SUNBURY SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL

The section of track you will be traveling on was built by the Shamokin, Sunbury & Lewisburg Railroad (SS&L,) chartered in 1882. The SS&L was completed the following year from Shamokin to West Milton and acquired by the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, popularly known simply as the "Reading (RDG)."

   

Your travel begins at mile post (MP) 156.1, (Awl Street,) approximately 46 miles from Williamsport. Across the track from The Daily Item's printing plant and circulation center, stood the RDG's Sunbury freight house.  The "East Sunbury" station stood just past 10th Street and was removed in 1941. At MP 155.6 (right,) the former Susquehanna Silk Mill is passed, then Haas Avenue is crossed. "HV" Tower (right) was at the south end of "Haas Siding" where a concrete pad marks its former location. There was a water tank located south of this location also.

 

At approximate MP 155.25, Shamokin Creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna River, is crossed. The abandoned bridge on the left belonged to the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR,) and was its former Shamokin Branch line to Mount Carmel. At MP 155.1, the Route 61 over-pass is accessed and then the Little Shamokin Creek at MP 154.8 is bridged. The truss bridge on the left is another PRR one. Up to this point, the RDG and PRR lines closely paralleled one another, but were much further apart from here. At MP 154.0, the former M.E. Wallace Briquette plant was located. This plant was unique in that it could receive raw material from either the RDG or after 1968, the Penn Central Railroad.

 

"Arters" was a railroad designation at MP 152.3, and the location of a section house, maintenance-of-way track car storage building, and retired box car used as a freight house. An industrial spur at MP 151.5 serves Anthracite Industries, a specialized firm providing fine carbon fill material to cosmetic manufacturers and other industries. On the former track centerline at MP 151.5, an original benchmark (based on the datum at Sandy Hook, New Jersey) shows the elevation at this point to be 494.135 feet above sea level.

 

At MP 149.7, the train enters the Borough of Snydertown, and the excursion's destination. The train will reverse direction to return to Sunbury.