On July 7, 1877, the final spike was driven and the 54.67 miles (87.98km) line was opened in time for summer tourism season. Richard E. Forgay of Lansford, a charter member of the commission and former secretary of the Lansford Borough Council, was instrumental in the purchase by securing the federal grant through Lansford. The heavy investment in coal paid off quickly. The RBMN had been operating from several former Conrail offices around the system. Muller already had an agreement for Reading Blue Mountain and Northern to use C&S; tracks. [12] The Reading dubbed the line, along with some connecting track, its Philadelphia and Chester Branch;[13] southbound trains reached it via the Junction Railroad, jointly controlled by PW&B, Reading, and PRR, and continued on to the connecting Chester and Delaware River Railroad. The 29.3 miles between Winslow Jct and Meadows Tower (outside of Atlantic City) were covered in 20 minutes at a speed of 87.9mph. They still stand today in non-RR use.[2]. In 1879, the Reading gained control of the North Pennsylvania Railroad, which provided access to the burgeoning steel industry in the Lehigh Valley.[3]. We invite you to join our team! SCRANTON An old diesel locomotive nicknamed "Nickel Plate 190," which last rolled on rails in Lackawanna County over four decades ago, will return to Scranton for restoration for potential In October, the LGSR operates abbreviated 45-minute trips that offer views of fall foliage in Lehigh Gorge State Park. Close to Highway 180 & 64 this land is perfect for . [5] In December 2016, the RBMN announced that it spent $2 million to build a train station at Pennsylvania Route 61 and Bellevue Avenue in Muhlenberg Township outside Reading, called Reading Outer Station, with plans to operate passenger excursions from there to Jim Thorpe. However, on July 12, 1878, the P&AC Railway slipped into bankruptcy; on September 20, 1883, it was jointly acquired by the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) and the Philadelphia and Reading Railway for $1 million. Today, the railroad (now known as Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad) runs about 320 miles from Reading PA to Mehoopany PA and operates a 7 mile rail line from Towanda to Monroeton in Marcellus Shale territory. By the end of 2013, RBMN has purchased over 1000 freight cars. Some people love New York, I love Jim Thorpe, he said. Full year 2022 represented the most successful year in RBMNs history as we smashed all traffic and excursion ridership records. that were operating roads in 1925 but whose totals were included in Reading's after 1929. RBMN was now entirely an EMD powered railroad. The portion from Reading to Norristown opened July 16, 1838 and the full line opened December 9, 1839. Warren Buffett has made bets on railroads before, but now he's all in. As a part of Norfolk Southern's 30th anniversary in 2012, the company painted 20 new locomotives into predecessor schemes. The appraisal, at a cost of $27,000, included the track and rights of way adjacent to the track, as well as Packerton Yards. The line from Elsmere Junction to Modena is being operated by East Penn Railways, Modena to Coatesville by the Brandywine Valley Railway, and a few miles at the north end by Haines & Kibblehouse. At the New York end it used the Central Railroad of New Jersey's Jersey City Terminal from which passengers could board ferries to Liberty Street Ferry Terminal, Staten Island Ferry Whitehall Terminal, and West 23rd Street in lower Manhattan.[14]. The G1 class 4-6-2 were passenger locomotives. On May 17, 1842, a freight branch from West Falls to Port Richmond on the Delaware River north of downtown Philadelphia opened. Carbon County purchased the former Nesquehoning Valley Branch Line 1009 through the newly formed Carbon County Railroad Commission on Sept. 30, 1981, at a cost of $991,500, with the help of federal grants. Through terms of an agreement negotiated decades ago as part of the purchase of the line, Lansford will receive 25% of the sale. Passenger excursions also run on RBMN tracks. Mary Weston, left, and her son Guy Weston visit a historic Timbuctoo graveyard in Westampton Township, Burlington County, in early February. 2102. We could soon find out, A windy, cloudy Saturday for the Lehigh Valley, but the sun will come out tomorrow, Six years after hazing death, Penn State plans to drop the Greek life oversight it championed, As Adderall shortage continues, DEA plans to limit some telemedicine prescriptions, House where JonBenet Ramsey was found dead listed for sale for almost $7M, Columbia University permanently drops SAT, ACT admissions requirement, The Waterbed Doctor: California retailer lays claim to retro bed with nearly 40 years of service, sales, Felonious Florida podcast: Missing teenage girl leads to several cases of child sex trafficking, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. [20] The train runs from Reading and Port Clinton to Jim Thorpe in the morning, allowing passengers time to explore Jim Thorpe. [9], In 2019, an audit by the borough of Jim Thorpe revealed the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway owed the borough $90,000 in amusement tax. With that agreement in place, we were able to turn our attention to restoration of the bridges and rail infrastructure, and the necessary work along the Lehigh River to connect the railroads. Streaming On Demand: https://vimeo.com/pletsexpress/vod_pagesBlu-ray or DVD: https://www.pletsexpress.com/fnimall/Plets/%20126RBMN1/vid_trains.phtmlThe Readi. In Philadelphia, the Reading also built Port Richmond, the self-proclaimed "Largest privately owned railroad tidewater terminal in the world",[3] which burnished the P&R's bottom lines by allowing anthracite coal to be loaded onto ships and barges for export. In 1990, the Blue Mountain and Reading took ownership of 150 miles of track located in the Coal Region north of Reading. Besides insurance, Berkshire owns 100% of the railroad, BNSF, with $5.9 billion in earnings. