Hike #1018; Scranton to Dunmore

Hike #1018; Scranton and Dunmore

3/5/17 Scranton/Dunmore Loop with Jillane Becker, Tea Biscuit (Scott Helbing), Amanda Lance, Matthew Davis, Pete G. Wilcox, Jennifer Berndt, Craig Craig, Timothy Kovich, David Campbell (Captain Soup), Mike Heaney, Jason Itell, Megan Itell, Daniel Trump, Jack Lowry, Sarah Jones, Diane Reider, Anne ?, Rob Gearheardt, Kevin Gondek, Justin Gurbisz, and Tom Vorrius.

This next hike would be a loop between Scranton and Dunmore PA, tracing the routes of historic railroad lines from where I’d left off in Dunmore.
Because we were fast closing in on the twenty year anniversary of when I started these hikes, it seemed only appropriate that I complete the old Lackawanna Railroad main line to Scranton.
I grew up with the history books and signs, denoting the old main went between Hampton NJ and Scranton PA, and I’d only walked that line as far as Dunmore. I just never got around to finishing walking that one. I told Matt a while before doing this that I wanted to finally finish this one off, and I wanted to do it before the twenty year anniversary.

View from my room

Jillane and I went out to Scranton the night before to be there early and well rested. We stayed at the Four Points Sheraton Scranton, which was right across the street from our meeting point, Gerrity’s Supermarket.
I woke up early and went down stairs to take a swim at the indoor pool, then lounge in the hot tub. I ordered breakfast room service first, as it was the only way of getting food available, but it ended up being really great. Such a nice and relaxing way to start the day.

New Harrison Avenue bridge

Everyone ended up right across the street, so it was easy to just wander over and get everyone together.
Everyone was in really high spirits which helped me out a lot, and we didn’t take long before we started moving to the northeast. Our first point of interest a few blocks away would be the Harrison Avenue bridge over the Roaring Brook, Scranton Expressway, and the old Lackawanna Railroad main line, the whole purpose for doing this hike. The bridge was to be replaced, and the new superstructure was already up. We crossed the bridge and kept to the left, in order to be sure we were closely following the old rail line. Ridge Row went closely along the line, so we followed that a good while close to the tracks as we continued to follow them into Scranton.

Approaching Lackawanna Hotel

The story of the Lackawanna Railroad is not unlike other railroads, in that it started as so many other companies that had mergers. Most of the bulk of it was built in the early 1850s. The Lackawanna and Western Railroad was extended to the Delaware Water Gap about 1853, and the Warren Railroad section, which was our first hike, opened in 1856. Through traffic rights, and later through more mergers and construction, the line was able to get the valuable Pennsylvania Anthracite coal to the eastern markets at the Hudson River.

Approach to Scranton PA taken in the 1920s, Photo byJohn W. Barriger III

We continued walking until we got to the old Lackawanna Hotel. I wanted everyone to see the amazing building because of it’s grandeur. It’s a bold representation of the prestige the railroad represented in it’s heyday; the hotel was built in 1908.

Inside historic Lackawanna Hotel

As we went in the front door, there was a big set up for some event going on, so we didn’t hang around and gawk for too long. Just long enough for everyone to use the restrooms and see what the place was about. It’s owned by the Radison now, so it feels kind of exclusive. There was also some sort of model train show going on, but we didn’t have time to stop and see all of that.

Lackawanna Scranton Yards, from Library of Congress Archive

We walked down Lackawanna Ave and then wandered down a side street or two, and then ended up in the parking garage beneath the Marketplace at Steamtown, a large mall area. We went up stairs through the building, and then along the top level for a while. There is supposed to be a foot bridge that connects into the Steamtown Historic Site, but it was under construction, so we had to go all the way back down and make our way around the long way.

F Unit

We had to walk Lackawanna Avenue to Cliff Street, go beneath the main line tracks, then up into the parking area. We stopped for a group photo at the Steamtown sign along the way.
Once in the parking area, we already saw a lot of trains on display. I spotted an old F Unit pretty quickly, as well as other locomotives.
I’ve never been great at identifying the different kinds of locomotives like so many other rail fans. There area lot of them who find the most interest in the trains themselves, while I am more interested in the big picture, the industry, the how and why. Where the railroads went and why, and the reasons they mattered to people.

