View on D.L. & W. R. R. Catawissa PA
"The Catawissa Railroad was originally incorporated on March 21, 1831, under the name of the Little Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad, but was abandoned. This became the Catawissa Railroad in 1860, and was opened from Catawissa to Williamsport, by way of Milton, in 1871. It has been operated by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad since 1872, having crossed the West Branch from Milton to West Milton, where it has a yard and shops." - Early Railroads By Heber G. Gearhart
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The Catawissa, Williamsport, & Erie Railroad
The Catawissa, Williamsport, & Erie Railroad
The CW&E built the line through Catawissa, eventually making it to Williamsport (but not to Erie).
"Work was resumed in 1853 under the leadership of a new corporation called the Catawissa, Williamsport & Erie Railroad Company, chartered in 1850. Changes were made in the original construction and the project was completed from Port Clinton to Rupert in l854.
By the fall of 1854 the road was completed to Milton where it joined the P. & E. Railroad The first The Massachusetts, arrived in Catawissa in July 1854.
shipping receipt on the Catawissa, Williamsport & Erie, dated November 2, 1858, for 1 bale lops (a type of rabbit feed) and 4 boxes of goods, shipped from Philadelphia for $7.81 (about $304.59 today).
Railroad Pass for H.D. Bacon Esq Owner and Pres. Ohio & Miss R.R. of Ill.
signed by Fisher, Treasurer
After the CW&E went bankrupt in 1859, it was reorganized as the Catawissa Rail Road in 1860.
Old Catawissa
Or the Massachusetts?
"The first locomotive to be used on this line through Catawissa was called the "Massachusetts," built in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by Hinkley & Duryea and delivered at Columbia, Pennsylvania, where it was loaded on a canal boat and brought to Catawissa, where a special track was laid to bring it ashore. It was put into use to lay the tracks within and out of Catawissa. The rails first used in the project were made at Danville and weighed 56 pounds to the yard. The "Massachusetts", later known as "Number 2" weighed twenty-five tons and was a wood-burner. Samuel Carpenter was the engineer and Frank Wright was the fireman, both from Columbia, Pennsylvania. Joseph Shuman, of Beaver Valley was hired as night watchman and engine wiper. The first train came into Catawissa on Sunday July 16, 1854 with William Cable as Conductor and John Johnson as engineer. The following day July 17 the train made its first regular run Catawissa to Port Clinton.
It is reported that there were thousands of people on hand in Catawissa from the town and from neighboring communities to see the train pull into town. In these days when the line was first open up as far as Catawissa, the locomotive was turned on a Y that extended from the old station to the river, and back to Robert's Run or what is now known as Corn Run."
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Scenery Of Pennsylvania
Catawissa Railroad
Photographed by John Moran
Incomplete collection of the series, published by John Moran between 1862 and 1868, of scenic views along the Catawissa Railroad, including views in Lycoming, Carbon, and Schuylkill County. Two unlabeled views titled "Bridge over the Susquehanna at Williamsport" and "Tunnel at Summit Station" included as part of the series. Incorporated in 1831 and opened in 1854, the passenger and commercial railroad traveled through the mountains near Blue Ridge connecting Port Clinton and Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Views predominately depict Catawissa Island, a retreat on the Susquehanna River below the town of Catawissa. Views include scenes near a farm and the river. Series also contains views of Lycoming Creek; McCauley Mountain and Railroad; Pine Swamp at Ringtown; base of Summit Hill, Quakake Railroad; and head waters of the Schuylkill River, Summit Station. Many of the views contain posed male figures, including possibly John Moran. Two of the views include a railroad car and railroad tracks.
Moran, a Philadelphia photographer, specialized in landscape photography and often took artistic excursions with his painter brothers, Thomas and Edward. The men visited and documented the Catawissa Valley around 1862.
