Railpace Staff Report/photos as noted
The Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Chapter NRHS sponsored the Oneida Clipper fantrip on the Reading & Northern Railroad Saturday, April 22, 2023. The trip featured R&N’s F-unit A-B set, 270 and 275, and a mixed-train consist of five R&N hoppers and a caboose, followed by five coaches (one an open-air car). GP38-2 2011 tagged along on the rear to assist with special moves, notably removing the passenger coaches at photo stops to provide an authentic freight train scene.
Departure was right on time at 10:00 for the trip north from Outer Station, located on Route 61 in Reading, Pa. The excursion followed the Main Line north through Port Clinton, where a photo stop was held under the signal bridge by the carshop. After riders detrained, the passenger coaches were removed and the runby conducted as an F-unit powered coal train, replete with a red caboose.
ABOVE: The excursion has climbed the grade from Quakake into Delano Junction as it works its way north on former Lehigh Valley trackage toward Oneida Junction. The track at right extends west to Delano and Morea. —Gary Pancavage
Then it was “All Aboard!” and northward on the Main Line along the Little Schuylkill River through Molino, New Ringgold and Tamaqua to Haucks Junction, where we diverged onto the former Reading Company Catawissa Branch and traveled through Quakake on our journey toward Oneida Junction, just south of Hazleton. At Lofty we followed the “Lofty Connection” a stiff grade which was built in 1987 following abandonment of the upper portion of the Reading’s Catawissa Branch, connecting to Lehigh Valley trackage on the top of the mountain that reaches westward to Delano and Morea via Delano Junction, and north-ward to Hazleton, providing access to the Humboldt Industrial Park in West Hazleton, a major source of traffic for the R&N.
After passing through McAdoo, our train paused at Tresckow for the second photo stop of the day. The “moonscape” of former coal strip mining provided a number of photo angles for the crowd. The passenger cars were dropped out of sight, and again the runby provided an authentic “coal hop” in an appropriate setting…