Signals of the Reading and Northern Lehigh Line

Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley, today home to the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, was the West Texas or Saudi Arabia of the 19th century due to its massive reserves of Anthracite coal. A premium product demanding premium prices, anthracite coal was the way that industrializing America kept warm in the water months after the landscape had been stripped bare of trees for firewood. This is how the Wyoming Valley could fund the operations of three major railroads (the Lehigh Valley, Central RR of NJ and Delaware Lackawanna and Western) and similarly explain why those railroads seemed to evaporate without a trace when the world moved on to oil and natural gas.

Perhaps nothing optimized the uniquely American phenomena of direct railroad competition like the LVRR and CNJ, whose main lines were both functionally and in some places literally parallel. In the 1960's the anthracite collapse was well under way and a decade before Conrail, the CNJ had decided to throw in the towel and allow the LVRR to consolidate its operations to Scranton. North of its large yard in Lehighton, PA, the LVRR was able to stitch together a hybrid route, using better aligned portions of the CNJ over the Pocono mountain summit between White Haven and Laurel Run. Later, Conrail would choose to use the CNJ main line between Lehighton and Allentown creating a Frankenstein's monster "Lehigh Line" between NYC, Scranton and NY's Southern Tier. As the region's industry continued to shift, Conrail shoveled off the Lehigh Line north of Lehighton to the upstart Reading and Northern in the 1990's.

All this history is necessary to understand why the signaling on the Lehigh Line portion of the Reading and Northern's main line between Reading and Pittston, looks the way it does. Recently made visible by the series of R&N Iron Horse Rambles and its regular weekend Lehigh Gorge excursion service, the current signaling on the upper Lehigh Line reflect its unique history. In the 2024/2025 time frame I was able to gather enough content to put together a signaling guide covering the old Lehigh Line between Mauch Chunk and Pittston.

We begin at R&N's COAL interlocking, which was built new by them to support the R&N's "Main Line" concept between Reading and Pittston, but also its Lehigh Gorge tourist operations. Using a salvaged lattice cantilever mast, COAL connects what was the old CNJ route to the former LVRR route at the south end of the Lehigh Gorge.

Into the 2000's, Conrail (later NS) owned and operated this portion of the Lehigh Line as a double track Rule 251 main line. Traffic was so light that the southbound track was used bi-directionally with northbound trains needing to get a Form D, while the southbound track had its signal system taken out of service and used for R&M excursions and freights. NS moved first to convert the southbound track to Rule 261 (CTC) operation, with the R&N converting the former northbound track to Rule 261 in the late 2010's. Each track has a single ABS signal location in this line segment, NS at LVRR milepost 126 and the R&N's at its own milepost 124.

A quick note on Mileposts. In the Conrail era the Lehigh Line would alternately use legacy mileposts from the CNJ, LVRR and LVRR Mountain Cutoff. The Reading and Northern switched this to its own mileposts that continues the Reading Company chaining from the old Reading Terminal.  Somehow this has managed to match up with the legacy CNJ mileposts within a few tenths, but LVRR mileposts are off by several miles. I will be using the R&N mileposts for most of this article.
 

CP-M&H JCT marked the transition between double track ABS and single track CTC through the Lehigh Gorge and, starting in the 1990's, the start of the Reading and Northern lease. CP-M&H JCT was re-signaled by Conrail around the time of the lease and has the typical Conrail hallmarks of a CorTen steel relay hut and color tri-light signals. What sets CP-M&H JCT apart is the use of "budget" L&W brand modular signals in the tri-lights. It's entirely possible that the lease arrangement had Conrail responsible for some portion of the signaling system (the interlockings still appear in CR's 1997 signal charts) resulting in signaling that looked Conrail, but with different hardware.

When the R&N lease came into force the arrangement still created a gap in the R&N's conceptual Main Line between Mauch Chunk and CP-M&H JCT where they had to run under Conrail rules and dispatching. When NS finally transferred the northbound track to the R&N in the mid-2000's, they were so thrilled to be in total control that they built a new interlocking back-to-back with CP-M&H JCT named INDEPENDENCE.

The mast is for CP-M&H JCT and the dwarf for INDEPENDENCE.

CP-M&H JCT wasn't an isolated re-signaling as it appears that all of the signaling in the Lehigh Gorge proper was replaced around the time of the lease. This was possibly due to the desire to replace any pole line based system due to the inaccessible nature of the right of way in the Lehigh  Gorge. The new Conrail style signaling again reflected the economic decline of the region with a shift to extra long 3-4 mile signal blocks versus the standard 1-2 mile length. ABS signal locations in the gorge are at R&N milepost 130, 133/134 and 138. The 133/134 location split the Jeddo tunnel for visibility reasons.

