Hike #1314; Nicholson to Clarks Summit
3/31/20 Nicholson to Clarks Summit with Daniel Trump, Justin Gurbisz, and Brittany Audrey
The world just continues to get crazier, but I have been trying to look at every circumstance as a potential opportunity. As such, there were a few places I’ve been wanting to go.
Tunkhannock Viaduct
There are always more anthracite railroads I want to explore, and one of the things I have amazingly never incorporated into anything was the largest concrete bridge in the world, the Tunkhannock Viaduct in Nicholson PA.
Tunkhannock Viaduct
The Lackawanna Railroad main line, of course was the subject of my very first hike that I consider to be part of Metrotrails in 1997. I got as far as pretty near Scranton in this series, and just never bothered connecting it until more recently.
Nicholson trolley station
After doing so, I never really continued north either. There is just so much stuff going on, it’s too easy to get distracted to do other things. That is what happened, and so I never bothered connecting to Nicholson.
Now that most everything is getting shut down everywhere we go, and state and county parks in New Jersey were completely closed to public just after the last hike, it meant the only choice we have to continue this is Pennsylvania, New York, still open WMA lands, or places we can hide.
Rather than let it all get to me, I saw an opportunity to do something I’ve always wanted to do: walk across the Tunkhannock Viaduct.
I’d been across it when I was a boy on an excursion train with my grandfather, and he said he didn’t think we could get away with crossing it, though I wanted to.
Dan lives up there, but is moving soon, so I decided we’d take advantage of it and do a hike up there that would be close to home for him, and cover some stuff we wanted to do.
Trolley station in Nicholson
In addition to the viaduct, I also wanted to see the original Lackawanna route and the Factoryville Tunnels. Dan and I were in contact daily for several days about what we could do for this hike and how it could fit in with the other ones.
I wanted to connect it to Steamtown, which was the furthest I’d been to the north on the main line so far, but this time the hike would go just a bit to far to make that happen. I agreed that we would do one disconnected one, and then return to the area another time in the very near future to make the last connection.
Trolley bed in Nicholson
It’s only maybe six miles more to connect from where we would leave off in Clarks Summit area, and we’d get a good section in in between. Dan and I both worked out routes, but he asserted that we would be going too far to try to get into Scranton, and he was right.
He came up with another route that would involve much of a very interesting historic interurban trolley right of way, and I loved it. He finished off the details and picked a meet point, which was a Weis Market at the south side of Clarks Summit PA.
Old trolley bridge site
We stopped at a Sheetz where I got a fiesta wrap, and we all piled into my van to get to the start point.
Downtown Nicholson was a bit weird. Dan told us that if we were to blow through the town on quads, no one would bat an eye. I guess taking photos of the Tunkhannock Viaduct is also a common thing, but to be hiking through was odd. We got several funny looks.
We took photos of the viaduct on the way in to town on Rt 11, which is built on the original Lackawanna line, and then parked at the Dollar General.
Old church in Nicholson
For the start, Dan offered to take us around and see a couple of things related to the hike we would be doing first.
We headed to the point where he said the trolley used to cross. To the right, Nordahl Park was a connection on the trolley bed, and the old Nicholson Station was still standing there.
We turned to the left briefly and checked out where the bridge used to be to carry the line over the Tunhkhannock Creek before heading over toward the station.
Old trolley station
We then headed back past the station in the park and turned right on Oak Street to reach a foot bridge over a branch of Tunkhannock Creek. We then headed into more of town and Dan walked us by the old freight station for the Lackawanna main line.
The history of this line is tied into everything we would be doing this time.
The line started out as the Leggett’s Gap Railroad to connect from Scranton to Great Bend in the 1830s. It was dormant for many years, but the line opened up through between the points in 1851. It was reorganized as the Lackawanna and Western Railroad.
Church and trolley bed to left
The lines I’d been walking further down started as the Delaware and Cobb’s Gap Railroad, which reached the Delaware Water Gap in 1853. The two were consolidated to form the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad. The Warren Railroad in New Jersey became the next bit.
