The Reading Railroad

[eldondre]

the ones that look useful today is the branch to downingtown from conshohocken, service to bethlehem

[Brian616]

How about the line to Cape May? I'd take that in a heartbeat.

[eldondre]

How about the line to Cape May? I'd take that in a heartbeat.

just to make you feel worse

On 20 July 1904 train no.25 a regularly scheduled train that ran from Kaighn's Point in Camden NJ to Atlantic City NJ, with Philadelphia and Reading Railway class P-4c 4-4-2 No.334 and 5 passenger cars set a speed record. It ran the 55.5 miles in 43 minutes at an average speed of 77.4 mph. The 29.3 miles between Winslow Jct and Meadows Tower (outside of Atlantic City) were covered in 20 minutes at a speed of 87.9 mph. During the short segment between Egg Harbor and Brigantine Jct, the train was reported to have reached 115 mph

Atlantic City Railroad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
today the trip from cherry hill takes about an hour and the trip to 30th takes another half hour. until that's addressed, I can't see it making sense to add cape may

The Reading and Pennsylvania railroads, later to become the Reading and Pennsylvania Seashore Line, made customer convenience their mission. The relatively short distance and flat terrain made close scheduling of high speed trains possible. The speeds attained on the run to Atlantic City were remarkable even by today's standards. Some of the special excursions included the Fisherman's Special. You would go "Down the Shore" early in the morning with rod reel and basket in hand. Returning home in late afternoon, sunburned with a basket full of fish.

http://www.phillyseaport.org/web_exh...own_the_shore/

[Dayman]

We can do it much slower with cars! Destroy the railroads!

[hammersklavier]

The map is also showing the CNJ as a "majority stock owned" railroad. Looks like several of the others would have just been subsumed into normal RDG operations, but I thought the CNJ continued to operate under their own flag?

Also when were the Seashore Lines first formed?

[Dayman]

Ever since this thread, the Reading Rainbow song has been in my head.

[eldondre]

The map is also showing the CNJ as a "majority stock owned" railroad. Looks like several of the others would have just been subsumed into normal RDG operations, but I thought the CNJ continued to operate under their own flag?

Also when were the Seashore Lines first formed?

On March 4, 1931, New Jersey's public utility regulators ordered the two companies to join their southern New Jersey lines into one company, The Consolidation Agreement had decreed that the Pennsylvania Railroad had two-thirds ownership, and the Reading Company had one-third ownership

Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Pitboss]

the ones that look useful today is the branch to downingtown from conshohocken, service to bethlehem

As much as I pick my mind I can't place anything going from W Conshy toward
Downingtown. Do you mean the freight line going west in thru Swedeland?

[hammersklavier]

As much as I pique my mind I can't place anything going from W Conshy toward
Downingtown. Do you mean the freight line going west in thru Swedeland?

Who uses it? Is it NS or CSX or some short line?

"Pique" is the French word for "sting", by the way, and a homophone with "peek". I think you meant "pick".

[Pitboss]

Who uses it? Is it NS or CSX or some short line?

"Pique" is the French word for "sting", by the way, and a homophone with "peek". I think you meant "pick".

What do you mean I used "pick", maybe it's your "reply with quote" button

I don't believe it's a short line as it transports new cars hence a large yard full of them
on the Plymouth side of the Schuylkill at Belvoir Rd and Ridge. It crosses Germantown
Pike at the turnpike interchange.

[eldondre]

As much as I pick my mind I can't place anything going from W Conshy toward
Downingtown. Do you mean the freight line going west in thru Swedeland?

yeah, the one that runs from PM. it appears from the map that they were once connected. ways to cross the schuylkill are always useful. really, the most unbelievable one is that they let the connection to the lehigh valley be severed.

[CityMaps]

the ones that look useful today is the branch to downingtown from conshohocken, service to bethlehem

service to Reading

[Pitboss]

"Pique" is the French word for "sting", by the way, and a homophone with "peek". I think you meant "pick".

Hammer are you in France? My usage of 'pique' was good at least here in the states (#2):
r.v. piqued, piqu·ing, piques
1. To cause to feel resentment or indignation.
2. To provoke; arouse: The portrait piqued her curiosity.

Note to self ~ check before edit

[Politburo]

Who uses it? Is it NS or CSX or some short line?