Steamtown

There is both a trolley museum and the regular Steamtown Museum. We could easily spend an entire day just at Steamtown, but there’s just too much to see. I’d been wanting to have a hike visit the place for years, so I decided we’d take about an hour for the museum.

Steamtown!

I started with the inside of the museum building, which is a partial renovated, partial reconstruction of the roundhouse. Various engines are on the inside facing the still working turntable in the middle. I checked all those out, then went back to the main museum and started working my way through the circular structure in a counter clockwise fashion through all of the exhibits.
It had changed quite a lot even since the last time I had been through, which I now realize was over a decade earlier. The area was much busier, with quite a lot of displays on all of the many facets of the area. There were very general displays such as mail cars, processes, workers, and then very in depth things such as the development of Scranton, and even a special room devoted to William Truesdale, who was Lackawanna President responsible for the major cut and fill projects.

Steamtown

I caught up with Jillane, and we went through most of the entire circle together, checking out each of the displays as best we could, giving them a reasonable enough amount of time, but not too much as to miss a section on our pass through.

Hobos

Once we had made our way completely around the circle, we hung out at the visitor center and read in depth a bit more on the stuff there. I purchased a book on the gravity railroads in the book shop, and then I went back through part of the museum to show Captain Soup the mail car we had found (because he’s a mail man, he always likes getting his photo with the various post offices we pass, so this was a must see for him). Captain Soup said that the layout and process of sorting mail was actually not so different within a train car, which is pretty surprising. I suppose the process that works best is still in use.

Anatomy of an engine

We were back just after it had been an hour, but I still could not find the rest of the group. I went inside and hollered for everyone, but not everyone was coming. I couldn’t tell who all was missing because people were all around everywhere, in the gift shop, looking at nearby displays. When it was more like an hour and a half, I figured we gave it enough time and would just have to leave.

Scranton Blast Furnaces

We made our way back into town, around that long way again, then turned right from Lackawanna Ave on Washington Ave. We went a bit too far on this and had to turn left, then left again along the Roaring Brook to get to Orchard Street. At the intersection, the Scranton Blast Furnaces were right across, so we figured we might as well go and have a look.
The furnaces were built between 1848 and 1857. They remained in use until 1902. We walked down and into the structures to have a closer look.
While there, I got a call from Jason and Megan, who also were with Mike Heaney, and Dan Trump ended up behind as well. Everyone made their way to us to convene at the furnaces. Fortunately everyone there had a good concept of where we were and how to get to them.

Erie Railroad Wyoming Division

From here, we headed to the right, then left up River Street to continue to the south. We came close to the cars again before crossing over Interstate 81. Rob cut out at this point to get out early, but the rest of us continued on heading to the south, till we got to the parking area for the Salvation Army on the left.
Unfortunately, the store was closed because it was a Sunday. Fortunately, this was where we finally got off of the road. I had discovered that the Wyoming Division of the Erie Railroad passed through what is now the parking lot during a shopping spree there rather recently (one that ended in me getting over twenty more suits, including the blue one I was wearing).

Noticing the Erie tracks the previous year...

At the time, I wasn’t really looking for a railroad; I am always just sort of looking out for these things. I bought my suits and waited in the lot for Jillane to come out when I spotted rails through the Sumac overgrowth. I didn’t know which one it was at first, so right then I pulled out my phone to study the map on where exactly we were.
I had hiked the Erie Wyoming Division before; in a loop hike out of Moscow PA using the old Lackawanna main line. I became much more interested in the line when I realized how close it really was to everything I’d been studying.
The first rails in this area were actually the Pennsylvania Coal Company Gravity Railroad, which operated 30 plus years before the 1882-83 construction of the Erie and Wyoming Valley Railroad (later Wyoming Division) was developed.