As the anthracite industry grew, so did the railroad, which served both freight and passenger needs.
The trolley line, which ran parallel, was like other trolleys just a passenger route, known as an Interurban.
“Trolley Fever” started in the early 1900s, and the ambitious plans of the Scranton, Montrose, and Binghampton Railway began in 1904. It was originally intended to stretch all the way to Binghampton, which never came to be. Construction started in 1906, and the first operation was in 1907. Service at that time terminated in Factoryville.
Coal chutes
A branch line began service to Lake Winola (where Dan lives) in 1908, was extended to Nicholson in 1912, and finally to its terminus in Montrose in 1915.
By that time, there was bigger competition in the Lackawanna Railroad. After the turn of the century, William Truesdale took over as President of the railroad and began a mass of improvement projects, straightening the line, and replacing the old stone structures with concrete.
Nicholson Hotel
The New Jersey Cutoff had been complete, and the next big one was the Clarks Summit to Halstead Cutoff.
The route eliminated grading and mileage from the original alignment, and included the construction of a new tunnel, but most significantly the construction of the amazing Tunkhannock Viaduct.
Construction on the viaduct began in 1912 and was completed in 1915.
The cutoffs on the Lackawanna, which eliminated grade crossings and increased speed, knocked out several other railroads in competition over the next thirty years.
Nicholson freight depot
It also knocked out the trolley business on the very year it completed to Montrose.
When the Lackawanna was completed, the original alignment was sold to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to be redeveloped into a modern highway. The “Lackawanna Trail” opened to traffic in 1922 using the old rail route, save for a couple of location such as the Factoryville Tunnels. Car traffic and the better service of the new and improved Lackawanna meant that the trolley was no competition.
Tunkhannock Viaduct
By 1930, they were ready to call it quits. During the course of the year, service was scaled back, some replaced by buses, from Montrose. It was nearly done for in 1931, but December of that year, the employees formed a Co Op and started operating to Factoryville again.
When the highway started doing work on the highway in 1932, it required that the track be move, but the cooperative could not afford the improvements. Highway work cut off the track, which ended twenty five years of service abruptly.
Tunkhannock Viaduct
I don’t know where exactly the passenger station was, but the freight depot is still standing and quite nice.
Dan explained that even though the cutoff was made that put the main railroad above the town on the viaduct, they kept the old road in service form the north and built a switchback, oddly, down to the old route to serve the businesses in town.
On top
There was a coal chute thing across from and near the station.
Just uphill from the station was the old Nicholson Hotel, which is quite nice. We looked around a bit, and then made our way up Station Hill Road.
The plan was to get up to the tracks from there. There was an access point to the right as we were heading up, and I cut the corner to get onto the road.
Everything seemed fine. I powered ahead to be on the road ahead of everyone else and to get out of sight from traffic.
Nicholson PA
As I reached the top and was a short distance from the tracks, I saw a white utility truck with the door open. I don’t know if he saw me, probably not, but I slowly backed away and motioned back to the others that there was a railroad official there.
Tunkhannock Creek
We got far enough back, and then bushwhacked up hill to the right, because if he did see me he would likely come back down looking.
We reached another access road high above a railroad cut that the line enters just north of the viaduct. We walked ahead a bit, and couldn’t see the truck.
As we got up there, we heard a door slam. We were sure he was coming up I think, but then he didn’t.
We waited a little while, and I decided to make my way along the top of the cut over toward him to see if there was any movement. I figured we would probably see him if he had left.
Tunkhannock view
I got close enough to see that the truck was still there, and that the door was back open. We could hear some tools clanging around as well for a time.
Bridge
The guy was apparently doing some maintenance on a fenced structure in the area, and we would either have to skip doing the viaduct, or wait him out. We had come up here mainly to do this, but also because we wanted to do the other stuff, so we chose to wait him out a bit longer.
At some point, I heard some radio chatter and figured he might be on his way out, but he didn’t leave.
