Nesquehoning Valley Railroad

The Nesquehoning Valley Railroad Company,[1] herein called the Nesquehoning Valley Railroad (NVRR), is now a fallen flag standard-gauge, steam era shortline railroad built as a coal road to ship the Anthracite mined in the Southeastern Coal Region on either side of the Little Schuylkill River tributary Panther Creek and the history making coal towns of the Panther Creek Valley down the Lehigh River transportation corridor to the Eastern seaboard.

The road had virtually no rolling stock, instead being an example of a shortline built in a corridor that was a necessary choice and then leveraging the niche established against the needs of operating rail companies.

The owned mileage extends in a westerly direction from Nesquehoning Junction to Tamenend, 16.719 miles, with a line 0.955 mile in length leaving the above-described road in the village of Hauto, and extending southerly through the Hauto Tunnel into coal mine trackage in Lansford, Pennsylvania.

From there the road dropped down westerly into the valley of Little Schuylkill River where it took a convoluted path entering Tamaqua where it connected to the Panther Creek Railroad and the Philadelphia and Reading Railway (Reading Railroad) at Tamaqua Junction.

The Nesquehoning Valley Railroad also enjoys the powers and is subject to the restrictions of a general law approved February 19, 1849.

The lower two-thirds of this 1893 USGS topo map shows the Nesquehoning Valley Railroad ( Unenhanced ) as it climbs past the Hauto Tunnel (and the Hauto lakes north of Lansford) to Hometown left to right on the Nesquehoning Valley on this map. The lower third shows the four towns atop the Southeastern Coal Region in the Panther Creek Valley the railroad was originally designed to connect. It also clearly delineates where the ridge lines are and the upper left corner shows the convoluted rail lines of several railroads which are desperately trying to change altitude and connect less desperate corridors. It is noteworthy and thought provoking to consider that LC&N did not slow or close operations of their Summit Hill & Mauch Chunk Railroad , until a year after CNJ proved out the Hauto Tunnel .