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. The line runs along Ontelaunee Creek near areas favored by birdwatchers.
Operations The WK&S operates tourist trains on about 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 of track south of Kempton.
History The origins of the Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern date back to 1870 with the charter of a new railroad, the Berks County Railroad and later the Berks and Lehigh Railroad. In a very short time, the new line was bankrupt. It went to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad as the renamed 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 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 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 of track south of Kempton. The end of the line to the south became North Albany.
Motive power No. Builder Year Type Status Notes 2 H.K. Porter 1920 steam locomotive Out of service No future plans 4 Baldwin 1914 steam locomotive Stored, awaiting restoration Purchased 2008; will be restored for operation 65 H.K. Porter 1930 steam locomotive Undergoing 1,472-day inspection and overhaul Being rebuilt and brought up to FRA code to be returned to service 250 Baldwin 1926 steam locomotive Restoration Awaiting restoration at the Grafton and Upton Railroad, Grafton, Massachusetts 602 Whitcomb 1944 diesel-electric locomotive Out of service 734 General Electric 1956 65-ton switcher locomotive Operational Restoration completed in 2010; received in trade from Railway Restoration Project 113 for Jersey Central business car 98 7258 General Electric 1941 45-ton switcher locomotive Operational
Gallery
See also
List of heritage railroads in the United States
References
External links
Detailed web site