We waited up there on the road for a long while. Eventually, Dan went back out that way to see if there was anything else going on. He and Justin went a little further ahead while Brittany and I watched from a little further away.
There was nothing yet. The two of them came back and we quietly discussed what our options were. We were really getting ready to head out when we heard the door slam again. We had been waiting at this point over an hour, but it paid off. He was soon driving down the access road. We all laid down in the weeds to hide as he went by below us, and as soon as he was out of sight, we made our way down to the bridge.
View
I was nervous about going over at this point. He was likely heading back toward Scranton, and if anyone looked up at the bridge, they would surely see us there I thought. We gave him a few minutes, and got some photos right by the edge.
We realized shortly that if we were to walk on the track side, we might be somewhat visible from the left side, but not from the town of Nicholson. Also, if we were to walk next to the tracks and duck, our heads would remain out of sight.
Bridge
I ran across, but stopped and ran to the edges to take photos periodically. I tried to be quick, but thorough with the shots I wanted to get of the town to the west and the valley to the east. It was quite beautiful, but there was no time to be milling about.
We made it across with no problem. No trains were coming, and nobody came up to find us.
Once on the other side, we had to find the best way back down. There was no real path, and it was insanely steep at first. I kept moving on along the right of way until I spotted a reasonable deer path which made its way down to what at first looked like a camp site.
Nicholson
As I walked around the site, it turned out to be a grave, or maybe just a memorial, but this far back woods I would not be surprised if it was a grave.
Ladder
The larger marble stone was for Arlen Hepplewhite, erected by her husband, David Hepplewhite. David had also passed later, and his flat grave stone was right below that of his wife’s. There were trinkets and such all over the site, a chair, a circular framed photo hanging from a tree, and a really creepy looking doll that looked like a rotten freshwater jellyfish wearing clothes.
We made our way down slope form here, with gave us some interesting perspective of the viaduct, and then cut down to cross Rt 11/Lackawanna Trail to the parking area overlook across the way. We took some great shots, and then moved on along Rt 11.
Memorial
I was a bit concerned walking here. I wondered if someone driving by would wonder what we were doing. If the tunnel was close by, anyone walking this stretch would surely only be heading to the tunnel.
I didn’t worry about that after a bit, because it was much further than I’d expected.
The next turn would be to get back to the trolley bed we had seen earlier.
We could see it coming in from the bridge crossing site we had been at earlier. It passed near someone’s estate, so we couldn’t just go down to it right away.
At Tunkhannock Viaduct
This would take a little bit of planning maybe.
Dan had noted that the right of way was right below the road for a good while, and after we passed some of these buildings, we could probably descend to it.
Nicholson
He was right. After a bit, it was steep, but possible to climb down and get on the trolley right of way. This might still be private land, I don’t know who owns it, but there is an active power utility line on it now. Some of the original trolley poles are also still on the line, which is cool.
Bridge view
It’s a section I would not have done with a large group, so it was the right time to try to do this.
We made our way along the right of way to the south a bit, which was mostly on a shelf, but went through a couple of cuts as well. We passed below buildings of some sort of a club above us, which Dan said was some kind of a biker place. He said if it was the Summer we’d have had to bring some beer to bribe them with or something.
The right of way had recently been cleared off. Maybe for a trail, but I’m not sure. The Trolley Trail is a thing further to the south, but not so much here from what I’ve seen.
View
We passed by another house on the right that had a loud barking dog. I always hate going by houses with loud barking dogs, even if it’s a regular trail, because then people are always peering out and wondering what’s going on.
Bridge
People always get weird about it too, because if anyone makes a barking noise back, you get the occasional owner that angrily yells not to mock their dog.
We pushed ahead, passed a pretty little waterfall to the left which passed beneath the right of way, and then came to a spot where the right of way had been obliterated apparently by highway fill on Rt 11 being dumped over the side. There was a tiny foot path that went down, probably just a deer trail, to the right. We followed it down and over a small spring with all sorts of pretty new green moss. A little after that, we crossed some slash wood, and then returned to the rail bed, which was again cleared on the other side of the part that was covered over.
