Wanamaker, Kempton and Southern Railroad

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
Route map
	Legend
	Little Run Junction
	Slatedale Branch
	Wanamaker, Kempton
	& Southern RR
	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. The line runs along Ontelaunee Creek near areas favored by birdwatchers. ^[1]

Operations

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.^[2] 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

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.^[3]^{[self-published source?]}

Motive power

No.	Builder	Year	Type	Notes
2	H.K. Porter	1920	0-4-0 steam locomotive	No future plans
4	Baldwin	1914	2-6-2 steam locomotive	Purchased 2008; will be restored for operation
65	H.K. Porter	1930	0-6-0 ST steam locomotive	Being rebuilt and brought up to FRA code to be returned to service
250	Baldwin	1926	2-6-2 steam locomotive	On static display at the Edaville Railroad, South Carver, Massachusetts
602	Whitcomb	1944	diesel-electric locomotive
734	General Electric	1956	65-ton switcher locomotive	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