Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad will be adding a new passenger station this year, and is already planning excursions from the yet-to-be built platform in Nesquehoning.

The railroad announced Iron Horse Rambles departing its Nesquehoning Campus at the former Kovatch/KME facility on the north side of Route 54 in Nesquehoning, which runs alongside its Lehigh Division Main Line.

Work has already begun on a siding near the parking lot entrance near Building No. 4, where a black gondola sits on new rails.

That siding will extend across the parking lot toward Building No. 3, which will be used for locomotive repair and maintenance, according to video clips posted by Reading and Northern’s Jamie Makin.

Another siding will run parallel to the main line, where the new platform, similar to one recently built and opened in Pittston, will be constructed, she said.

Two Iron Horse Ramble excursions will leave the new station this year, scheduled for June 22 and Aug. 17.

The June 22 excursion will depart the Nesquehoning station at 9 a.m. bound for Tunkhannock for the 43rd annual Founder’s Day Festival, which features foods, crafters and live entertainment, the railroad said in a release.

The railroad’s steam locomotive No. 2102, the largest operating steam locomotive on the East Coast, will pull the train through the Lehigh Gorge State Park into White Haven, over Penobscot Mountain through the Wyoming Valley and along the east bank of the Susquehanna River to Tunkhannock.

The Aug. 17 excursion will be bound to Pittston for the community’s annual Tomato Festival, which features food, rides, live entertainment and contests. This excursion will also feature the No. 2102 locomotive.

Tickets went on sale for all the Iron Horse Rambles in mid-February. More information on the excursion is available on the railroad’s website, www.rbmnrr-passenger.com, or by calling 610-562-2102.

The railroad will announce more about the new station at Nesquehoning in the coming weeks, as well as release an artist’s rendering of the platform, Matt Fisher, senior vice president and general manager of the railroad’s Passenger Division, said Thursday.

The railroad will also have more information about passenger excursions from the Nesquehoning Campus soon, he said.