Bridge view
The right of way remained clear for a bit, and soon we reached the point where the Old Lackawanna, which is referred to locally and in history groups as the “old road”, broke away from the Rt 11/Lackawanna Trail alignment.
Northern Electric Railway bed
I climbed up from the trolley bed and power line to get on that right of way. It was obviously a double tracked right of way, no ties, but with stone wall edges and a good level grade.
I tried to follow this grade for a bit, thinking it was a good time to try to move toward the tunnels, but it was still a long way off.
The rail bed went toward someone’s back yard, so I chose to get back to the trolley bed. The power line cut seemed to have a cut in the middle of it, but it was going uphill quite a bit. We would have to cut into the woods a bit more. Dan then hollered over to me that he’d found it.
Northern Electric Railway bed
The trolley bed had turned away from the utility line a bit back, and turned off to the right. We hadn’t seen it because the turn off was obscured. There was a little concrete bridge over a tributary at this point.
The trolley bed went into a very substantial cut from here. It was amazing that such a major undertaking went into an interurban line.
Brittany had headed up to try to follow the other grade, and we had to call her back down to use because she hadn’t seen us turn.
Northern Electric trolley bed
When we were all together, we followed the right of way out to a dead end road by the name of Tamarack.
There was a house on the trolley bed straight ahead. We had considered taking the trolley bed, but it was blocked, so we went up to have a look at the old road of the Lackawanna.
The direction we were coming from was beaten up pretty bad, but where we were going was now a private driveway and well signed.
I didn’t want to do that, and considered going downhill to head back up to the trolley bed. Dan opted to just take the driveway, so I hurried along it for a brief moment, and then made my way back down to the trolley bed after the first house was out of sight.
Old Lackawanna
The trolley bed got to be really nice through this stretch. I preferred being on that over the driveway, and eventually the others saw it that way too and came down to join me.
There was a private house the driveway accessed with a truck out in it, so they all made their way down. There was a big washout on it after a bit, so we had to climb down and up the other side, but other than that it was pretty easy.
Someone had done a good job clearing the right of way through this next stretch as well, but no one came out and gave us a hard time.
Tunnel approach by Watson B. Bunnel from Steamtown NHS Archives just after closure
We moved further ahead into deeper woods away from that last house, and I could see that the trolley bed and the old road were separating from one another.
Tunnel approach today
It was in this area we shifted over to follow that old Lackawanna line.
We didn’t know if they two stayed closer together or not until we were there. There was a scenic little pond just ahead, and the Lackawanna followed the east side of it. It turns out the trolley stayed to the west and emerges into private fields and yards and stuff.
Factory Tunnels, West Portals
Getting over to the old Lackawanna was no joy. We had to cross a small body of water on a log thing, and then get on a very mucky, swampy section of the right of way.
After a bit, when we got into some trees, we emerged into someone’s camp site. We passed through there, and then to a spot where the right of way was rather well mowed and hidden behind some evergreens.
We crossed one opening where it was visible from a few houses, and then dashed over toward the mouth of the west portal of the Factoryville Tunnels.
This was a pretty cool site to see. It reminded me of Manunka Chunk, with the two smaller bores, but they were not uniform.
The tunnel was completed in April of 1854. The line was working through from 1851, and a temporary switchback was used during the tunnel construction.
I’m not sure where that route went, but I wonder if the trolley right of way might have overtaken some of that, because they came so closely together, and it would make sense if that was the grade maybe. They do come back close together again at the other side of the tunnel.
It didn’t take too many years before the traffic through the tunnel was enough to merit a second one. The second tunnel was opened in 1883.
Factoryville Tunnels
This served the Lackawanna well until the completion of the cutoff in 1915, and the tunnel area was the only substantial section of the old road not used for the construction of the new highway.
