A few weeks ago, I traveled to the eastern part of the state for the 9th Lehigh/Susquehanna Ops Weekend, sponsored by the Susquehanna Division (Division 11) of the NMRA Mid Eastern Region and the NMRA Operations Special Interest Group (OpSIG).

Having an extra day off that week, I decided to leave a day early, and spend part of the day inspecting our hunting camp north of Williamsport, PA, and the rest of the day exploring around S&NY territory west of Towanda. I hoped to get some nice fall leaf photos along the way, but the leaves were not yet at peak due to the recent warm weather.

As it turned out, I ended up spending far too much time hiking and shooting photos at the camp, but was able to get one decent shot (out of many marginal ones) of the creek and a few early autumn leaves:

Next I headed up over the mountains to Wheelerville, where I hoped to pick up township road 395/396, and take that down into the Laquin area. Unfortunately, that gravel road, while easily driveable in a pick-up, runs through the 24,000 acre State Game Lands 12, and is prohibited to motorized vehicles between September and January unless one possesses a valid disabled hunter permit. Too bad, as much of this access road is in the old S&NY roadbed.

At the gate:

Still, I was able to get photos of the location of the Wheelerville station in person:

Nearly the same view, only 70 or so years earlier:

And now, with a little Photoshop magic, we can see the Wheelerville station as a “ghost”:

I was also able to grab a couple of shots of the foundations of the Wheelerville creamery:

So, I then back-tracked over the mountains and headed east on Southside Road, paralleling Rt. 414, hoping to find a good road back over to the Laquin area, but my nav system was less than helpful and I was not successful. (Helpful hint: Don’t follow roads with colorful names like “Pine Swamp Road” when trying to find a shortcut…)

By the time I came out near Towanda I was too tired to back-track through Powell and Monroeton. Will have to save that for another day.

After a night in the palatial Comfort Inn at Towanda, I was off bright and early for Allentown and LSOPS 9.

More on that in Part 2…