Lehigh Railway - Sand Trains on the former LV Main

Well, thanks to my pal Mike Tierney, I was finally able to knock another entry off my list of shortlines to chase, this one being the Lehigh Railway. The Lehigh Railway operates over 56 miles of former Lehigh Valley rails in Northeast Pennsylvania between an interchange with the Reading and Northern at Mehoopany and with NS and Ithaca Central in Sayre. The railroad was formed in 2009, leasing Norfolk Southern's Lehigh Secondary between Athens and Mehoopany. The railroad moves some chemicals, as well as building and agricultural products, but a big chunk of the business is frac sand, with a few different sand customers located around Towanda and Wyalusing, PA. The railroad rosters two former CP SD40-2s, two former Conrail U23Bs and three GP40 variants of different heritages. It was a goal to shoot this railroad for a while, but an impending deadline of the railroad and its two sister companies being purchased by RJ Corman really convinced me to get up there. With red and white power en-route, who knows how different things could look up here soon, anyway...

First up, the Towanda based crew, LRWY-1 signed up and would take the former CP SD40-2 duo, 5700 & 5721, which would run light power to Sayre. We see the train crossing Sugar Creek outside of Towanda, passing a neat barn along US-220 in Ulster, passing a privately owned caboose in Milan and crossing the massive bridge over the Chemung River into Athens. The crew arrives at the interchange at Sayre and drills a bit before leaving town with 53 sand hoppers. We chase the train from Athens through Milan and Ulster to Towanda, where the train crosses the Susquehanna River over a huge bridge into Wysox. At Wysox, the crew meets with Wyalusing based LRWY, operating with U23B 2300. After grabbing the inbounds off the LRWY-1 crew, they head south, skirting along the Susquehanna River and behind people's backyards through Wysox and into Wyalusing, where we get one last shot at Arrowhead Lane.

Enjoy!!