Sunbury Line

For the line in Australia, see Sunbury railway line, Melbourne.
Sunbury Line
formerly known as Sunbury Subdivision and Wilkes-Barre Branch
Overview
Termini Binghamton, New York (was Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania)
Sunbury, Pennsylvania
Operation
Opened 1869 (independent), 1872 (Pennsy), 1968 (Penn Central), 1976 (Conrail), 1980s (CP), 2015 (NS)
Closed 1872 (independent), 1968 (Pennsy), 1976 (Penn Central), 1980s (Conrail), 2015 (CP)
Technical
Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)

The Sunbury Line (formerly known as Sunbury Subdivision and Wilkes-Barre Branch) is a rail line that is owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Railway which in turn is owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. The line travels from Sunbury, Pennsylvania to Binghamton, New York, connecting with Norfolk Southern's Southern Tier Line. The rail line is part of a rail route called the Delaware and Hudson South Line and the rail route consists of the Sunbury Line and the Freight Line which travels from Binghamton to Schenectady, New York, the Freight Line is also owned by Norfolk Southern Railway.

The Sunbury Line was once owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad connecting its core system with the other anthracite rail lines in and around Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It is presently owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Railway.[1]

The original line ran from the downtown Wilkes-Barre rail cluster southwest to Sunbury[2] along tracks on the east (left) shore of the North Branch Susquehanna River. Today the line from Wilkes-Barre to Hanover Township is owned by Luzerne County and operated by the Luzerne Susquehanna Railway. The remainder of the original line now runs Sunbury to Hanover Township in what was the Buttonwood Yard of the PRR. There it connects with NS's line north on the former Wilkes-Barre Connecting Railroad trackage to Hudson, Pennsylvania and the former Delaware and Hudson Railway mainline north to Scranton and beyond.

At Sunbury, the line meets the Norfolk Southern Railway's Buffalo Line.

History

The Danville, Hazelton and Wilkes-Barre Railroad opened from Sunbury to South Danville in 1869[3] and past Catawissa to Tomhicken in 1871.[4] The North and West Branch Railway opened the line from Catawissa to Wilkes-Barre in the early 1880s, completing the current Sunbury Line.[5] The line became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad through leases and mergers. In 1976, the line was taken over by Conrail, with trackage rights assigned to the Delaware and Hudson Railway. The D&H acquired the line in the early 1980s, then Canadian Pacific Railway.[2] Norfolk Southern's purchase of the line commenced September 19, 2015.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Norfolk Southern completes acquisition of Delaware & Hudson South Line, PRNewswire, September 18, 2015
  2. 1 2 J. Alex Lang, Canadian Pacific Railway's Sunbury Line, Eastern Railroad News, July 1998
  3. ↑ "PRR Chronology, 1869" (PDF). (114 KiB), June 2004 Edition
  4. ↑ "PRR Chronology, 1871" (PDF). (72.9 KiB), January 2005 Edition
  5. ↑ PRR Corporate History: Pennsylvania Railroad
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