenger service to the many hotels at the resort of Eagles Mere.
Prosperity
Extension to the coal fields did not result in immediate prosperity. Despite an increase in traffic, the additional cost of extending the railroad resulted in interest charges that dragged the railroad down. McCormick resigned as president in 1896, and an economic downturn in 1897 brought the railroad into insolvency. The owners decided to sell out to a group of New York financiers and local businesspeople, and B. Harvey Welch, a native of Hughesville, became president. This transaction eliminated the bond interest and put the railroad back on a reasonably sound financial footing.After 1900, a lime-burning business began to develop on the south end of the lime, using local limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
deposits and coal shipped south from Bernice. In 1901, the Eagles Mere Railroad was leased to the W&NB for $5,000 a year. This proved to be a fortunate decision, for in that same year, Union Tanning decided to log large tracts of forest to the north and west of the line. Charles W. Sones contracted to do the logging, and built a sawmill at Kettle Creek, and a logging railroad to connect it with Eagles Mere. The lumber was shipped down the Eagles Mere Railroad to Sonestown and then over the W&NB; a narrow gauge rail was laid from Sonestown to Muncy Valley to allow Eagles Mere trains to haul bark directly to the tannery there. About this time, the Northern Anthracite Company built its Murray coal breaker
Coal breaker
A coal breaker was a coal processing plant which broke coal into various useful sizes. Coal breakers also removed impurities from the coal and deposited them into a culm dump...
two miles west of Bernice. The W&NB was given exclusive rights to serve it, operating via trackage rights over the Lehigh Valley to a new spur to the mine. At 169 feet (51.5 m) high, the breaker was the tallest structure in central Pennsylvania. When the Coal Strike of 1902
Coal Strike of 1902
The Coal Strike of 1902 was a strike by the United Mine Workers of America in the anthracite coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania. Miners were on strike asking for higher wages, shorter workdays, and the recognition of their union...
paralyzed many of the mines on the Reading, Northern Anthracite experienced a boom in business, and for a short while, the W&NB was shipping a thousand tons of coal per day to Halls for interchange with the Reading.
The rosy prospects of coal traffic proved illusory, however. After the strike ended, coal traffic rapidly fell off. A further blow occurred in 1906, when Sones' logging railroad (incorporated in 1904 as the Susquehanna and Eagles Mere Railroad
Susquehanna and Eagles Mere Railroad
The Susquehanna and Eagles Mere Railroad was a logging railroad operating from 1902 to 1930 in Sullivan and Lycoming Counties in Pennsylvania in the United States....
) was extended to Masten
Masten, Pennsylvania
Masten is a ghost town in Cascade and McNett Townships in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was a lumber mill company town from 1905 to 1930, served as the site of a Civilian Conservation Corps camp from 1933 to 1940, and the last family left it in 1941...
and a connection with the Susquehanna and New York Railroad
Susquehanna and New York Railroad
The Susquehanna and New York Railroad was a short-line railroad connecting the Lehigh Valley Railroad at Towanda, Pennsylvania with the Pennsylvania Railroad at Marsh Hill Junction...
, owned by Union Tanning. The Laporte tannery closed about this time, and Sones' lumber traffic was diverted to move through Masten rather than Sonestown. The closing of the Muncy Valley Tannery in 1908 effectively removed Union Tanning's traffic from the railroad. However, wood products traffic was still generated at Nordmont. Sutton Peck Chemical had built a standard gauge logging railroad up Cherry Run and down Painter Run in 1900. Sutton Peck became Nordmont Chemical in 1904, and in 1908, it removed the Cherry Run–Painter Run line. A new line was incorporated by the chemical company as the Wyoming and Sullivan Railroad, and built several miles up Muncy Creek to continue supplying wood to Nordmont Chemical.
Decline and abandonment
The W&NB's most profitable year was in 1906, when it netted $15,000. Thereafter, it fluctuated between surplus and deficit until 1912, the last year it showed a profit. Most local industries, logging, tanning, agriculture, declined through the 1910s, with only coal shipments remaining dependable. The only significant industrial development was the opening of the Big Run Manufacturing Company's stave mill at Sonestown in 1914. Big Run Manufacturing was a project of local loggers, including Col. R. Bruce RickettsR. Bruce Ricketts
Robert Bruce Ricketts distinguished himself as an artillery officer in the American Civil War. He is best known for his battery’s defense against a Confederate attack on Cemetery Hill on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg.-Early life:...
. The company laid a standard gauge rail a short distance on the Eagles Mere Railroad, and then turned up Big Run to collect timber. This line was removed around 1917 or 1918, and a new line was laid on part of the old Nordmont Chemical grade from Nordmont up Cherry Run. Logging trains originating on this line operated over the W&NB from Nordmont to Sonestown until 1922, when the stave mill was closed and its logging line abandoned.
The W&NB went into receivership in 1917 due to its inability to pay off its bonded interest, and the lease of the Eagles Mere Railroad was canceled in 1920. The W&NB was reorganized as the Williamsport and North Branch Railway on May 1, 1921. In addition to the closing of the Sonestown stave mill, Nordmont Chemical sold out to Charles Sones in 1924. He closed the factory, replaced it with a sawmill, and continued to haul logs on the Wyoming & Sullivan until 1930. With local traffic falling off, the W&NB depended on the small amount of bridge traffic allotted it by the ICC
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission was a regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including...
to help sustain it. It was only allowed freight traveling over the Grand Trunk Railway
Grand Trunk Railway
The Grand Trunk Railway was a railway system which operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, as well as the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec; however, corporate...
and the Lehigh Valley which was destined for the Reading. In practice, this amounted largely to automobiles and grain.
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
that ultimately finished off the Williamsport and North Branch. The Eagles Mere Railroad had been abandoned in 1926 after flood damage, but it no longer supplied any significant traffic for the W&NB. After 1930, the logging and wood products industry had essentially shut down, leaving only the coal mines as regular generators of freight traffic north of Picture Rocks. The furniture factories lower in the valley also suffered during the Depression. During the 1930s, the railroad just scraped along, able to pay its operating expenses but unable to maintain track or equipment. By 1937, it was in so decrepit a state that the owners decided to abandon it. The last train ran on October 11, 1937, and tracks were removed by summer 1938.
Little remains of the railroad, although the Pennsdale and Sonestown stations are now private residences, the Nordmont station stands vacant, and part of the grade has been incorporated into the Loyalsock Trail
Loyalsock Trail
The Loyalsock Trail is a 59.3 mi hiking trail along Loyalsock Creek in Lycoming and Sullivan counties in north central Pennsylvania in the United States.-Geography:...
.