Williamsport and North Branch Railroad - Completion

Completion

The new owners still intended to extend the railroad towards Laporte and the coalfield at Bernice, but this could only be accomplished in slow stages. The track from Halls to Hughesville was rebuilt to make up for the deferred maintenance of previous years, and in late 1883, construction north and east began again. The new line followed a different route from the unsuccessful wooden-railed extension, following the west side of Muncy Creek through Tivoli up to Glen Mawr, which was reached in 1884. There was a picnic grove at Tivoli which was the destination of summer excursions, and a stage connection to the resort of Eagles Mere, then called Lewis Lake.

Extension of the line continued. At Glen Mawr, the railroad crossed Muncy Creek and followed its east bank up to Sonestown, which it reached in 1885, and Nordmont, where it ended in October 1886. Here the railroad's expansion ceased again, but the sawmills and tanneries of the Muncy Valley provided the revenue to keep it solvent.

In the late 1880s, the Pennsylvania Railroad took an interest in the W&NB as a means of reaching the Bernice coalfields. The State Line and Sullivan Railroad, a subsidiary of the Lehigh Valley, had already reached the area,and the Bloomsburg and Sullivan Railroad, backed by the Reading interest, had been chartered in 1883 to reach Bernice from the south via Fishing Creek. The PRR backed a new syndicate which took over the W&NB in 1888, and named George Sanderson president. However, the PRR's interest in the W&NB quickly waned, especially after the Bloomsburg & Sullivan's construction halted in Jamison City, never to reach Bernice. The failure of Sanderson's bank in 1891 resulted in the transfer of his investment in the W&NB to his creditors, including John Satterfield; Satterfield now became vice-president and Henry C. McCormick president of the railroad. Satterfield was determined to complete the railroad, and after raising money and surveying, construction began in 1892. At Nordmont, the railroad crossed Muncy Creek on a horseshoe curve and began climbing up the other side of the valley, then turning up Deep Hollow and crossing over into the Loyalsock Creek watershed. The new line passed Lake Mokoma and Laporte and descended high on the east side of the Mill Creek valley, turning and descending along the Loyalsock to Ringdale. The line from Ringdale to the summit between Loyalsock and Muncy creeks was built on a 1% grade to facilitate handling heavy coal trains from Bernice. At Ringdale, the line crossed the Loyalsock on a high trestle, 476 feet (145 m) long, and ran up Birch Creek. The line forked at Birch Creek Junction, with one branch going up a tributary of Birch Creek to a junction with the State Line & Sullivan at Dohm's Summit, while another followed Birch Creek to join the State Line and Sullivan at Bernice.

The line was completed into Laporte in August 1893, and to Dohm's Summit in September. The latter was renamed Satterfield in honor of the promoter who had completed the W&NB. Construction of a depot at Satterfield began in October, but a dispute with the Lehigh Valley over property ownership resulted in its demolition, and it was relocated in November. The W&NB did obtain trackage rights over the State Line & Sullivan to Towanda for its passenger trains. The branch to Bernice was finished in 1894.