See the photos here:
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Catawissa, Williamsport And Erie Division
Milton To Williamsport
From the Brookville Republican, Aug 1868
This line was commenced one-fourth of a mile east of the | Catawissa Station at Milton; thence, crossing the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad at grade South of the depot, and the West Branch Canal near Mahoning Street Bridge; thence throug Milton to the old burying ground; thence, in a straight line to Port May, where the canal is crossed immediately below the lock; thence, on the of the Philadelphia & Erie railroad, and parallel with it through Watsontown and Dewart. On the farm of John Fogleman two miles above Dewart the line deflects to the right, and crosses the Philadelphia & Erie railroad 17 feet above the rails; thence, towards the Muncy Bluffs near the lock in the canal; thence, along the berme of the bank of the canal, eighteen feet above its water line. The bluffs are cut where necessary and the bank sustained by a slope wall from the bottom of the canal. Above | the guard lock the widened present will afford towing a path straightened and good road bed, the material necessary to do this will form a new towing path outside of present one, raised about six feet above the low water level; that portion of it nearest to the dam for about 1,000 feet secured by crib work on the outside, to near the surface of low water.
The entire length of the bluffs is 8.000 feet, 5,000 feet above the guard lock, and 8,000 feet below it. From the upper end of the bluff's the line is outside of the canal limits. | The line passes west of Muncy, and crosses Muncy creek 800 feet east of the Muncy aqueduct by a bridge 225 feet long; thence to the berme bauk of canal at Wolf run; thence along berme bank to near "'Hall's Lock,' where the canal is crossed, and in a straight line to Carpenter's run, where the canal is re-crossed; thence in a straight line through the Hall farms to the bluffs above Norris', where the line follows the berme bank of the canal Judge Rawl's; thence in a direct line to th Loyalsock creek, crossing the canal below Fuller's Lock. The "State Mill" race and the Loyalsock creek are crossed at the island thence by across two the bridges, canal 600 each feet 250 above feet its long: let lock. Here it will be necessary to deepen the canal 64 feet, or set the lock 600 feet further up the canal, to avoid a draw, or a greatly increased amount of work.
All the canal | crossings are above boating height. From the Loyalsock to Williamsport the line is on the north side of the canal. Three hundred feet east of the Philadelphia Erie railroad bridge the line crosses the a canal, and thence to the river bank at corner of Howard and Front streets, and thence up Front street to the commons south of Front and above Market streets. Several lines through and around the city have been proposed, all of which were examined for the Sunbury & Erie railroad location, and in the Catawissa and Susquehanna railroad surveys. Although the line here indicated has some objections, it has decided advantages over every other line. Located on the river bank it will have but the single street crossing to provide for.
The crossing of the Philadelphia & Erie railroad south of the canal bridge grade cannot be avoided. The Cemetery at once defeats the location of the line on the north side of the Philadelphia & Erie railroad, and the buildings and improvements on the berme bank of the canal would obviously make the right of' way a heavy item of cost. The road constructed on Front street will afford a passenger depot convenient for the citizens, and in the vicinity of the public buildings. It will be most advantageous to all the lumber mills and the other manufacturing interests of the city. It will do less permanent injury to private property and afford more business facilities than any other location in town.
The entire distance from its intersection with the Catawissa railroad at Milton to Market street in the city of Williamsport, will be 28.3 miles, or nearly one mile further than the Philadelphia & Erie road, but this line avoids two river bridges, in the aggregate nearly half a mile long, nearly one hundred degrees of curvature, several miles of mountain side hill cutting, with a heavy synclinal dip, producing enormous slides, (the side of the river your line occupies produces the anticlinal dip in the rocks which prevents slides.) This location affords facilities for highly productive country throughout its line from Milton to Williamsport, to promote varied industry, and presents an opportunity for the roads of Muncy creek and Loyalsock to make cheap and practicable connections, and to encourage the development of enterprise in the rich and flourishing towns of Muncy and Montoursville.
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The Railroad & Rail Yards At Catawissa
Catawissa Railroad Bridge & Switch Tower
View from Main Street, looking up railroad street, during the 1904 flood
Catawissa Railroad Workers
(seated in wheel barrow is Harry Singley of Catawissa)
1927, Workers At The Catawissa Railroad Shops
Aerial View Of Catawissa Showing the Rail Yards
Turn table at the Reading Rail Yard At Catawissa
Water tower at the Catawissa Rail Yard
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The Whistle Stop
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1910 The Whistle Stop Address is 119 Pine Street.
