1922 Williamsport & North Branch Ry pass, Hughesville, PA to Grand Trunk RR

Description

Here is something you do not see everyday.
ORIGINAL,
1922 Williamsport & North Branch Railway No.B
200
pass issued to H. A. Freeman, Agent, Grand Trunk Rwy. signed by the man himself, D. K. Townsend.
The W&NB went into receivership in 1917 due to its inability to pay off its bonded interest, and the lease of the Eagles Mere Railroad was canceled in 1920. The W&NB was reorganized as the
Williamsport and North Branch Railway
on May 1, 1921. In addition to the closing of the Sonestown stave mill, Nordmont Chemical sold out to Charles Sones in 1924. He closed the factory, replaced it with a sawmill, and continued to haul logs on the Wyoming & Sullivan until 1930. With local traffic falling off, the W&NB depended on the small amount of
bridge traffic
allotted it by the
ICC
to help sustain it. It was only allowed freight traveling over the
Grand Trunk Railway
and the Lehigh Valley which was destined for the Reading. In practice, this amounted largely to automobiles and grain.
Pennsdale, one of three remaining stations from the railroad.
It was the
Great Depression
that ultimately finished off the Williamsport and North Branch. The Eagles Mere Railroad had been abandoned in 1926 after flood damage, but it no longer supplied any significant traffic for the W&NB. After 1930, the logging and wood products industry had essentially shut down, leaving only the coal mines as regular generators of freight traffic north of Picture Rocks. The furniture factories lower in the valley also suffered during the Depression.
During the 1930s, the railroad just scraped along, able to pay its operating expenses but unable to maintain track or equipment. By 1937, it was in so decrepit a state that the owners decided to abandon it. The last train ran on October 11, 1937, and tracks were removed by summer 1938.