Wow..Talk about screaming: Model me!!!

[LV LOU]

 You know,I'm just sitting here thinking,what a crazy area I live in..BOTH ends of the WP&E were connected to two TOTALLY different LV mainlines,the West Pittston Branch,which ran on the far west side of the Wyoming Valley,and connected LV Coxton Yard to the Bowman's Creek Branch,which ran probably 60 miles through the wilderness,only to come right back out onto the LV near Towanda,PA.It also interchanged with LV at Coxton over the Bloom.The LV and the EL BOTH had three mains through the Valley,LV has the West Pittston Branch,[single track..]their 2 track passenger main that ran to NY along the river,and the Mountain Cutoff,[2 tracks..]which ran the long way around the mountains and met up with the passenger main in Mountaintop,Pa..EL had the Bloom,[2]another light track through Pittston that was former L&WV,[1]and a third that ran on the east side of town,[1]that served a bunch of coal mines all over the area.Think about it,2 railroad,[of 6] that had NINE TRACKS in an area 3 miles wide!!! No wonder I can't make my mind up what to model.Oh yeah,O&W ran here,too,LOL!!

[Hornwrecker]

It is nuts.  The more I study the area, and I've only been through it once about 20 years ago, the more I'm intrigued.

There's a lot of other RR info and pics at this CNJ site.    http://www.gingerb.com/central_railroad_of_new_jersey.htm

General map of the area I'm interested in, which doesn't even show the DLW on the other side of the river:  http://www.gingerb.com/cnj_ashley_monochrome_map.htm

I wouldn't even know how to condense W-B into it. http://www.gingerb.com/cnj_wilkes-barre_monochrome_map.htm

If I ever redo and expand my layout, I'm going to try to get a little bit of flavor of this mess.

[LV LOU]

 On your last link,just to give everyone an idea of the staggering scope of Wilkes Barre,the area they represent as a few red/purple lines is actually an area probably 2 blocks wide,by 3 miles long,with probably 30 tracks across.It was there until the mid 70's,but was wiped out by Agnes.There were probably more than a dozen roundhouses,and half as many passenger stations.I'd bet that from Carbondale to Nanticoke,an area maybe 3 miles wide,and 35 miles long,there were 30-40 yards,and 60 roundhouses.THere are probably STILL ten roundhouses left,and remains of many more.
   LV Coxton that I mentioned before had TWO humps at one time.There was a staggering trolley system,which ran from Dunmore to Nanticoke,probably 25 miles,all gone by the late 40's..There was also a high speed interurban,the Laurel Line,which was a two track third rail,which ran from Scranton to Wilkes Barre,which ended passenger service 12/28/52..Part of this line is now the Steamtown Trolley line.Freight service on the line ended in the early 90's,was run by Erie first,[a 44 tonner..] then EL..Also had O&W only 1/4 mile from the LV connection with the WP&E,and at one time,there was a freight/passenger line,the Wilkes Barre & Eastern,which ran from Kingston to Stroudsburg.It was owned by the Susquehanna..And seriously,there are a dozen more I won't even get into,logging,trolley buses,industrial lines,captive coal mining operations,even a few other interurbans..THere were TWO locomotive builders here,and ACF was 30 miles down the road..No wonder I ended up with over 400 locomotives,and I'm still going..Oh yeah..Let's not forget I can almost hear Steamtown from my house,and I have steam running past my front door..I'm getting a headache..You know you're worn out when a pair of CNJ F3's go past your front door,and you don't bother getting a camera,LOL!!

[LV LOU]

Here's a 1962 shot of Celotex from Penn Pilot.I believe that in the late 60's,the open "U" shape of the plant was cloed up to a straight front from plant expansion.The black lines are RT 92.The red lines are the WP&E.Up is north to the Stanton Power Plant,down is south to the Pagnotti/LV Coal Company Breaker,& the DL&W interchange.

[CodyO]

Have to agree Lou this area was pretty crazy when it comes to the amount of trackage that once existed and that still does remain

[LV LOU]

Have to agree Lou this area was pretty crazy when it comes to the amount of trackage that once existed and that still does remain

Cody,it's even crazier when you're old enough to have actually seen most of it,LOL!!