Hiking the Wyoming Division

Many accounts claim that the the standard gauge locomotive railroad replaced the old gravity railroad’s light track (it had both loaded and unloaded tracks, with inclined planes and stationary engines along the way), but that is not entirely true. What was to become the Erie line was actually built parallel to, and at many times directly beside the original gravity line. In fact, the two operated for about a year simultaneously until the gravity line was finally abandoned.
The old gravity line continued east to Hawley where there was an interchange with the Delaware and Hudson Canal, from which point boats would take the coal east to the Hudson River.

Erie Wyoming Division

Like most railroads, this line went on the decline. Passenger service between Scranton and Hawley ended by early 1934.
Freight service continued, but after the Knox Mine Disaster in January 1959, the coal mining industry saw a rapid decline. The River Slope Mine flooded and then inundated other adjacent mines with water from there. Esepecially bad was this event for the Erie, because Knox Coal was leased to Pennsylvania Coal Company, which had been a fully owned subsidiary of Erie since 1901.
We started walking the Wyoming Division eastward from the Salvation Army place, first along the back lot, then through weedy areas next to an apparent former second track. The one set of rails was all in place as we headed east, and passed over a bridge crossing Rt 307. There was a really nice cut just beyond with a good amount of ice on it’s walls.

At Haines Junction, Scranton Branch Erie

There has apparently been a good amount of washout through the area because the rails in some spots were completely covered over, or we could only see the tops of the rails.
Below us, I spotted another right of way in a cut heading sort of parallel with us, but slowly moving away. I had no idea what this was until checking it later: Haines Junction. This was part of the Scranton Branch of the Erie, heading eastbound. I didn’t notice any rails in it, but they might have been there.
We continued on the right of way heading east, and soon came to the Bunker Hill area. I think it was Sadler Ave.

Wyoming Division tracks

Ahead, the old Wyoming Division goes into a private junk yard, so we did not dare try to follow this section. I came up with what I thought might be an interesting route above to get around the closed off section and head to the east.
We turned right, and went up hill on Myrtle Street to Skillman Street. It was quite steep for a time. I believe we went left on Elmhurst, right on Watres, then left on Karen Ct to another right on another part of Elmhurst, which looks like it used to go through but was now cut off near the junk yard we were avoiding.
Near the top of the hill, we took a break to regroup, and there was a large structure coming from above the trees. I was amazed that I thought I was seeing a coal breaker still standing, but it turned out to actually be just a church building of sorts made to look like one.

Off trail on the mount

We continued down Elmhurst for a bit. People driving by must have thought we were some crazy radical group. We made our way as far as the entrance to Tall Trees Apartments.
Apartments are always a good spot to enter woods because there are non-delineated yards we can get way with walking past and people don’t tend to be as possessive. It looked to be a good jump off point to start bushwhacking down to the railroad bed again. I have no idea what this section of mountain is called, but maybe it’s just another part of Moosic Mountain which is on the other side of the valley from Roaring Brook. The USGS maps don’t note a name on it.

View on the off trail section

Matt and I sort of took the lead and traded off a bit. I went ahead first, found what seemed to be a route we could fit through, and when I got to an impasse Matt was already behind me heading another way, so I’d follow him. We sort of traded off doing this a few times making our way to the rim of the mountain and on the way down, which worked really well.
There was an old woods road as well as a nice view from a rock outcrop near the top, looking to the north. We paused to enjoy that brieftly before heading down.

Washout on the Wyoming Division

I watched my phone GPS closely as we descended to make sure we got to the tracks not before the junk yard ended. We ended up getting too far to the west anyway, and then had to turn right, parallel on the ridge to reach a better spot for descent. Once more, Matt turned off a better way when I started hitting brambles and insanely thick White Birch, and it turned out to be the perfect way down, because it led us directly to the crazy washout on the Wyoming Division I’d wanted to see.

Wyoming Division washout

Like I had done with the Wilkes Barre and Eastern Railroad years before, I use the nepaview website made by Mike Guzzi to direct to the interesting points. I’d been following his stuff for many years, and only in recent years we connected on Facebook and shared some information, by way of some of the abandoned rails forums. His site is pretty much the definitive one for the information on these local railroads what what remains of them today.

