Lycoming Valley Railroad summary
The Lycoming Valley Railroad (LVRR) is a short line railroad that operates in Pennsylvania. The line is owned by Susquehanna Economic Development Association-Council of Governments, while operations fall under the North Shore Railroad Company and Affiliates. With freight traffic centered in Williamsport, the railroad reaches to Muncy in the east and Avis to the west.
History
The standard-gauge line of the Lycoming Valley Railroad was once part of the Reading Company and New York Central Railroad before eventually being absorbed into the former Conrail. In July 1983, the Joint Rail Authority was formed by the SEDA-COG to pursue a strategy resulting in the public ownership of multiple rail lines Conrail planned to abandon. This included the Lycoming Valley later being purchased in August 1996. North Shore Railroad resumed operations of the LVRR shortly afterwards.
Operations
The Lycoming Valley specializes in hauling supplies and materials needed to get at the vast pools of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale deposit. The Marcellus Shale formation is found in an area along the New York-Pennsylvania border to Ohio and heads south toward West Virginia. Frac sand is brought in on the LVRR to Williamsport, where Bulkmatic Transport handles the unloading at their transload facility. Local truckers are then contracted to deliver the sand to the drilling sites. The other major commodity the Lycoming Valley hauls to support Marcellus drilling is two types of pipes. The railroad can fit about 160 pieces of casing pipe into each open-top gondola arriving from Ontario. A total of 20 transmission pipes can be loaded onto each TTX flatcar and hauled in from Birmingham, Alabama.
The motive power on the Lycoming Valley comes from the North Shore Railroad’s vast roster pool of 28 diesel locomotives.
The LVRR uses trackage rights on Norfolk Southern to reach the interchange at Northumberland. In addition to NS, connections are also made with the Canadian Pacific Railway as well as Lycoming Valley’s shortline affiliates: Shamokin Valley Railroad and the Union County Industrial Railroad.
Read more about the Lycoming Valley Railroad in Trains’ June 2009 issue.
