Wannamaker Kempton & Southern Railroad's L&NE Photo Freight Excursion

On September 21st, 2024, I made a visit to the Wannamaker Kempton & Southern Railroad (WK&S) to experience a special event event that the railroad has created: a Lehigh and New England (L&NE) themed Photo Freight Excursion!

This train ride was not a traditional trip on the WK&S, which traditionally takes riders in coaches from Kempton to Wannamakers and returns. Instead, this train featured an open-air gondola and bobber caboose, both of L&NE heritage, and we would end up traveling across almost the entirety of the railroad's trackage, stopping at many locations for photo runbys!

Additionally, we made some history toward the end of the excursion! As a surprise to all of us onboard, when we returned to Kempton from Wannamakers... we kept going! That's right; this excursion was the first public passenger train WK&S had taken on the southern portion of their line and across Rt. 737 in town in approximately 50 years!

Overall, I was very impressed with this excursion and had a ton of fun! According to the staff on this train, this was the first of future special excursions that will begin utilizing the southern portion of their trackage. If you'd like to make a visit to the WK&S for such future events, be sure to check out their website at https://kemptontrain.com/ to learn more about their upcoming excursions!

Additionally, I was joined by my good friend and fellow YouTuber ‪@JamieMakin‬ on this excursion! Similar to other adventures we have been on together, we decided to do a small collab on this video, sharing footage from different angles at some of the locations. Be sure to visit her channel to check out her video of this awesome experience!

Without further ado, please enjoy this unique and historic adventure on the WK&S!

0:00 Intro
0:25 What's a Photo Freight Excursion?
2:37 Onboard the L&NE Bobber Caboose, departing Kempton
8:00 Photo Runby #1: Fuhrmans Grove
10:30 Back onboard and heading to the next runby location
15:37 Photo Runby #2.1: Dual Bridges over Ontelaunee Creek
16:21 Photo Runby #2.2: Open Field near Apple Orchard (Jamie Makin Clip)
16:47 Riding behind the locomotive to Wanamaker
23:17 Photo Runby #3: Wanamaker
24:56 Riding to the north end of the line
27:50 Starting the return south toward Kempton
31:50 Entering Kempton/Kempton Yard... and we keep going past the station!
34:06 Entering the town of Kempton
37:04 Crossing Rt. 737 (First public train to do so in 50 years!)
38:00 Traversing down the southern branch
42:52 Stopping for a static photo at the end of our southern voyage
43:36 Back onboard and on the return to Kempton
47:47 Final Photo Runby: Crossing Rt. 737 in Kempton, PA
49:38 Back onboard and returning to Kempton Station
54:06 Outro

Music in this video:
Song: Tropic Fuse
Artist: French Fuse
Licensed to YouTube by: YouTube Audio Library