Tracks, Rt 11 Larksville, Disconnected

Tracks, Rt 11 Larksville, Disconnected

September 20. 2008

Here is something I never noticed before :

On the side of Rt 11 in Larksville, PA here is a disconnected track.

Recent rains seemed to have washed away dirt covering it. I guess it was a lateral line connecting a cement / brick plant to he Bloomsburg Line.

This is what I like about riding my mountain bike : you see things on a much more granular level. How many times have I drove past this in my car over the years and never noticed this ?

Most of the time I rode my mountain bike I crossed the street before the tracks and never took notice of it.

In amother time, the tracks crossed the busy, busy present day Rt 11 to connect with the DL&W Bloomsburg line just beyond the trees in this picture.

I would love to see what would happed today if a train of a switcher and 5 hopper cars crossed this.

10 cars would probably crash into it.

Correction, it was the D&H :

According to Joe :Perkowski -

The crossing belonged to the D&H railroad. There used to be a railroad bridge across the Susquehanna between the Wilkes Barre Connecting Railroad (D&H) and the Larksville side of the river. The D&H tracks crossed the DL&W tracks at a place called Plymouth Junction. There is a picture of the switch tower somewhere on this site. Then the tracks crossed route 11 near the soda building, passed behind the minimart, passed in front of the sand and gravel plant, and continued along the back road to Edwardville for a few miles. Then, the trains reversed direction and followed another track to the Loree Collier Breaker. I remember seeing The D&H's large Alco C units crossing route 11 to deliver and pick up coal cars in the sixties.

Joe Perkowski (age 72)

My Comments :

That is very intersting.

I never would have guessed it was the D&H. I have been back there on my mountain bike when the bridge was still up. I would never think that the tracks cross there. It just looked like the tracks followed a path from the bridge into the woods.

I used to love to fish under that bridge on the Wilkes-Barre side - I got a lot of good Rock Bass there.

I was aware that the D&H served the Loree Breaker. Had no Idea that they had a backtrack operation.

I was thinking this track pictured may have been a streetcar line, but I did not think any streetcar lines ran there.

You would think that they would have used smaller roadswitchers like an RS-3 or an RS-36 to switch that branch.

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Tidbit :

In addition to the DL&W, the D&H had a lateral line going to the Loree Colliery, but that was up futher toward Edwardsville. This line must have been from the DL&W. (That is my best guest)