Wanamaker, Kempton and Southern Railroad

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Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern Railroad

Overview
Headquarters	Kempton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Reporting mark	WKS
Locale	Pennsylvania
Dates of operation	1963–present
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Route map Legend mi LV main line 41.5 Slatington Welshtown Branch Little Run Junction Slatedale Branch 34.2 Germansville 32.5 Lochland 30.0 Tripoli 27.5 Lynnport 25.0 Wanamaker 22.5 Kempton Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern RR 21.5 Albany 20.0 Greenawald 17.5 Lenhartsville 13.5 Virginsville 11.5 Moselem 10.0 Evansville 8.0 Maiden Creek 5.8 Berkley Reading Belt Branch 4.0 Laurel Dale 2.8 Muhlenberg Reading main line Belt Reading Belt Branch 0.0 Reading Reading main line This diagram: view talk edit

The Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern, Inc. (WK&S) is a privately owned heritage railroad company in Kempton, Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1963 and operates over an isolated remnant of a former Reading Company line. Its nickname is the Hawk Mountain Line due to its proximity to the Hawk Mountain range.

Operations[edit]

The WK&S operates tourist trains on about three miles (4.8 km) of track between Kempton and Wanamaker regularly on weekends between May and November as well as on special occasions using either diesel or steam engines. Its Kempton station is not the original one, but consists of buildings from the Reading Company that were brought to their current location. The ticket office was the original station at Joanna, Pennsylvania.

The company owns a shop building and an additional 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of track south of Kempton.

History[edit]

The origins of the Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern date back to 1870 with the charter of a new railroad, the Berks County Railroad. In a very short time, the new line was bankrupt. It went to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad as the renamed the Schuylkill and Lehigh line, a small branch line from Reading to Slatedale where the Reading connected with the Lehigh Valley Railroad. With the decline of railroads, the Reading Company filed abandonment of the Schuylkill and Lehigh line.

In 1963 a group of volunteers founded the Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern Railroad with its main purpose to preserve railroad history. The original plan for the line was to operate 11.5 miles (18.5 km) of track from Kempton to Germansville. However this did not happen because an uncooperative land owner forced the new railroad to stop where the owner's land started, which is why the railroad stops just a north of Wanamaker along Route 143. The new railroad purchased three miles (4.8 km) of track for $65,000. After the rest of the line was abandoned, the tracks south of Kempton were next on the list to be scrapped, but the WK&S had no money to purchase the line. However, the scrapper donated 1.2 miles (1.9 km) of track south of Kempton. The end of the line to the south became North Albany.

Motive power[edit]

Gallery[edit]

• 
  0-6-0 H.K. Porter locomotive, #65
• 
  '#65, inside
• 
  Whitcomb engine
• 
  Wanamaker Station
• 
  1966 GMC Hyrail truck

See also[edit]

• List of heritage railroads in the United States

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wanamaker Kempton and Southern Railroad.

• Official website
• Detailed web site

40°37′49″N 75°51′01″W / 40.6304°N 75.8503°W / 40.6304; -75.8503