134S from behind

It appears that the pole line was retained to supply 440v power to the signal locations, however it is unclear if this supply is still in service.

The end of the 90's re-signaling is at the controlled holdout signal CP-WHITE-HAVEN, which is just a few miles shy of the alignment change from LVRR to CNJ. I do not currently know the status of the CNJ main north of Lehighton prior to 1965, but the re-signaling boundary is surely related to the relative utility of the CNJ signaling versus the LVRR signaling. One possibility could be a post-war investment in CTC by the CNJ to cut costs that exceeded the standard of whatever the LVRR was up to at the same time. 

 

Despite being a "better" alignment, the CNJ route up the summit at Mountain Top was still a pretty steep climb and the legacy CNJ signaling reflects this with 1-2 mile signal blocks. The CNJ also had a thing for offset blocks with northbound and southbound signals at different locations, a practice which tended to happen when a double track line was collapsed to single with the ABS signal hardware being reused in place. The first block north of CP-WHITE HAVEN is of the 3-4 mile variety as it was still on former LVRR territory and likely had any LVRR vintage signals replaced by Conrail. Beyond that we have three standard length blocks with 6 total signal locations, 145N, 146S, 148, 149N and 150S, before the extended double track passing point.

We know the signaling in this area from the CNJ and not the LVRR due to the presence of "basket" style maintainer platforms on the signal masts. instead of extending immediately behind the signal, the CNJ basket platforms allow for safe access to the front of the signal. Until they were replaced around 2017, similar basket style maintainer platforms could be found at former CNJ CP-HAM in Allentown, PA.

 

 
Under Conrail practice, "single track" main lines space controlled passing points about every 10 miles. In another example of the collapse of traffic into the Wyoming Valley, the Lehigh Line featured a roughly 30 mile stretch of single track between CP-M&H JCT and CP-CRESTWOOD, where a 4-mile stretch of double track begins. Even this passing point was cost contained with the double track being remnant of the older single direction ABS main line.

The passing point contains four ABS signal locations at mileposts 153 and 155. The latter is most notable for featuring a surviving CNJ signal bridge.

The north end of the passing siding is at CP-SOLOMONS GAP. Many believe this marks the switch back to the LVRR alignment, but that is actually about 5 miles further north at CP-LAUREL RUN. The Reading and Northern upgraded the signaling to allow Rule 261 operation on both tracks, however no new signals or signal components were added and reverse direction movements encounter a single 4-mile line block between CP-CRESTWOOD and CP-SOLOMONS GAP. Due to the presence of low speed dwarf exit signals, I suspect wrong direction moves enter the territory on an Approach indication.

Between CP-SOLOMONS GAP and CP-LAUREL RUN, there are two more CNJ signal locations at mileposts 157 and 159.

CP-LAUREL RUN itself is CNJ signaled and marks a return to what had been single direction ABS under the 1997 Conrail configuration.

Now on the former LVRR Mountain Cutoff we once again find a distinct lack of LVRR signaling. However we also find a lack of Conrail type signaling, indicating an RBMN-era change. First, we are back to 3 mile long blocks with the next signal location at milepost 163. Second, track #1 is now bi-directional. Third, track #2 is out of service with a bare mast at the MP 163 location in case of a restoration. Fourth, the signals are 1990's pattern GRS single housing vertical color lights. This uncommon style of signal never really caught on with the most notable uses around the Union Stations in Dallas and Los Angeles. It's entirely likely the the R&N picked up a supply on clearance.

Because some amount of passing track on the grade was desirable, the R&N installed a new facing crossover as part of SIDEL interlocking with all signals of the GRS single housing type.

 
This next track segment also had a single intermediate signal location on both tracks at milepost 169.

CP-DUPONT is both an interlocked connection with the D&H (to support its trackage rights to Allentown) and also marked the end of signaled territory in the Conrail era. The R&N had other ideas as they extended the signaling all the way to Pittston and upgraded all affected signals at CP-DUPONT with the GRS color lights. A new switch and reverse direction dwarf stack were also added to support end north end of the double track segment.

Between CP-DUPONT and the end of Rule 261 signaled territory at CP-PITT there is a single automatic signal location at milepost 174. This shiny signal equipment was part of the recent CTC initiative. 

Unlike most CTC entrance locations, CP-PITT features masts in both directions so that northbound trains require an affirmative Restricting indication to exit CTC territory. They also use single housing tri-lights instead of the modular tri-lights commonly used in other recent R&N signal projects.  

There you have it, an accounting of every current Lehigh Line signal location between Mauch Chunk and Pittston. While including signals from the CNJ, Conrail and two different eras of Reading and Northern, in an ironic twist it seems that the Lehigh Line no longer includes signals from the Lehigh Valley Railroad! If anyone knows the reason for this let me know in the comments.