North Star Junction is a wye that
was used to turn the locomotives. It is also the site of an old passenger
pick up point although there are no remains visible of any passenger
structures, if there ever was any.
There is quite a lot of old track work
at the junction. We could find no rails but it appears that most of the ties
are still in place at least on the east track. The west track is more hidden
and we didn't find the same number of ties although the road bed could be
easily traced.
We found a very interesting artifact lying near the start of the wye. It
is an old locomotive break assembly. It has both brake shoes on it and a
long bar connecting the two. It was found buried in the soil just before we
reached the wye.
This is the point
where we started our adventure. It is the east end of the wye. This is over
the small concrete tunnel that passes over the road. The tunnel and wye are
located near Santiago PA N 40 26.441
W 80 15.848
These are the old ties
that we found marking the old road bed. The ties existed from the main all
the way back to the merge point. This is on the east wye extension. It's
been about 25 years since the rails have been removed and the ties are
slowly disappearing into the brush. They would be difficult to spot and
trace in the summer.
This is the merge spot
located back in the woods. You can see that the ties are longer here to
support both lines of track coming together. There are still track
connectors, plates, switch hardware and spikes in this area. We could not
locate the switch machine or any of its components.
N 40 26.395
W 80 15.850
Here is some of the
hardware we found near the merge point. If you look closely at the picture
on the right you can see the spikes still in the ties. This was common to
the area indicating that when the rails were removed they were slid out from
under the spikes. If you visit the area keep alert as some of the ties were
overturned and the pointy ends of the spikes were pointing upward.
This is a view of the
North Star Junction from the
Microsoft Terraserver. The photo was taken in 1993, over ten years prior
to our visit. The coordinates for the end or southern most point of the wye
are:
N 40 26.345
W 80 15.850
This is at the west
end of the wye where the the tracks merge back into the main. You can see
that it is well hidden by forest growth. There is a small pile of ties
blocking the entrance to the wye at the west junction that can be seen only
if you are on the east side of the main.
N 40
26.450
W 80 15.873
Here are the images of
the brake assembly we found lying half buried in the soil on the east end of
the bridge/tunnel. We of course don't know the story of how this got here
but we think it's a great find. On the one end of the assembly we noted a
brake shoe in good shape. I'm sure this isn't going anywhere soon.
This is a complete brake beam, the cast iron shoes are still pinned in
the brake heads. A reminder from some long ago derailment or lost pin
allowing the beam to drag under the car. Tim Sposato
This is an old access
road to the the wye. The road originates from from North Star Rd.
Here are some things
we found near the bridge. The photo on the left shows some kind of mechanism
down under the timbers.
Here's a shot I like
of the ties. You can see the spikes sticking out of them.
Montour
Railroad 
