LOFTY - The history of anthracite coal mining is also a history of its railroads, an industry that has left many an unintentional monument of a greater past.
The Lofty Tunnel, which travels beneath Interstate 81 near the village of Lofty in Kline Township, was abandoned 38 years ago. Its railroad tracks were removed shortly thereafter.
The tunnel can be reached from Lofty Road just outside of the village. It is a short distance to get from the road to the tunnel along the former rail bed, but what had been a flat stretch for rails is now full of large depressions filled with water and ice. At several points, the water-filled depressions are so wide that the slope of the hills on both side prevent an easy walk to the tunnel, which has trees and other brush overgrowing the area.
Paul Coombe, secretary and room manager of the Mahanoy Area Historical Society, took a drive about two weeks ago to visit the tunnel.
"If you take a look at Google Maps between Hazleton and Marian High School, you can see all those abandoned railroad tracks," Coombe said.
Coombe is a retired vice principal at Marian, principal of the former Holy Family School in Frackville and had been teacher at the former Mahanoy City Catholic School. During his college years in the 1960s, he worked one summer in the area when Interstate 81 was being constructed.
"I started work when they were paving through the cut on the highway," Coombe said. "My job for the first few days was to help the guy who was cutting the center line after the concrete was dry. I would just follow the machine with the diamond blade."
Coombe carefully drove his four-wheel drive vehicle through some of the water to get to the tunnel, but stopped at a very large ice-covered depression.
"I think if we go into that we're going to come out in Shenandoah," Coombe said jokingly. "I just don't know how deep that is."
Coombe walked around as best as he could to snap some current photographs of the tunnel.
The Rev. Philip Smith, pastor of Mount Zion Lutheran Church, Zion Grove, and Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Nuremberg, is an enthusiast of all things dealing with trains and railroads, and knows much about the rail industry in the anthracite region.
Smith said the Lofty Tunnel was bored 1,035 feet through Broad Mountain (and the divide between Delaware and Susquehanna watersheds) to link the Little Schuylkill Railroad at the foot of Broad Mountain with Milton. The rail opened 160 years ago in 1854 with a length of 64 miles. The line went bankrupt in 1860. It was reorganized as the Catawissa Railroad, acquired by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and operated as the Catawissa Branch.
"The Catawissa Branch was a crucial link," Smith said. "A branch of the mighty New York Central, which was the route of the 20th Century Limited and the 'Great Steel Fleet' of passenger trains, it came through the 'Grand Canyon' of Pennsylvania on the Jersey Shore and Pine Creek and interchanged with the P&R at Newberry Junction west of Williamsport. P&R trains came down to West Milton and took the Catawissa Branch to East Mahanoy Junction, where they were routed on the Little Schuylkill Branch to Port Clinton and Reading."
Northbound (technically "westbound" on the P&R), the Catawissa Branch bypassed a stiff 2.6 percent grade from Gordon to Locust Summit, Smith said.
"In brief, this branch ran diagonally from East Mahanoy Junction north of Tamaqua to West Milton and connections to Williamsport. The main line, roughly parallel to Route 61, ran west through Ashland to Shamokin and then swung north," he said.
Smith said that running freight trains and some passenger trains, though not enough traffic for a big-name passenger train, over the stiff grades and sharp curves required skilled, experienced crews.
"Two great sights were long trestles at Ringtown and Mainville," Smith said. "As locomotives and cars became bigger and heavier, these trestles were replaced by immense fills of millions of cubic yards of dirt, culm and whatever was available. Rumor has it that some derelict old steam locomotives were dumped in the fills, where they were completely buried."
The Catawissa Branch provided the Reading's most spectacular scenery," Smith said.
"Twisting tangents and 1.6 percent grades approaching Lofty, which was previously called 'Summit,' reached the highest elevation on the Reading at 1,540 feet," he said. "Another tunnel was Shumans (370 feet). This branch was a popular route for ''Fall Foliage Specials,' as well as Rail Rambles before and after World War II and the renowned Iron Horse Rambles between 1959 and 1964."
He continued, "However, the big T-1 4-8-4's that headed the Iron Horse Rambles were too wide at their cylinders to clear bridges across the Susquehanna at Sunbury. So they handed the Rambles over to EMD FP7A diesels at East Mahanoy Junction, ran light to Gordon to be turned and serviced at the helper terminal there, and ran in reverse to West Milton. There they coupled onto the rear of the Rambles and pulled them, diesels and all, back to Reading."
The use of the Lofty Tunnel ended in 1976.
"Lofty Tunnel and the Catawissa Branch were abandoned in 1976 by Conrail, formed to salvage the mess caused by the Penn Central and all the redundant track on the anthracite roads," Smith said.