Washout

We made our way over to the suspended rails, high in the air at what was in all likelihood some sort of old box culvert. It had washed out some time ago, and somehow bolted rails never came apart. Most of the ties out on the bridge have long since fell off, and some of the group was being crazy and walking on the remaining ones. I admit there is temptation to try to cross the entire suspended track hanging onto the rails, but not nearly enough to actually do it. Especially in my suit. We continued on the rail bed from here heading to the east, now on the steep shelf above the Roaring Brook.

Wyoming Division nearing Rock Junction

The rails all still remained in place as we headed along. We could see down to the Number Seven Reservoir to the left of us on the Roaring Brook. The rails were much of the time covered over with dirt, with just the tops of them sticking out.
There was someone down below in a pickup truck on the shore of the up stream end of th eNumber Seven Reservoir who saw us, but we never had a problem. The whole area is havily used by ATVs, so a few walkers coming through was likely no sort of problem.
There were grades below us nearer to the Roaring Brook, but they must have been woods roads. I originally thought it was the PA Coal Company Gravity Railroad’s unloaded track, but it turned out that was actually another grade, which we saw on the up hill side.

Wyoming Division with the right of way of the earlier PA Coal Company line just behind it

On the previous hike in this area, we walked both the Wyoming Division as well as the old light track of the gravity railroad, because the ATV paths switched places a lot. The older grade was not always noticeable, but an occasional culvert or better remaining grade gave it away from time to time.
The loaded track utilized inclined planes on the other side of the alley from where we were walking, and climbs steeply on a couple of them up Moosic Mountain. There is even a tunnel up there remaining from the line, which Jillane and I went and found one time. It’s now part of Lost Trails ATV Park.

The gravity railroad tunnel on Moosic Mountain

My hope this year was to start a new series, since we’d have finished the Lackawanna to Scranton, on the earlier gravity railroad and canal. I figured it’d be awesome to finish the D&H Canal as well as doing the gravity railroads. Unfortunately, my work situation has left me with too much uncertainty with where my schedule would be. It’s made it so I could not plan many hikes in advance. Hopefully this will just be put temporarily on hold, and sometime in 2017 I’ll be able to put the plan together.
We made our way further down the Wyoming Division and soon reached Rock Junction. Rock Junction was where the Wyoming Division connected with the Jessup Branch of the same. It heads east to cross the Roaring Brook on a high deck girder trestle. This was where we made our turn.
There is some sort of interesting storey behind this I can find little on, referring to an earlier line as “Jessup’s Folly”, but that it was part of the Lackawanna Winton Branch on the other side. Not sure much more about it, but will continue looking.

Historic image of Rock Junction

We made our way to the end of the bridge, which was open deck railroad ties. There was a metal barricade blocking the bridge from ATVs. I had walked this one once before, and didn’t think it was much a problem. The group got through it pretty well.

Jessup Branch Bridge

We made our way down the other side of the bridge to the former Lackawanna main line. I wasn’t going to try to walk along that at first, and instead take to the parallel roads, but it seemed like no problem and there was a parallel ATV path.

Jessup Branch Bridge

It had been double tracked in the past, and so it was wide enough, and the ATV path was actually quite a bit further away from the tracks than I’d thought it would be, sometimes separated by a line of brush.
The Jessup Branch continued on to the east, and the Lackawanna Railroad Winton Branch I believe it was also broke away here. Dunmore was once a very important center for all of this rail traffic. The loaded track of the gravity railroad also came down right into where town is now.
We walked the line north, and checked out the dam of the Number Seven Reservoir along the way, a handsome stone dam. and a sort of power house.

Historic map of Dunmore and Rock Junction area

From here, we continued along the Lackawanna, parallel with the down stream Roaring Brook from the dam. There was an old signal bridge, with an earlier signal tower right under it. Of course, some could not resist the urge to climb on it.

