Hi, I recently heard that there was some kind of railroad or traction company through the Saylorsburg / Wind Gap area of the Poconos near Stroudsburg. Does anyone know what it might have been? I thought the Wilkes-Barre & Eastern but that appears to be too far north from what I could find. A website for Saylorsburg area says that there were railroads but doesn’t say which ones. Thank you for any help you can provide. pajrr
Was not there an interurban called Shade Gap Electric? May have interchanged freight with railroads like the Willskbarre and Hazelton and the much longer lifing Lauel Line, Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley did.
Or is the Shade Gap Elecctric the museum operation at Scranton?
I believe there was plans for a railroad in that area but never built. The DL&W and the L&NE were both there often side by side and even using each others tracks. A third line in that area does not tickle my memory. There was a trolley line from the village of Delaware Water Gap to Portland and there was a short line railroad fro E. Stroudsburg to Bushkill (Delaware Valley RR). And Shade Gap is over a hundred miles south and west near Orbisonia and E. Broad Top But let us not forget the Chestnut Ridge RR east toward Kunkletown which might have had designs on Saylorsburg, too. Saylorsburg is up over the mountain from Bangor and Pen Argyl through Wind Gap on RT 33 but could not have had a railroad reach it from the direct south.
Shade Gap Electric is the name of the electric tourist operation based in Rockhill Furnace/Orbisonia, PA. Though the East Broad Top is shut down, the Shade Gap Electric still runs. If there was ever a line by that name in the area in question, I’m not aware of it. But of course, I’m not a traction guy, so I could be wrong.
But Willskbarre Railways had some long cross-country trolley lines, and I do believe I remember seeing a photo of a Willksbarre car with an “SG” sign on the front. Is it possible that they had a line to Shade Gap?
There last line from downtown Willksbarre was, of coruse, the “N” line to Nanicoke.
I think their SG line was advertized as a scenic ride.
Yes, there were several interurban lines in and around the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys most notable the Laurel Line bewtween Wilkes Barre and Scranton and the Hazelton and Wilkes Barre up the hill east out of the valley. But none stretched as far as the Lehigh River basin into Palmerton and Saylorsburg.
The Lehigh New England had a branch that ran from Saylorsburg Jct. to Saylorsburg. It was abandoned in the 1920’s.
Mark
If my memory was better or I opened the history book of the LNE I would have seen mentions of the 5.7 mile Saylorsburg Branch of the LNE! But it is hard to find without maps, index, nor timetables prior to 1925! So, safely we can say it was the LNE branch and not a trolley line up from Pen Argyle/Wind Gap area to Saylorsburg somehow.
Hey Everyone! I found this link
http://www.metrotrails.org/Metrotrails/Lehigh_and_New_England_Railbed.html
This tells about what is left of the L&NE. It mentions the Saylorsburg Branch through Wind Gap and Saylorsburg. Thanks to everyone for their assistance in this matter. Happy Railfanning!