It’s amazing that the Factoryville Tunnels do not get talked about more. They are clearly visible from Rt 11, but watched over closely we are told by people who live in the first house along Tunnel Hill Road.
The middle school is just up the road from there, so it must be a night mare with kids trying to sneak through the thing, unless they’re all afraid. It was amazing that there was basically no graffiti anywhere heading to it.
We definitely picked the right gloomy day to approach. It was awesome to see, and the inside was just as cool.
The eastbound bore from 1883 was blocked by a pile of dirt at the entrance, and the westbound original was wide open. Dan and I went into the old bore, and Justin and Brittany went into the new one.
Factoryville Tunnel, old bore
The old one still had railroad ties in it, usually covered over partially with tons of collapsed rock.
The was some water in the first portion of it, but it was easy to get around it without getting wet. It was then dry for a good long while.
Collapse between two tunnels
It was a bit unnerving seeing so much collapsed rock. After a bit, we came to a masonry wall thing on the right, where there was the cut over to the other bore. Dan and I went through it and found Justin and Brittany on the other side. We then went back over on the old bore to continue through.
We soon came to a second cut over to the other tunnel, the same kind with stone wall things, and a date mark of 1906 inside. We went through again to the other side, and Justin and Brittany went by and remained on that side. Dan and I went back over to stay in the old bore, and there were collapses in the side wall between the two tunnels that were rather concerning.
Factoryville Tunnel
Ahead, there was a large collapse from the ceiling and what was probably debris from the vent shafts that go up to the surface. This was a major concern. Dan said that some of this smaller collapsed material was not here the last time he was in, which wasn’t long ago.
Historic view...
We made our way back from an area that was pretty full of water, and passed through the last regular stone lined cut over to the 1883 bore and walked the rest of the way out that side.
The tunnels now
The east portal was a swampy mess, and quite visible from the roads straight ahead. I wanted to try to get out of there as quickly as I could.
We skirted the right side for a bit, until there was a good cut over on a log to the other side. I then climbed the slope to get up to Rt 11.
Tunnel
The others stayed on the other side, and emerged on Tunnel Hill Road near the people’s home there. I walked over to a small deli on the corner, but didn’t go in. People from the house came out and were looking across at me. My legs were muddy, so it was probably obvious where we had been.
I told the others that we should get out of there, and we started walking Rt 11 where it overtakes the right of way again.
Brittany brought up the valid point that we should get off of the highway as soon as possible. She was right. We moved ahead only as far as Vail Road and turned right away from the highway, and then ninety degrees again to the south, parallel with Rt 11.
Old Lackawanna culvert, now Rt 11
When we were all caught up, Dan pointed out that the trolley right of way was in the back yards of the houses to the right. I hadn’t noticed until he pointed it out.
Vail Road made a turn and headed back out to Rt 11 again, and it looked like we were going to be stuck walking it again. I felt that the people at that house probably called us in as being some hoodlums in the tunnel, so I didn’t want to be out there.
Just then, Dan pointed out that the trolley bed, for which he had a track on his google maps, went across a section of field and looked like it could easily be walked ahead, parallel with the road.
We turned off, and in doing so also got to see an old stone culvert under Rt 11 that was originally built for the railroad.
Da Nickel Son bwidge
We followed a short stretch of trolley bed, which was soon taken over by Northeast Signal and Electric Co, and we descended to the right to an abandoned parking lot. We then turned left to an abandoned building along Rt 6. There was a beat ass little pedestrian bridge in a ditch there, and Dan joked that it was the “Nicholson Bridge”.
We dashed across Rt 6 and turned left, but the trolley bed went through a lumber property or something. Dan opted to follow that, but I wanted to more easily descend to Creek Road, just below us, which would take us by the right of way anyway.
Multi tasking
Justin, Brittany, and I made our way down that over some steep rocks in some sort of a clearing, and Dan went through trying to stay a little more closely on the right of way.
Around this time, it was 2 PM and Justin was technically working, so he had to take a conference call.