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for MTH 30-1602-1 Railking Imperial Union Pacific FEF Northern 4-8-4 #837 w/PS3 at the best online prices at eBay! The Reading Terminal opened in Philadelphia in 1893. Led by Samuel Richards, an officer of the C&A for 24 years, they established the Philadelphia and Atlantic City Railway (P&AC) on March 24, 1876. The company began operations in September of 1983, starting as a 13-mile short line, operating a state-owned branch line between Hamburg and Temple PA. Named The Blue Mountain & Reading (BM&R), we were successful in rehabilitating the line, and providing service to freight customers. Includes personnel records (1873-1879) and payroll records (1869, 1871, 1876-1878). But prices will likely remain elevated compared to historical levels. A view of the Hometown High Bridge in Schuylkill County, which is owned by Carbon County. A.C.Muller Enterprises Visit: Reading & Northern Railroad.com The Reading and Northern Railroad, with corporate headquarters in Port Clinton, Pennsylvania, is a privately held railroad company servicing customers in eight counties in Eastern Pennsylvania. Both Norfolk Southern and Canadian Pacific were interested in using the Lehigh Line as a north-south corridor for goods moving from the Northeast and Canada to the New York City market via Allentown, as well as points south and east of Reading. St. Paul & Pacific Railway Company. This required all railroads to disinvest themselves of all mining properties and operations, and so the Reading Company was forced to sell the P&R Coal and Iron Company.[2]. On May 29 the Reading leased the Central Railroad of New Jersey. 425 double-headed with Canadian Pacific #2317. to Oneida and the line to Delano from Schuylkill County. Employees of the Reading and Northern Railroad work in a family oriented team environment. Like most railroads, the Reading had contracts with the U.S. Post Office to haul and sort mail en route. In May of 2005, the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway was born. Its headquarters is in Port Clinton. . In July, we entered into a long-term lease of two abandoned railroad bridges over the Lehigh River from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Reading & Northern Railroad, Pennsylvania's largest privately-owned railroad, announced Tuesday that it will begin operating regular weekend passenger excursion train service from Pittston to Jim . The two Divisions were now connected, and the Lehigh Line had a solid business base from both on-line customers and overhead trackage rights revenues. In August of 1996, RBMN acquired a portion of Conrails Lehigh Division. Primarily handling carloads of anthracite coal, the Reading and Northern Railroad also services customers in the transportation of freight that ranges in merchandise from metals and construction materials, to lumber, paper, and plastics, mineral and chemical products, and even canned food and wines. Berkshire Hathaway already owns about 22% of Burlington Northern,. Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad by Kevin Burkholder HISTORY The Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad, with corporate headquarters in Port Clinton, Pennsylvania is a privately held railroad company serving nine counties in Eastern Pennsylvania. The Reading built or bought numerous smaller 4-4-0s, 2-8-0s and switchers for its fleet.[19]. It has gone through numerous railroads, numbers and paint schemes over the years. thereafter"[10] for a term of 999 years with the stipulation that no passenger trains would use it. In 1985, both the owners of Zara founded Inditex de Diseno Textil, S.A. 25, running from Kaighn's Point in Camden, New Jersey to Atlantic City with Philadelphia and Reading Railway class P-4c 4-4-2 (Atlantic class cab over boiler) locomotive No.334 and 5 passenger cars, set a speed record. In 2005, RBMN took a big step forward to expand its passenger excursion business. C&S Railroad is now overseen by Muller. He said Mullers tours using modern cars will bring more people to town, and there are plans to shuttle people to other points of interest, such as the No. Competition with the modern trucking industry that used the Interstate Highway System for short-distance transportation of goods, also known as short hauls, compounded the company's problems, forcing it into bankruptcy in 1971. The county then hired a surveying company to survey portions of the railroad. In December 1990, Conrail was looking to sell off over 150 miles of branch lines in the Anthracite Coal Regions. Commonly called the Reading Railroad, and logotyped as Reading Lines, the Reading Company was a railroad holding company for the majority of its existence and was a single railroad during its later years. No. In July of 1992, Conrail sold some additional track near Hazelton, to serve the Jeddo Coal Company. BUSINESS CAR; BUDD RDCs; AMTK 2456 Willow Grove - (ex-2685, nee-SP 9005) Budd 10 Rmt - 6 DBR. 1:47. The