The Danville, Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre Railroad, also called the D.H. & W.B. Railroad, was a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

in northeastern

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. It ran from Sunbury to Tomhicken, a total of 43.44 miles plus 10.1 miles of branch lines, making the whole railroad 53.54 miles long.http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pamontou/spcase.htm The railroad was completed in 1870. As of 2010, the Danville, Hazleton and Willkes-Barre Railroad tracks belong to the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

. The railroad's

gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...

was .

History

The Danville, Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre Railroad began in April 1859 as the Wilkes-Barre and Pittston Railroad. Their plan was to build a railroad along the east side of the

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...

from above

Pittston Pittston is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The city gained prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as an active anthracite coal ...

to Danville or Sunbury. It was renamed the Danville, Hazleton, and Wilkes-Barre Railroad in 1867. Railroad construction began in late 1867 or early 1868. Simon P. Kase was a critical force in the building of the railroad. In 1870 an

anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal, and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic luster. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the hig ...

-burning

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

was built for the railroad. By 1870, the Danville, Hazleton, and Wilkes-Barre Railroad linked Sunbury and Danville. By 1871, the railroad extended 43 miles from Sunbury to Tomhicken. In 1872, the

Philadelphia and Erie Railroad The Philadelphia and Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania between 1861 and 1907. It was subsequently merged into the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). History The Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company (also known a ...

started to operate the Danville, Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre tracks. In 1878, the railroad was sold under

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortg ...

and the name was changed to the Sunbury, Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre Railroad.

Financial information

In 1888, the railroad's president was J. N. DuBarry, the secretary was Albert Hewson, and the treasurer was Taber Ashton. Many of the officers and directors of the railroad lived in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

at that time. By 1887, the total cost of the Danville, Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre Railroad was $3,535,109. At this time, they had 20,000 shares of

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

each being worth $50. Their total funded

debt Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money or other agreed-upon value to another party, the creditor. Debt is a deferred payment, or series of payments, which differentiates it from an immediate purchase. The ...

was $2,535,000.

Route

Sunbury was the railroad's western terminus. Proceeding east, the route passed through Danville and terminated at Tomhicken. There were an additional of

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industri ...

s. In 1888, the D.H. & W.B. railroad, then named the Sunbury, Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre Railroad, comprised 25

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

s and

trestles ATLAS-I (Air Force Weapons Lab Transmission-Line Aircraft Simulator), better known as Trestle, was a unique electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generation and testing apparatus built between 1972 and 1980 during the Cold War at Sandia National Labora ...

totalling in length. These consisted of ten wooden bridges totalling , three stone bridges totalling , six iron bridges totalling , and six

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

totalling . The D.H. & W.B. was laid on

white oak The genus ''Quercus'' contains about 500 species, some of which are listed here. The genus, as is the case with many large genera, is divided into subgenera and sections. Traditionally, the genus ''Quercus'' was divided into the two subgenera '' ...

ties TIES may refer to: * TIES, Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science * TIES, The Interactive Encyclopedia System * TIES, Time Independent Escape Sequence * Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science * The International Ecotourism Society The Inter ...

and had stone

cinder Cinder is an alternate term for scoria. Cinder or Cinders may also refer to: In computing *Cinder (programming library), a C++ programming library for visualization *Cinder, OpenStack's block storage component * Cyber Insider Threat, CINDER, a ...

and culm

ballast Ballast is material that is used to provide stability to a vehicle or structure. Ballast, other than cargo, may be placed in a vehicle, often a ship or the gondola of a balloon or airship, to provide stability. A compartment within a boat, ship, ...

. As of 1888, the railroad had 32

at-grade At-grade may refer to: * At-grade intersection, a crossing between roads on the same level * Road junction *Level crossing, where a road or path crosses a railway on the same level * Diamond crossing, where two railway tracks cross * At-grade railwa ...

highway crossings, one highway that went over the railroad, and two that went under it. None of these crossings were gated. At this time, of the railroad were on

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

rails Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...

and were on

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

rails.

Stations and intersections

In 1871, the

Lehigh Valley Railroad The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846 for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, w ...

connected with the D.H. & W.B. in Tomhicken. The

Catawissa Railroad The Catawissa Railroad was a railroad that operated in Pennsylvania between 1860 and 1953. For most of its lifespan it was leased by the Reading Company, and was subsequently merged into the Reading. History The original company was chartered as ...

(which later became part of the

Reading Railroad The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail. Commonly calle ...

) crossed the D.H. & W.B. The

crossed the D.H. & W.B. at Sunbury. There were a total of five railroad stations along the route. The stations included Mountain Grove Campground,In this context, "campground" refers to an area where people went over the summer for multiple religious services. halfway between Bloomsburg and

Hazleton Hazleton may refer to: Places * Hazleton, British Columbia, Canada * Hazleton, Gloucestershire, a village in Gloucestershire, England ** Hazleton long barrows, Neolithic burial mounds at Hazleton, Gloucestershire, England ** Hazleton Abbey, a me ...

, and Mainville.

Uses

The Danville, Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre Railroad helped provide

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

access to the market. The railroad was also used to transport

furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

and other supplies to the Mountain Grove Campground. The railroad also carried cars full of worshipers to the Mountain Grove Campground, and sometimes even ran especially for them. In the campground's later years, the Danville, Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre Railroad carried such items as bands to the campground. The railroad provided a direct path from Sunbury to Danville, and aided communication between Danville and Sunbury. The railroad established an alternative route from the Lehigh Valley Railroad's Hazleton Branch to Sunbury.

Notes

References

{{Reflist 4 ft 9 in gauge railways in the United States Defunct Pennsylvania railroads 1867 establishments in Pennsylvania 1878 disestablishments