He answered the call, and was on it going over these crazy rocks and such.
We turned and followed Creek Road for a bit and soon passed by the closed Factoryville Borough Park. I had hoped to go into it and follow the creek, but it wasn’t that close to the trolley anyway, so we continued on Creek Road.
After a bend, and where we were closely parallel with Ackerly Creek, we came to where the bridge used to carry the trolley over the road and the creek, and met back up with Dan here.
Dan pointed out that the pier on the south side of the road was part still there, but busted off, and that the pier on the other far side was still there.
Covered bride in Christy Mathewson Park
We continued on Creek Road out into Factoryville, turned right on College Avenue, and then right again through the lot of the Lackawanna Trail Elementary School. Ahead, a covered pedestrian bridge led us into Christy Mathewson Park.
Trolley abutment
Justin, Dan, and I hung out for a bit in the bridge, and Brittany fell a bit behind. We were parallel with the road we had just been on, and watched for her to walk by, but didn’t see her. I turned the other way, and realized she had gone by before we got there. I fortunately called her right in time before she was out of sight.
We crossed the bridge into the park, followed a little path briefly, and then walked right up Jackson Street to where the trolley used to cross. It was someone’s driveway heading to the other end of the bridge site over the creek.
We turned left when we got to Lindley Avenue. There was a sidewalk to the right that was sort of melting in the landscape back to the road, and I made some sort of joke about it being a ADA skill course.
When we got to Spruce Street, we could turn slightly and follow the grade below a church and through its parking lot, but then turned down hill on Church Street to Riverside Drive.
Trolley Trail
We turned right on Riverside, and after a short distance, a trail turned up a hill to the right to reach the trolley bed. It then followed the trolley bed to the south.
This was really a great, relaxing section. I felt at this point like we had really succeeded with the stuff we had set out to do, and now it was like a normal relaxing hike on a good trail.
The Trolley Trail is a project of the Countryside Conservancy, a non profit organization who’s lands I had until this time not yet hiked.
Old station site at Wenola Junction
Countryside Conservancy was established in 1994 by concerned citizens who wanted preserve the distinctive features of their regional landscapes in Wyoming, Lackawanna, and Susquehanna Counties.
The Trolley Trail is one of their biggest projects, if not the biggest, but they own and maintain preserves all over the area, including stuff in Lackawanna State Park, which is another I’ve never done with an enormous trail system. That will have to be connected some time soon for sure.
We continued along the trail to the south, crossed over Riverside Drive, and remained high on a shelf above the Ackerly Creek, which had some nice views.
Cut on the trolley trail
Along the way, we soon passed by the former junction site where the spur line went out to Lake Lenola. It was not easy to notice right away, but Dan pointed out where it was. None of it is a trail yet, and it looks like it goes through a lot of private land.
We continued along the trail, which soon entered Keystone College Campus Nokomis Woods trail system, which the trolley line runs directly through.
Trail map: https://www.keystone.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Woodlands-Trail-Map-2017.pdf
There is a lot of land there, and we’ll have to come back to cover more of the trails there for sure.
The stretch ahead was really nice. There were quite a few people on the trail, who were friendly and didn’t behave all uptight. It was refreshing.
Trolley trail
The trail was mostly on a shelf, but also passed through some dramatic cuts. Just after the Lake Wenola Junction site was the site of a station, which still had a little bit of concrete base, and a small wooden round pavilion on it now.
We passed an old cattle underpass just ahead, which even had an historic marker on it, which was odd. I’d never seen one of these things denoted before.
Sure enough, it was larger than it needed to be for water, and there was no water in the area.
We continued ahead, and the trail eventually reached private land abruptly. I would guess this is some sort of deal being worked out to put it through, because they wouldn’t have just built a trail to the middle of nowhere without the plan of it continuing eventually.
The railway bed
Dan and I continued on, and Justin and Brittany fell behind out of sight.