Number Seven Reservoir dam

As we walked, I spotted a stone abutment of sorts on the east side of the tracks. I had no clue what this was at the time, but after consulting some historic maps, it looks as though it was once a spur track, perhaps for unloading, of the loaded track on the PA Coal Company Gravity Railroad.
Across the brook from us is the junk yard that we had to avoid on the Wyoming Division earlier. It seems as though the junk yard occupies the historic site of the Nay Aug Breaker. There doesn’t appear to be any remnants of this operation, but we did see stone piers in Roaring Brook, which apparently carried a pipeline. We could see them cut off at the other side.

Old coal company rail spur apparently

The path we were following diverted more from the railraod tracks, and another went off to the left more.
To the left, there was an old stone building with a tarp on the roof. I have no clue what this thing would have been, but it was pretty cool. The date on it said that it had been built in 1893. The front door had been totally shot full of holes to such a degree that it was amazing how the light shone in when it was closed. We messed around and got some really cool pictures here for a while.

Red Sean has found the light

A path went parallel with Interstate 80 on the opposite side of the Roaring Brook where we crossed over it on a through girder bridge. I at first thought this could have been part of the old gravity railroad, but it turns out that this was the site of the former Quinn #6 Breaker, now partially covered over by 81. The relatively level grades going to it must have been the access rail lines. Fascinating area I would love to go back and explore further. We could see the masonry ruins from time to time from the active line.
As we approached the Mill Street underpass, we turned left up to Lake Street. The group had gotten pretty separated, so I waited up at an intersection.

Bullet hole door

Jillane had held back with Pete and Matt because they were finding the old date pins in railroad ties, and Jillane found a pretty cool old shell fossil.
Tea Biscuit didn’t want to wait around, so we started back without the rest of us, but I waited behind for the others. They were probably a good twenty minutes out. When I went back to look down the tracks to see if they were closer, a guy in a pickup truck started hollering at me, saying it was private property. I was on the cell phone with someone else in the group, so I just ignored what he was saying. I wasn’t in the woods or anywhere off the road, so he was overreacting and I chose to pay him no mind.

Former Erie rail bed below, Scranton Branch

When everyone was back together, we continued away from the tracks, up Gravity Street (named for the gravity railroad), across Erie Street, where the eastbound connection to the Erie Railroad’s Wyoming Division passed, and then turned right on Spring Street. To the right, we followed a paved trail that took us beneath Interstate 81. Below the path was the former junction on the Erie Scranton Branch with the lines that connected east and westbound to the Wyoming Division. I had no idea at the time that this was part of those historic routes.
We came out at Kurtz Street and turned left on Mark Avenue. This l ed very steeply down hill to Ash Street where we turned to the right. We crossed over the west connection of the Erie to the Wyoming Division again, but again I did not know it at the time.

Lackawanna underpass

We then passed beneath the Lackawanna main and crossed the Roaring Brook on the bridge along the road. I believe this was called Petersburg. At this point, I was leary about walking on the tracks. We can get away with it back home and rail workers just wave at you, but out in the city it probably doesn’t go over so well. My plan from here was to parallel the line on the opposite side of the Roaring Brook by passing through Nay Aug Par, another place that has been on my bucket list for a very long time. It’s incredibly popular for illegal swimming and cliff jumping from it’s waterfalls. The gorge is very narrow and steep at times, and especially so in the park.

PA Coal Company Gravity Railroad in Nay Aug Gorge

The PA Coal Company Gravity Railroad supposedly went through a narrow part of Nay Aug Gorge, but that might have been a bit further to the east and south from this area.

Davis Trail, reportedly named for early park curator

The park has been opened many years and used to have a full amusement park and a zoo. The zoo closed in the eighties, and the amusement closed more recently though a small section still remains.
Of most interest to me on this one was the Davis Trail (no known relation to Matt). This trail spans the entire length of the park, and woudl get us close to where we needed to be for the end.
We started following the Roaring Brook from Ash Street, where a nice path was along the north side, with crushed stone surface. We continued along that until we got to Myrtle Street, where we crossed over and entered the Davis Trail into Nay Aug Park.

