North Pennsylvania Railroad
This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2014) |
Overview | |
---|---|
Dates of operation | 1852 | –1976
Successor | |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
North Pennsylvania Railroad was a railroad company which served
History
North Pennsylvania RR | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
The company incorporated on April 8, 1852, as the Philadelphia, Easton and Water Gap. Construction began on June 16, 1853; the company changed its name to the North Pennsylvania Railroad on October 3 that year. The new name reflected the grand (and unrealized) ambitions of the company to extend all the way across Pennsylvania to
In 1856, the company suffered its first accident in the
The company built, with the
Reading control
The Philadelphia & Reading Railway leased North Pennsylvania Railroad on May 14, 1879. The North Pennsylvania continued to exist as a company, and would be merged along with the Reading into Conrail in 1976 as a result of the Reading's final bankruptcy. Most of the North Pennsylvania's lines continue to exist:
- The main line became the Reading's Bethlehem Branch; through passenger service continued under SEPTA until 1981. The line is out of service north of Quakertown and south of Fern Rock, Philadelphia. SEPTA operates Lansdale/Doylestown Line commuter trains to Doylestown. Freight trains are operated on the portion from Lansdale to Quakertown by Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad and East Penn Railroad.
- The Delaware River Branch became the West Trenton Line trains continue to operate as far as West Trenton (and until 1982 there was NJ Transit provided service from West Trenton to Newark). The line remains open for freight use as part of CSX's Trenton Subdivision.
- The North East Pennsylvania Railroad's route became the Warminster. The New Hope Railroadowns and operates Warminster–New Hope.
- The Stony Creek Railroad became the Stony Creek Branch under the Reading. SEPTA operates the Manayunk/Norristown Line here from Norristown Transportation Center to Elm Street, while CSX has trackage rights.
See also
- List of railroads transferred to Conrail
Notes
- ^ a b Poor 1860, p. 467
- ^ "Terminal Facilities in Philadelphia". Railway World. 5 (12): 266. March 20, 1880.
- ^ Warner 1957, pp. 53–54
References
- Holton, James L. (1989). The Reading Railroad: History of a Coal Age Empire : The Nineteenth Century. Vol. 1. Laury's Station, PA: Garrigues House. ISBN 0-9620844-1-7.
- Poor, Henry Varnum (1860). History of Railroads and Canals in the United States. New York: J. H. Schultz & Co.
- Warner, Paul T. (May 1957). "Eight-Wheelers Between New York and Philadelphia 1870-1900". JSTOR 43520154.
External links
- Finding aid for North Pennsylvania Railroad Company records at Hagley Museum and Library