Railfan Trip to New York State and Pennsylvania - 5

Hi, Friday, 10/22 was allotted to a new shortline; the Lehigh Railway. This line operates over the former Lehigh Valley mainline from Mehoopany, PA to Sayre, PA. The main attraction was their fleet of 5 U23Bs. Like the Wellsboro and Corning they have experienced a huge surge in traffic due to drilling into the Marcellus Shale formation.

From a call to the railroad the Friday before we left I learned that they operated 2 to 3 crews per day Monday - Friday and one crew on the Saturday and Sunday.

We started our search in Sayre and followed the line south. When we reached Wysox, PA we started to hear talking on the radio as they switched cars. As we headed further south the signal got stronger. When we reached the south side of Wyalusing we found a U23B and an EMD switcher sorting out sand and lime hoppers while a contractor removed spilled lime from the track and dumped it into a front end loader bucket.

We learned the crew would be switching for awhile and then would head to Sayre with just the 2302 running long hood forward so we decided to check out the rest of the line see what we could find. At Mehoopany two more U23Bs were parked next to a no parking sign at the north end of the Proctor and Gamble paper mill. We shot some frames and then headed back north.


As 2302 had already left Wyalusing when we got back there we continued on to Sayre where we bought lunch and ate it while sitting by the tracks. After awhile the 2302 showed up running light and proceeded to block its train of some 40 cars.


After about an 1:15 of switching 2302 headed south, shown here leaving Sayre, and the chase was on.

Photos were obtained at Milan passing the old depot and a former LV caboose (it really was),

just south of Milan,

Ulster, and

just south of Ulster.

The crew ended their day at Towanda, PA at about 4:00 PM. A second crew which went on duty at 4:00 PM would work Mehoopany and then head for Towanda where they would pick up the 2302 and return south. We headed for Scranton and our motel.

Just south of Laceyville we encountered the 4:00 PM crew headed north. We turned back to Laceyville for one last shot.

We were happy with our day and I hope you enjoyed the photos.