Wyoming Branch
Because of my residence in the small Scranton/Wilkes-Barre suburb of Duryea, the
Erie/E.L. was literally a half block from my home on Foote Avenue; the Lehigh Valley's
'Cutoff' line from Coxton Yard in Pittston to Mountaintop ran a quarter mile away, and the
CNJ using D&H trackage rights crossed through Moosic, the next borough to our east.
When the D&H wasn't running, the CNJ was... to its massive yard in Hudson
(Wilkes-Barre) about 7 miles south of its Taylor operation and its 1950s' Scranton
passenger terminal hub. The Erie's forgotten 'Wyoming Branch' was built in 1920 from
Inkerman near Pittston, to Lackawaxen, PA on the Delaware River, about 35 miles east,
passing through some of the most textbook, vintage scenery on earth. At one point near the
Elmhurst Reservoir just east of urban Scranton, the Erie not only passed over State Route
435, at one time the only viable driving route to New York City, but actually skirted the
edge of the 5 mile watershed on its one-track course to the Erie ML in New Jersey. Once,
the southernmost boundary at Inkerman was initially built to handle the output of
anthracite coal from only two breakers... the Ewen Colliery and the infamous Knox mine
slope; the latter ended coal mining in this locale forever when it collapsed due to miners
actually poking their shovels up through the bed of the Susquehanna River in January of
'59 (yes, they were sent to rob coal pillars from under a major waterway). The Wyoming
Branch was unique in that it began as a solitary track near Pittston where it crossed
under the legendary Laurel Line (Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley interurban
{passenger/freight service}), turned into 4 tracks north of River Street in South
Scranton, where it interchanged with the Laurel Line, continued as a two-track array for
the next 4 miles where a junction of leading and trailing switches sent a siding over a
200 foot trestle (still standing) and into the Keystone Industrial Park in Dunmore where
it served a plethora of Fortune 100 companies such as RCA and TRANE. From there it
interchanged (through a series of climbing switchbacks) to an older segment which ran
through the mid-valley area of Lackawanna County (Eynon, Archbald, Peckville, Carbondale)
until eventually connecting with the N.Y.O.& W. until the "Old Woman" went
belly-up in the spring of 1957. Back at the branch... from the crossover point at the
trestle, it continued to run double-track past the Elmhurst Reservoir, and to a couple of
'Mom & Pop' lumber yards near Hamlin, PA.; both of which switched to truck service in
1975. From here it wound east as a one track system again. In its day (1932-1947) it
probably carried more coal than any other Branch line in U.S. Railroading history; a train
every 10 minutes, 24 hours a day as my Dad, John told me... he could hot the tracks from
where he lived in South Side... enough that the Branch was built with electric block
signal control as early as the 1920s! The output of black diamonds from the Knox alone was
simply astonishing... (when we look back and see the irreversible damage done from the
greed of coal companies which compromised the daily safety of its workforce to rob the
only braces which literally held up the entire metro area)! Although the Branch was
downgraded to one-track in 1947 when anthracite began to take a back seat to cleaner
burning fuels, the segment near the 'Virginia' region of South Scranton was dug up here
and there in early 1981, by dragline operators who clandestinely tried to turn a quick
buck by pilfering segments of abandoned rail bed looking for Buckwheat coal, the same
larger, sturdy chunks which are again in demand these days by some industries and home
Stoker users. Back then, it was too coarse to burn at home, (it took forever and a lot of
heat to finally ignite) so railroading companies used it by the hundred-ton as a rigid
sub-foundation for rail-bed fill. South of Montage Mountain Road in the borough of Moosic,
the Erie Branch sidetracked to climb a steep 2% grade for 3 miles serving two competing
industries which still manufacture dynamite; the GOEX Corporation, and the E.I. DuPont
deNemours black powder camp, the latter operates on an ad-hoc basis. Although the track
has been paved over where it once crossed several city streets in Pittston (William, Oak,
South Main), for the most part the route is still walkable, and the trackage in relatively
good shape, except where it passes through neighborhoods where residents wantonly
disregard everything from lawn clipping waste to refrigerators along its 175 lb. road of
rails. Note: this was the same double-track Branch which ran past the legendary
"Rocky Glen" Amusement Park in Moosic, at first a joint venture between the
Rocky Glen Water Company and the Laurel Line back in the early 1900s. For any further
information on this incredibly historic and scenic line contact me via snail mail:
Last Updated - 19 Dec 1997
