Wanamaker, Kempton and Southern Railroad Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern Railroad
Overview

Headquarters	Kempton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Reporting mark	WKS
Locale	Pennsylvania
Dates of operation	1963–present
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern, Inc. (WK&S) is a special kind of heritage railroad company. It is located in Kempton, Pennsylvania. A heritage railroad works to keep old trains and railway history alive. This company started in 1963. It uses a part of an old train line that used to belong to the Reading Company. People often call it the Hawk Mountain Line. This is because it is very close to the Hawk Mountain range.

What the WK&S Does
History of the Railroad
Train Engines (Motive Power)
Gallery
See also

What the WK&S Does

The WK&S runs fun tourist trains. These trains travel about 3 miles (4.8 km) between Kempton and Wanamaker. You can ride them regularly on weekends from May to November. They also run on special holidays. The trains use either diesel or steam engines.

The Kempton station is not the original building. Instead, it is made up of buildings from the old Reading Company. These buildings were moved to their current spot. For example, the ticket office used to be the station in Joanna, Pennsylvania. The company also owns a shop building and about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of extra track south of Kempton.

History of the Railroad

The story of the Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern began a long time ago, in 1870. That's when a new railroad called the Berks County Railroad was created. But it didn't last long and quickly went out of business.

The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad took it over. They renamed it the Schuylkill and Lehigh line. This was a smaller train line that went from Reading to Slatedale. There, it connected with the Lehigh Valley Railroad. As train travel became less popular, the Reading Company decided to close down the Schuylkill and Lehigh line.

In 1963, a group of people who loved trains started the Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern Railroad. Their main goal was to save and protect railroad history. The first plan was to run trains on 11.5 miles (18.5 km) of track from Kempton to Germansville. But this did not happen. One landowner did not want the train to cross their land. So, the railroad had to stop just north of Wanamaker, near Route 143.

The new railroad bought 3 miles (4.8 km) of track for $65,000. The rest of the old line was going to be taken apart. The tracks south of Kempton were next to be removed. The WK&S did not have enough money to buy this part of the line. But the company that was removing the tracks kindly gave 1.2 miles (1.9 km) of track south of Kempton to the WK&S. This part of the line ended at a place called North Albany.

Train Engines (Motive Power)

The WK&S uses different types of engines to pull its trains.

Steam Engines

H.K. Porter steam engine #65 (built in 1930): This engine is being fixed up. It will be ready to run again in a few years.
Porter steam engine #2 (built in 1920): There are no plans to fix this engine in the future.

Diesel Engines

General Electric diesel-electric engine 45 tonner #7258 (built in 1941)
Whitcomb diesel-electric #602 (built in 1944)
General Electric diesel-electric #734 (built in 1956): This engine was fully fixed in 2010. The WK&S got it by trading a Jersey Central business car (number 98) with another group.

Engines Not Running or Gone

Baldwin steam engine #4 (built in 1914): This engine was bought in 2008. It will be fixed up to run again.
Baldwin steam engine #250 (built in 1926): This engine is no longer at the WK&S. You can see it on display at the Edaville Railroad in South Carver, Massachusetts.