Caboose PRR #477871, Delta Place Station, Lewisburg, PA
N 40° 59.325 W 076° 52.588
18T E 342155 N 4539203
I spotted these two old rusty cabooses along highway 15 in Pennsylvania next to an old depot. This waymark is for just ONE of them, since the other has no identifying mark on it.
Waymark Code: WMJC9T
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 10/28/2013
Views: 4
I want to admit at the beginning of this waymark that I am not railroad literate, but I want to preserve what little bit of history I have been able to put together regarding one of the old cabooses alongside Highway 15 near Lewisburg, PA (in my photos its the one on the left). Note there are two cabooses here, I am only waymarking the one on the left because the other one has no identifying marks on it, making verificaton of its history difficult. Any additional information (or corrections to the info I found) is encouraged. I am providing my sources for this information, in case there are any questions or you want to see additional details.
From what I have been able to dig up, this rail is the east end of the old PRR/PC (Pennsylvania Rail Road) line, also known as the old Lewisburg & Tryrone line to Mifflinburg, and it was taken over by Conrail, who used it for a period of time (late 1970-early 1980), then petitioned to abandon it, around 1982-83. There were some businesses that still used the rail line and they organized, along with some “railfans” including Richard Sanders, who together were able to purchase the line. The group included the co-op feed mill in Mifflinburg, some fertilizer customers and Pennsylvannia House in Lewisburg. They acquired the line as well as a PRR SW1 (CR/PC 8525), a PRR P70 and a old passenger car that was apparently a former Jersey Central car that had been used on the Adriondack Scenic RR (used in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics), plus the two cabooses which are still sitting on the rail. The organization took the name North Shore Rail Excursions. A few attempts to use the cars for excursion runs (late 1980s) were unsuccessful for lack of business. The last trip was in 1997. From all accounts, the caboose is stranded where it is displayed since the rail has been dismantled. There are live rails between the static cabooses and the highway, but these cabooses are stranded on a short piece of rail that is not connected to the live rail. (Check out the overhead view on Google Earth). They are displayed along with the old Delta Place Station (depot) which has been relocated here from its original location in Orphanage.
Caboose PRR #477871. Cupola Caboose.
NOTE: In the links I provide below, you will notice a third caboose, #PRR 178886, mentioned in many accounts of the Delta Place Station; while it is no longer present, it is interesting to look at the photos of #PRR 178886 because you can see glimpses of #477871 in the background, when it was in better condition than it is now. The photos were taken between 1990-1997.
Sources:
Good Photos of this caboose plus the unmarked and the missing one:
www.berwickrailfan.webs.com/brwkrfcabooses.htm
Two links about the Delta Place Station
rrpicturearchives.net/locThumbs.aspx?id=115697
www.rrpicturearchives.net/archiveThumbs.aspx?id=36378&Page=1
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Forum discussion about these cabooses:
www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=130&t=16193
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