1903 fountain Throop Memorial Fountain built by John Jermyn. Tin cups were provided for visitors to get drinking water from a statue of a boy with a holy boot.

The trail hugged the hillside into the gorge with really nice rocky stream views below. We continued to climb high above the creek as we made our way west, and soon came to a side trail that goes onto an island by way of a covered foot bridge, and then a scenic handicapped accessible tree house.

Davis Trail and treehouse

The Davis Trail continued as an easy route but we did take one shortcut where we eliminated a corner. We were high above the gorge when we got to the main part beyond the tree house, and then started descending a bit. There was a side trail that went down to the left, leading to a waterfall in the deepest part of Nay Aug Gorge. Most of us took the side trip down to see it. It was quite beautiful. The name “Nay Aug” supposedly means “Nosy Brook”, and this gorge with it’s rapids is probably how the name was obtained.
Parallel with this spot was the mouth of the Nay Aug Tunnels. There are two tunnels, and one is abandoned now, but the remaining one has two tracks running through it.

Nay Aug Gorge

I read that the existing tunnel was built in 1865, but it makes me wonder what route the Lackawanna used prior to that, because it was completed through to Delaware Water Gap in 1853. I’m sure I’ll find out the answer somehow.

Historic image of Nay Aug Tunnel from Library of Congress

The tunnels are 755 feet long, and the newer one was built in 1905 as part of the system wide Lackawanna upgrades under William Truesdale. The old tunnel was fitted with concrete like the new one at that time.
We had a good view of the mouths of the tunnels from the side trail to the falls.
When we climbed back up, then got on the Davis Trail again, there was a really nice viewing platform to the left. This provided us with the best views of the Nay Aug Tunnels. We hung out here for a bit while waiting for everyone to catch up again.
Next, we took to the Davis Trail to the west, heading out of Nay Aug Park. The trail emerged at a parking area off of Arthur Avenue, near a veterans memorial statue thing. From here, we turned left on Arthur Ave, then turned right onto Rosellyn Street, which sat on the rim of the rest of Nay Aug Gorge. The houses looked as though they might just fall off into the gorge.

Nay Aug Tunnel

We followed the road out to the intersection with Harrison Avenue, where we had been before. We turned left to cross the bridge, backtracking where we had been in the morning.
This second time through, I saw that someone had made all sorts of yarn things to hang from the bridge on the south side. I was too busy looking at the rail line to the north the previous time to notice.
After crossing the bridge, we made a couple of turns along back streets in a way we hadn't when we started out. I don't remember exactly which ones we took, but we made it a slightly different route.

Historic image of the construction of second Nay Aug Tunnel

I looked down at the Lackawanna Railroad from the bridge as we left, and realized in that moment that I'd basically just finished walking this line's main route as I'd intended to do.
Of course, there is still so much more to do. I need to trace the line to Clark's Summit, and all of the branches. It's by no means the end of a story, but the end of a chapter I suppose. Maybe not even that.
We soon arrived back at the parking lot for Gerrity's Supermarket. Everyone was bundled up for the cold and the wind, but I was wearing my blue suit and tie, still not really feeling too cold. Many of us went out to eat at Olde Brook Inn atop the Moosic Mountain area, which was on our way home, to cap the great day. At the same time I completed this nearly twenty year initiative, I was to return to Spruce Run the next day. The hikes are so perfect compared to the nightmare of work that place dishes out, as well as the crazy outdated infrastructure that had caused much of my grief since September. At least some of my hikes would have to end with my return there, but I tried to stay optimistic moving forward.

Nay Aug Tunnel

After this day, and each day following has continued to be a downward spiral for my own sanity. All of the good I'd intended for the twenty year anniversary of the hikes to be would be stymied by disgusting work, hostile and volatile environment, gaslighting, and my own bitterness. Only support at home and through the hikes would get me through it.
Still, I intended for the events coming up to be as good as possible despite all of the craziness going on. Matt described it best when he said I show up to the hikes all happy like it’s “The M’ke Show”, but that he knows I’m not alright, and I need to amend the issues. And so, I’m still trying.

Historic gravity railroad image