It's NS. They had a bunch of tank cars parked there for months when the recession first hit.. you can see them on street view.

I do wonder if this ever connected to the Reading (Norristown) line, though. The Reading line is very close to the river there.. the bridge for the 'Downingtown branch' goes over it. That would make the geometry to get back to that line pretty difficult and there doesn't appear to be any remnants of that visible on aerial photos.

[hammersklavier]

Thanks. If it's being used by NS, and there are remnants of catenary along the line, the one you're thinking of is more likely than not the (ex-PRR) Trenton Bypass, which originally ran from Exton to Morrisville. The RDG had a (much shorter) bypass, too, which ran from Norristown to Oreland and closely paralleled the Cutoff...Sometime AFAIK in the early 1980s Conrail engineered a connection between the Cutoff and RDG bypass in the Norristown area and abandoned the rest of the RDG bypass. The Cutoff west of this connection is still in use and still connected to the Main Line, albeit downgraded to a branchline from the freight main it once was. The reasons it's still in use are because (a) it's the best way to access Lancaster County branch lines from Abrams Yard and (b) because the PRR main would be the detour if anything happened to the RDG main.

BTW el--the current NS operations follow, by and large, the Alphabet Line (RDG) mains east of Harrisburg. Most freights bypass Philadelphia via Kutztown, and the RDG main is used for access to the city. The Bethlehem Branch was faster primarily for trains originating in the Lehigh Gorge and bound for Philadelphia, or for access to Bethlehem Steel, and when that traffic dried up, it was better to let the branch just become a commuter rail line and run traffic originating north of Scranton along other anthracite railroad mains down to Philly via Reading.

The Bethlehem Branch really needs to be reopened for interurban service, though.

[eldondre]

It's NS. They had a bunch of tank cars parked there for months when the recession first hit.. you can see them on street view.

I do wonder if this ever connected to the Reading (Norristown) line, though. The Reading line is very close to the river there.. the bridge for the 'Downingtown branch' goes over it. That would make the geometry to get back to that line pretty difficult and there doesn't appear to be any remnants of that visible on aerial photos.

come to think of it, I believe I've seen a map that shows the connection but it was a single track connection and only connected to the eastbound service (towards PM, as such, it would not have accomodated time sensitive travel towards downingtown and probably was used to move freight from the schuylkill mostly.

BTW el--...The Bethlehem Branch was faster primarily for trains originating in the Lehigh Gorge and bound for Philadelphia...The Bethlehem Branch really needs to be reopened for interurban service, though.

this is exactly it, we need a service along the lines of the keystone to the lehigh valley. service was discontinued under SEPTA's watch. I'd like to see penndot pursue a strategy of using state money to upgrade the readning main and apply for federal funds for intercity service to reinstate service north of lansdale

[hammersklavier]

Yep, and as Philadelphia-bound freight originating in the Lehigh Valley dwindled, Conrail decided it had little need to keep the line open and so let it fall into disuse. Passenger service between Philadelphia and the Lehigh Valley (and eventually the Lackawanna Valley) is, however, important to transportation on a state basis, and hence service from Philadelphia to Bethlehem and Reading needs to be restarted (though not necessarily by SEPTA...Amtrak California would be a good model to consider following).

[CityMaps]

The Bethlehem Branch really needs to be reopened for interurban service, though.

You mean interurban as in "inter-city," not as in "interurban."

[desolate]

You mean interurban as in "inter-city," not as in "interurban."

Interurban, like the term for long distance trolley service.

An interurban, also called a radial railway in parts of Canada, is a type of electric passenger railroad; in short a hybrid between tram (streetcar) and train. Interurbans enjoyed widespread popularity in the first three decades of the twentieth century in North America. Until the early 1920s, most roads were unpaved and could become nearly impassable during wet weather. Travel was by horse back or carriage, and cartage was by horse-drawn wagon. The interurban provided a new predictable, durable, and comfortable way to travel and, in some cases, a way to get farm products including fresh milk into town. At present, what once was called an interurban is now categorized as either commuter rail or light rail, depending on operation, and may include urban streetcar lines. The Tram-train may be considered as a modernization of the interurban.

[CityMaps]

Yeah, I know the difference. Philly to Bethlehem is too far for that type of vehicle.