percentage increased to 80% in late-January 2023, effectively taking control of it. Larger steam locomotives were introduced to haul the increasing traffic, including the massive N1 class 2-8-8-2 (Chesapeake) Mallet, and Reading made one M1 class 2-8-2 freight hauler; Baldwin Locomotive Works built the rest. The bridge connected the P&R main line on the west (south) bank of the river with the Manayunk/Norristown Line on the opposite side, allowing passenger service to Norristown and a bypass of the old main line, known as the West Side Freight line. Our philosophy is really pretty simple. Time, temperature clock returns to Palmerton, Donerds to offer treats, coffee at second location in Bethlehem, Cosmetology students keeping busy at CCTI, State trooper, Seuss book hits at library, Lansford man charged with hiding explosive in luggage at LVIA, FBI catches wanted person in Lansford raid, Three people killed in 5-vehicle Monroe County crash, Palmerton considers plans to curb vandalism. TIMES NEWS FILE PHOTO. The M1s were the first Reading locomotives to include a trailing truck, and the first engine with the cab behind the Wootten firebox. The cars were built by the former Budd Company of Philadelphia in the 1950's for commuter use by various railroads. In the mid-1990s, the RBMN discontinued the regularly scheduled passenger operations between Hamburg and Temple and instead focused on occasional excursions throughout the rest of its system. The commissioners also approved the motion unanimously. The Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad (reporting mark RBMN) (a.k.a. Reading & Northern got its start as the Blue Mountain & Reading in 1983 with a 13-mile former Pennsylvania Railroad branch between Temple and Hamburg. Reading Northern Railroad PD is a Fully Sworn Police Agency operating out of 9 Counties in NEPA. [25], The period just after World War I may have been the Reading Company's best with traffic on the Reading at its peacetime high. [10] Company officials threatened to leave the borough of Jim Thorpe,[11] and briefly ceased excursion operations in November 2019. The completion of the Reading belt line in 1902, a 7.2 mile long westerly bypass of downtown Reading, alleviated the heavy rail congestion in the busy city. 319-888-7070 ahoman@iowanorthern.com Iowa Northern Railway Company is headquartered in Waterloo, Iowa including a repair and maintenance shop with yard facilities in Manly and Waterloo. On July 22, 1877, after the crushing of strikes and unions by the Philadelphia and Reading Company, and following in the path of the Great Railroad Strikes of 1877, vandalism of the Reading's financial interests in Reading, Pennsylvania began. The shops were completed four years later; with their imposing brick architecture, they were the largest railroad shops in America and, unlike most railroads, allowed the Reading to make its own engines. 425 with diesel helpers. The Latest. The event began in 1959 when the railroad kept four of its powerful 4-8-4's (#2100, #2101, #2102, and #2124) to host excursions. These popular excursions became legendary and became a fondly remembered part of Reading's history. [6] The first round-trip excursion from Reading Outer Station to Jim Thorpe ran on May 29, 2017. Reading Blue Mountain & Northern No. Corporate records, 1862-1962. On Thursday, Carbon Countys railroad commission and board of commissioners approved the sale of its rail line to Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad for $4.7 million. 425 is a 12-38 D class 4-6-2 "Pacific" type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, PA in 1928 for the Gulf, Mobile & Northern Railroad (GM&N). After a fierce fight over the future of Conrail, CSX ultimately agreed to split Conrail with its main rival, Norfolk Southern Railway (NS). In the 1920s, the Reading operated a dense network of commuter lines branching off of the Ninth Street Branch mostly powered by small 4-4-0s, 4-4-2s and 4-6-0 camelbacks. According to Matt Fisher, general manager/passenger department with Reading & Northern Railroad, owner Andy Muller plans to spend $4 million to $5 million to upgrade the 19.5-mile line he is. Most of those shares were acquired through Cascade Investment LLC, an investment firm solely. Reading Terminal served as the terminus for most of the Reading's Philadelphia bound trains, as well as the headquarters for the company.[5]. MTH Union Pacific Railroad . The P&R became profitable almost immediately. [2][5] The Reading was relegated to being a regional railroad for the rest of its history. Who owns Reading and Northern railroad? The warehouse is intended to be a catalyst top generate additional rail business. The billionaire investor's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on Tuesday agreed to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe . Between 1907 and 1914 the old double track and street level route was replaced by an elevated quadruple-track route that offered greater capacity and safety. They were so popular they kept running through the 1964 season. Price. No. In the late 1920s, most of the suburban system was electrified (the first lines electrified were the Ninth Street Branch, New Hope Branch as far as Hatboro station (extended to Warminster station in 1974), the Bethlehem Branch as far as Lansdale, the Doylestown Branch, and the New York Branch to West Trenton). In the summer of 2002, RBMN began a critical step to enable the direct physical connection of our two Divisions without the need to run over any foreign track. We won the award by creating an innovative sand/stone backhaul move, which involved three railroads and took thousands of trucks off the highway. This vertical expansion gave the P&R almost full control of anthracite coal from mining through market, allowing it to compete successfully with like-organized competitors such as Lehigh Coal & Navigation and the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company. These men, names like James Hill, Jay and George Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Edward Harriman, and Collis P. Huntington are largely responsible for building much of the country's network. