I guess you could say Gravity Railroads was a "Pennsylvania thing" because the northeast part of PA is one of very few areas that has anthracite coal. (hard coal) Everywhere else where coal is mined is bituminous coal (soft coal) There was a huge market for hard coal since it burns hotter and with no smoke. Warships in World War 2 burned hard coal because they don't give off smoke where the enemy can detect the ships at distance. Back to the ATV part unfortunately when these trails are converted, no ATV usage allowed. 🤬 so soon we won't be able to ride this anymore so I wanted to do it before that happens. The side effect of riding these old railroads is the coal dust and culm. It does a number on bushings and bearings cause it can act like a lapping compound when it gets wet. This old railroad in the video is what replaced the gravity system in 1895.

Not light track. It is at least 120lb rail as this was a major junction at one time. Trains hauled mainly coal from several breakers and delivered it to Hawley which was the end of the line. Originally the Jessup branch serviced several breakers, but after coal died out, that area became an industrial park so trains still operated to service the industrial park. This is why the line was cut back in 1972 (transitions from where there is no rail, to where rail is still in place) This section stayed in operation until 1985 when a hurricane caused some major washouts and it was not worth it to repair them so the line has sat unused since then. The reference in the video of the "PCC Gravity Railroad" was what existed before conventional locomotive rails. In this case the rails were light track (Originally strap rail in the 1850's) and there were no locomotives. Instead there were stationary steam engines on top of an incline (called a plane) and up to five cars would be hooked to a rope at the bottom and the steam engine would haul them uphill. Once at the top, the rope was disconnected and the cars would coast down via gravity to the next lifting plane. This is how they originally hauled coal from the mountains to Hawley to be put on boats and shipped around the country. Later they opened it up for passenger service and that is how roller coasters were invented.