1934
119 Pine Street Catawissa
1981
Photos from our visit in 2026
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MORE ABOUT THE CATAWISSA RAILROAD
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Stories & History From Catawissa, Pa
For More Local History & Stories From Nearby Towns:
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The first locomotive to be used on this line through Catawissa was called the "Massachusetts," built in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by Hinkley & Duryea and delivered at Columbia, Pennsylvania, where it was loaded on a canal boat and brought to Catawissa, where a special track was laid to bring it ashore. It was put into use to lay the tracks within and out of Catawissa. The rails first used in the project were made at Danville and weighed 56 pounds to the yard. The "Massachusetts", later known as "Number 2" weighed twenty-five tons and was a wood-burner. Samuel Carpenter was the engineer and Frank Wright was the fireman, both from Columbia, Pennsylvania. Joseph Shuman, of Beaver Valley was hired as night watchman and engine wiper. The first train came into Catawissa on Sunday July 16, 1854 with William Cable as Conductor and John Johnson as engineer. The following day July 17 the train made its first regular run Catawissa to Port Clinton.
It is reported that there were thousands of people on hand in Catawissa from the town and from neighboring communities to see the train pull into town. In these days when the line was first open up as far as Catawissa, the locomotive was turned on a Y that extended from the old station to the river, and back to Robert's Run or what is now known as Corn Run.
The railroad repair shops were built in Catawissa in 1864. Repair work had been done, previous to that date in Tamaqua. The Catawissa, Williamsport, and Erie Railroad Company fell on hard times and was finally sold out in 1860 to a group calling themselves the Catawissa Railroad. In 1871, the Catawissa Railroad was extended from Milton to Williamsport with local resident William G. Yetter as assistant engineer. By 1882, Mr. Yetter, as resident engineer laid out the rail lines from Williamsport to Newberry Junction. In 1872, the Catawissa Railroad turned over its claims to the line to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company.
A second railroad was built through this part of Columbia County, known first as the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Road, making it possible for residents of the Wilkes-Barre area to go to Philadelphia without going first to New York City. The road was completed to Rupert in 1857, connecting at first there with the Catawissa Railroad. The first train came to Bloomsburg January 1, 1858. Two years later the line continued to Northumberland. In 1881 it came under the control of the famous Lackawanna Railroad.
The 3rd railroad of interest to us at Catawissa was the Danville, Hazleton & Wilkes-Barre Railroad established in 1870 largely through the efforts of Simon P. Kase, who had built the second iron mill in Danville in 1837. In 1844 he built the first mill for the manufacture of merchant iron and in 1846 he built a rolling mill in Danville. In 1878 the name was changed to Sunbury, Hazleton & Wilkes-Barre R.R. This is the line that was built along the north bank of the Catawissa Creek through Main and Beaver Townships, connecting Catawissa with Hazleton and the hard coal region. This line was torn out about the year 1947.
The 4th railroad line, this one built through Catawissa was the North and West Branch Railroad was the brain child of the Rev. D.J. Waller, pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Bloomsburg. In fact, he wrote the charter for the road and the Honorable C.R. Buckalew had it passed by the Legislature in 1871. By 1881 it was built from Catawissa to Wilkes-Barre.
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The antecedent of this line was the Catawissa, Williamsport & Erie Railroad (CW&E RR), which had been incorporated in 1829 as the Little Schuylkill & Susquehanna Railroad, but never reached Catawissa. The new CW&E RR in 1854 finished construction of the line as far west as Milton, Pa, where a connection was made with the Sunbury & Erie Railroad. For the next 15 years, Williamsport was reached by operating its trains over the Sunbury & Erie. By 1860, the CW&E RR had fallen under the influence of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, which reorganized the line as simply the Catawissa Railroad. This company continued its separate existence until 1953, when it was merged into its parent. With the formation of Conrail in 1976, Williamsport-bound traffic was moved to the former Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) Buffalo Main and the “Catawissa route” was in large part abandoned. The remaining trackage was sold by Conrail in 1995 to private parties, at which time the UCIR was formed to operate the line.
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