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad (P&R) was one of the first railroads in the United States. Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad Co - Company Profile and News - Bloomberg Markets Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas,. The Reading Railroad Heritage Museum, located in Hamburg, PA, is owned and operated by the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society ,a non-profit corporation dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of the Reading Railroad. Munger also gave some more solemn words regarding his future. Combined, these two carriers use the Lehigh Line to move over eighty thousand carloads a year. No. RBMN had begun restoring the yard at Penobscot in 2000, which resulted in an agreement made in May of 2003 to have NS deliver inbound interchange cars there, allowing greatly improved car cycle time. In keeping with the standards of much larger railroads, The Reading embarked on many improvement projects which typically were not attempted by smaller railroads. Muller said he bought into C&S; for an undisclosed sum because its a link between two divisions of his company one that runs from Reading into Schuylkill County and another that runs from White Haven, Luzerne County, to Scranton, Lackawanna County, and into Wyoming County. These efforts are continuing and we look forward to additional success and recognition in the years to come. This is the third time we have won the award which recognized our rapid establishment of our railroad operated transload and storage warehouse in Old Forge PA. RBMN operates occasional passenger excursions using restored steam locomotives #425 and #2102. Andy Muller, owner of Reading and Northern, offered to purchase the line, which he currently manages for the county, in 2016. When RBMN was formed in 1990, he transitioned to Coal Traffic Manager and Real Estate Manager. The railroad was growing in 2001 prompting RBMN to purchase a fleet of high horsepower six-axle locomotives and retired some of the older units that had begun to wear out. [9], In 1873, the P&R extended its reach southward by leasing 10.2 miles of track from the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. 425 was present at the grand opening of Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton. The early Philadelphia and Reading Railroad named all of its locomotives with names such as Winona or Jefferson, as did most American railroads following in the British precedent, but in December 1871 the P&R replaced all the names with numbers. The Railway fought the tax bill in court, where the judge sided with the borough; the railway appealed the decision, arguing that the tourist railroad was "not an amusement". 11.7K members Join group About Discussion More About Discussion About this group A group dedicate to sharing their photos of the Reading and Northern Railroad in Pennsylvania If I approved your membership, But i want to te See more Private The Reading and Northern Railroad, with corporate headquarters in Port Clinton, Pennsylvania, is a privately held railroad company servicing customers in eight counties in Eastern Pennsylvania. These classes were an important break of tradition of the Reading's motive power fleet. Trump supporters who drove Hummer with guns and ammo to Philadelphia vote-counting site spared more jail time, Paul Muschick: Would money motivate Pennsylvania businesses to move to a four-day work week? Greenberg, Jr., William T. "The Interstate Express", Camden-Atlantic City Line speed: (Howden,_Boys'_Book_of_Locomotives,_1907).jp, Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad, Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company, Camden, Gloucester and Mt. Having worked to ensure a steady stream of customer business along our Lehigh Division, we turned our attention to reaching agreements for the use of the line as a key transportation corridor. 425 engine 3/4 view. [14], On April 21, 2022, railroad officials announced their purchase of the property of the former KME Fire Apparatus plant in Nesquehoning for $2 million.[15]. 425 and ex-Reading Company T-1 4-8-4 No. ATLAS HO 20005857, 50' SD POSTWAR BOX CAR, READING [XMZ . The Reading and Northern Railroad started operations in 1983 after acquiring thirteen miles of tracks from Conrail that ran from Temple to Hamburg, Pennsylvania. Class II railroad in eastern Pennsylvania, Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad, Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad 4-6-2 No. The Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad ( reporting mark RBMN ), sometimes shortened to Reading and Northern Railroad, is a regional railroad in eastern Pennsylvania. "We are investing in our future and the future of the communities we serve," Reading & Northern founder and owner.