(erielack) railfan tourguide..South from Alford tower - DL&W

["Dad" <wsmith5957_@_hotmail.com>]

South from Alford..........................

I mentioned the town of Hop Bottom (Foster on the RR). It is just south of here that the mainliine had a setoff yard on the West side (off the Eastbound main. It had 2 tracks & this is where the pickup freights would leave cars for Nicholson. You got the cars & started own a very steep grade to the hiway level where there was a single track between Hop Bottom & Nicholson...this was the remains of the old DL&W mainline. When I was there in 1999, the track was still there at the hiway level. I didn't have time to look for the old grade up to the mainline. Fosters station was demolished, but when I visited Nicholson in the 60s, the station was there, but the heavy door had been battered in by local vandals (think Roman buldings in the dark ages when the barbarians were no longer held in check by the legions) and the only stuff i could salvage were some ticket stubs & Railway Express tickets. There WERE trainorders, etc, but the vandals had used them for TP......the commode in the mensroom had lots of TOs but I wan't that desperate.
 (anybody wanting the Nicholson REA tkts or Hallstead tkt stubs email me - I've posted some of them for sale) 
       Leaving Nicholson, southbound on rte 11, the road curves around the hill where the south abutment of the big viaduct is & on the other side of the hill you drive up is the 2 old DL&W tunnels just off the road on the West side. There's a road west & u can walk to the tunnels. The farmer there advised me to 'look out for rattlers'. Leaving here on Rte 11 keep ur eyes peeled for an abutment on each side of the 2-lane rd. (unless progress?? has removed them. It is here that the ill-fated Northern Electric crossed the hiway. On the west side of the road just north of the abutments is  (was) a 2 story brick bldg that was offices for the interurban. Not too far south of the abutments on the east side of the road) is (or was) a carbarn the company used & later used by an electrical supply co. Tehre were transformers, etc laying around outside where the tracks had entered the 3-stall barn.  When u come to Factoryville, there was & maybe still is a building that looks like a DL&W station that lost its' way. If memory serves me correctly, this was on the west side of the hiway. It is typical of the old wooden DL stations....wierd circular re-enforcing rods under the overhang.........this is along the hiway, remember it was the old mainline. There is a 2-lane road to the east here that brings u to the mainline(cutoff). road goes under the trks. ark near the underpass & walk to the old tower. Tunnel is a mile or so north of the tower. South of the underpass on the same side as the tower is the Factoryville station (now used by a feed mill.
     Once again head south to Clarks Summit.....old tower still there & station on the embankment. The hiway pretty much follows the RR & at Keyser Oak plaza where the big curve is, the old NYO&W tunnel burrows under the mainline on the north side of the Keyser Valley road.
If u guys want to hear about neat stuff in Scranton (like the Laurel Line) - ask.
Regards,
Walt Smith

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