We probably went a little too far without descending, because there were soon houses directly below us. When we got to a wider swath of trees between some of them, we cut down to the road through there, and fought through some nasty thorns in the process.
We turned right on College Road, and then waited at the end of it at the intersection, just above Lackawanna Trail/11 waiting in the grass.
La Plume trestle site
Justin and Brittany soon caught up, and Dan went up hill to have a look at the trolley bed again. I was fully ready to just follow Rt 11 on to the south, but we found that the trolley bed here was now a trail. There were no signs, but the crushed stone surface and gate was all in place.
This very nice stretch kept us off of Rt 11 for a good while, over a little bridge, and then out to the former site of the La Plume trestle, which carried the trolley over the old road of the Lackawanna. The trail descended down by the trestle abutment and reached Cherry Street, a dead end road next to the highway.
Northern Electric Railway La Plume Trestle
At this point also, the old road of the Lackawanna deviates slightly from Rt 11. We were able to walk that ahead for just a little bit further. Dan had a historic postcard shot saved to his phone, which I was able to set up as a then and now, which came out pretty good.
La Plume Trestle site today
We got to the other end of the Lackawanna old road where it comes back out to Rt 11, and turned right. We then went left on Maple Avenue in a short distance.
Trolley power plant by La Plume
Here, the old power house for the trolley is still standing, but with a lot of additions to it. Dan also had a photo of this somewhere.
This settlement was known as La Plume, but I don’t know where that came from.
We couldn’t really head in back of this and pass through. The trolley went right by, but there was a bridge where it crossed Acklerly Creek I think with only a pier left to it.
We crossed Ackerly Creek on Maple, and then turned right on North Turnpike Road.
This was probably the crappiest portion of the entire hike, because it was a long road walk, but it wasn’t that terrible.
Partially hidden power plant toay
The trolley bed was down below along the creek. They came back more closely together as we approached the little town of Dalton. The area is one of several little communities north of Scranton known as “the Abingtons”.
There were people out and about in town, and I was walking ahead of the group a bit. I greeted most everyone I saw. A lot of joggers, a few cyclists. There was a guy in his yard with an enormous tree. I complimented the tree, and he said “Unfortunately it’s coming down this year” because it was some sort of a hazard.
Historic trolley view
As I reached the middle of town, I spotted an old trolley bridge to the right, or what I think was one. Dan caught up and pointed out the building in town that used to be the station, still standing.
Some of us were getting pretty hungry at this point, and there was a pizza place on the corner called Pizza Guy Johnny. We headed in to grab something, and a little fat boy that was working there got us slices. It was basically maybe a step above Elios box pizza, and tasted very similar. We were kind of hungry, so it was good enough. Dan described it as “serviceable”. I was hoping that it would be Old Forge Style, which is similar square slices, but with white cheddar topping. Kind of an interesting local treat you don’t see most anywhere except in the Lackawanna Valley.
We headed down South Turnpike from town, and Dan pointed out where the trolley used to cross the road, now someone’s driveway. Just a little bit past this, a wooden boardwalk trail went off to the right to connect back with the trolley bed. It was a nice little section.
Historic trolley view
We waited on the road side of it, because there were people walking toward us, and two more people on bikes, but they were just coming out to the end of the boardwalk only to turn back! We had waited to let them pass and they were just going back the same way, which seemed really odd.
We crossed the walkway, reached the trolley trail, and turned right to continue.
This was probably the best normal trail section of the entire hike. It went on for a long while and was quite relaxing.
There were lots of interpretive signs on all sorts of stuff in this stretch. There was another cattle underpass, there was a thing about the cow catcher on a train, and other history on the trolley showing historic postcard images.
Trolley access boardwalk
We reached a parking area, below which was an interesting looking meditation garden, passed through the lot, then crossed over Church Hill Road and reached Pine Tree Drive, which is built on the trolley bed.
Trolley bed
When we reached Waverly Road, the trail continued into the woods ahead.
This area was called Glenburn, and apparently there was once a station at this point. It seemed like it was just to the right of the trail as we went ahead.
As we reached Ackerly Road, the trail turned left away from the rail grade, and then turned right to cross the road ahead. It then turned right again to parallel it back the other way and passed the abutment to a large bridge. This was quite a substantial structure that would have carried the trolley high above the Ackerly Creek. The trail went down and past some of the old trolley piers, and then turned right through the edge of ball fields, and then left across an old former road bridge to cross the creek.
Trolley bridge abutment
The trail ascended from there and rejoined the trolley bed at a building with bars on it that looked sort of like a tiny single cell jail. I’m not sure what this was, and there were no interpretive signs on this one.
Dan found his second set of glasses on the trail at the start of this section. I forget where he found the first pair, but that was sort of an odd thing that doesn’t happen much.
I think we reached the height of the land on the trolley on this stretch. Clarks Summit was near the top of the Lackawanna heading between watersheds, and the trolley would have peaked around the same area. I think I could feel the difference walking when we went by it.
Jaily type thing
We were on a high shelf with some good seasonal views to the west, and there were old stone rows out in the woods to the east.
The trolley trail ends at Rt 11, but at this point it’s not the old Lackawanna line any more. The cutoff to Halstead was just to the left of us at this point, and Dan went over to get a photo of it.
We didn’t have a solid plan exactly from here, but we went straight across 11 and then through a lot out to parallel Old Lackawanna Trail. I am almost sure that was the actual old right of way at this point.
Trolley Trail
We were able to walk parallel with this road through parking lots and such heading south. My feet were getting a bit sore, but I still managed to run when I heard a train whistle ahead.
Winola Road was straight ahead, and it crossed the current rail alignment just to the left, so I managed to get there and got some photos of the train approaching. In doing so, I accidentally dropped an empty beer bottle and smashed it on the ground. Oops.
From there, we crossed directly over Winola and into a lot built on the old Lackawanna bed, which at this point was directly above the deep cut in which the 1915 line occupied.
A train coming by
At the end of the first parking area, a path continued through the woods on the old right of way above the new cut. This took us out to another parking area, and to my great surprise, the old station along the original right of way was still standing on the right.
Clarks Summit Station
I could not find any older photos of it, so it might have had additions on it or something, but at least some of it was the authentic station.
The right of way went into the woods on the other side, and then passed beneath Grove Street. It was a clear path along the old line, with the cut of the new line to the left still.
we continued ahead and under Knapp Road, and there was another right of way that broke off of the main line to the left into a cut. This was also part of the old line. There are some historic photos taken from this area on the road bridges down into the alginments while they were under construction around 1914 to 1916.
Old Lackawanna grade
We headed down to the active tracks and looked more closely at this stuff. I couldn’t quite make sense of it until I looked at maps and photos later. It was actually a bit of an overload at first.
Some of the old lines must have remained in place near here, because just ahead, we went over a substantial concrete bridge where the earlier line went beneath. They must have been used at the same time to justify such a structure.
We climbed down to the right to check out the bridge.
Old Lackawanna grade
Once in there, I tried following it to the right a bit, and then made my way up and back down into a parking lot by following a small tributary that was flowing through the grade. I climbed down a wall and into the back lot of stores, and then turned to the right. The other three had come off a different way and emerged way ahead of me further in the lot. I took off running as fast as I could from there and ended up feeling pretty sore from it later.
We headed out to 11 and crossed, then stopped in to Taco Bell to get a bite to eat.
Old Lackawanna underpass
We actually got away with dining in because Pennsylvania is so far behind everywhere else.
Dan and I headed up to his truck and Justin and Brittany got kicked out for overstaying their welcome after we left. Dan took me back to pick up my van in Nicholson, and Justin and Brittany checked out the abandoned hotel across the highway that was getting demolished while I was gone. They said a car came into the thing while they were in there. Quite strange.
Now I have to head back to that area to connect the hikes to Scranton some time soon, and it’s going to torture me until I finally get it done!
View of the Turnpike bridge
HAM
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