Fox Chase Line
The Fox Chase Line is a route of the SEPTA Regional Rail system. The Fox Chase Line branches from the SEPTA Main Line at Newtown Junction, north of the Wayne Junction station, it runs within the city of Philadelphia. Under the Reading Company service continued north to Newtown, but this ended in January 1983. Various proposals to resume this service have failed; the line within Montgomery County was converted into a rail trail in 2008 and 2014 ending any chance of resumed passenger service for the foreseeable future. The Fox Chase Line branches from the SEPTA Main Line at Newtown Junction, north of the Wayne Junction station, it runs within the city of Philadelphia. The line beyond Newtown Junction was opened February 2, 1878, to Newtown as the Philadelphia and New York Railroad; the line was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad to block the building of the parallel National Railway. After that failed, it was taken over by the North Pennsylvania Railroad on November 22, 1879. By the Philadelphia and Reading Railway the Reading Company, had leased the North Pennsylvania Railroad.
In 1976 the Reading was merged into Conrail, in 1983 SEPTA took over commuter rail operations. Between 1984 and 2010 the route was designated R8 Fox Chase as part of SEPTA's diametrical reorganization of its lines. Fox Chase trains operated through the city center to the Chestnut Hill West Line. Plans had called for the Fox Chase Line to be paired with a Bryn Mawr local and designated R4, but this depended on a never-built connection from the Chestnut Hill West Line to the ex-Reading near Wayne Junction; as of 2018, most Fox Chase Line trains continue through Center City to the Chestnut Hill West Line. SEPTA activated positive train control on the Fox Chase Line on May 23, 2016. Under the Reading Company Budd Rail Diesel Cars operated through from the Reading Terminal in downtown Philadelphia to Newtown; the Reading extended electrification to Fox Chase in 1966. SEPTA suspended these shuttles on July 1, 1981, as part of a systemwide discontinuation of non-electrified service; the shuttles returned on October 5 as the Fox Chase Rapid Transit Line.
The operation of the line was troubled: the RDCs were in poor mechanical condition, SEPTA's decision to use transit division employees from the Broad Street Subway caused labor issues, ridership was low. SEPTA suspended service again on January 18, 1983. Since 1983, there has been interest from Bucks County passengers in resuming service to Newtown. In anticipation of a possible resumption, SEPTA performed extensive track upgrades in 1984. Street crossings in Newtown and Southampton received brand new welded rail, which were secured using sturdy Pandrol clips vs. traditional rail spikes. Though not promoted, this work was done in order to comply with a federal grant. By March 1985, SEPTA gave into political pressure and made a concerted effort to integrate the non-electrified Fox Chase-Newtown line into the rest of its all-electrified commuter system. A $10 million plan to restore service to Newtown and Pottstown using British Rail-Leyland diesel railbuses was considered, with a test run reaching Newtown on September 3.
Though the trial runs were successful, ride quality was lackluster. Burdened with ongoing budgetary problems, SEPTA decided against the purchase of the railbuses. In March 1987, SEPTA received several bids from private operators interested in running diesel-hauled trains to Newtown; the operators suggested using non-union workers. In addition, funding for these operations was questionable, the SEPTA board rejected all offers. Beginning in 2009, portions on the line within Montgomery County have been converted into a rail trail. By 2015, the Pennypack Trail extended 5.4 miles along the former line between Rockledge and Byberry Road near Bryn Athyn. Future plans call for the Pennypack Trail to be extended north to County Line Road. Additional trackage was in Upper Southampton was dismantled in October 2018, though several townships along the line are still hoping for resumption of rail service to alleviate traffic congestion on local roads and highways. Fox Chase trains make. Stations indicated in gray background are closed.
Although SEPTA suspended service to all stations north of Fox Chase in 1983 and has since converted most of the northern portion of the line to a rail trail, it continues to list those stations in its public tariff. Yearly ridership on the Fox Chase Line between FY 2008–FY 2014 has remained steady around 1.4 million: Schwieterman, Joseph P.. When the Railroad Leaves Town: American Communities in the Age of Rail Line Abandonment, Eastern United States. Kirksville, Missouri: Truman State University Press. ISBN 978-0-943549-97-2. Vuchic, Vukan. General Operations Plan for the SEPTA Regional High Speed System. Philadelphia: SEPTA. Williams, Gerry. Trains, Trolleys & Transit: A Guide to Philadelphia Area Rail Transit. Piscataway, NJ: Railpace Company. ISBN 978-0-9621541-7-1. OCLC 43543368. Woodland, Dale W.. Reading in the Conrail Era. 2. Telford, PA: Silver Brook Junction. ISBN 978-0-9640425-9-9. Woodland, Dale W.. "SEPTA's Diesels". Railpace Newsmagazine. "SEPTA – Fox Chase Line schedule". Reading Company Routes and Mileages Newtown Branch restoration website
SEPTA Regional Rail
The SEPTA Regional Rail system is a commuter rail network serving the Philadelphia Metropolitan area. The system has 13 branches and more than 150 active stations in Philadelphia, its suburbs and satellite towns and cities, it is the fifth-busiest commuter railroad in the United States, the busiest outside of the New York and Chicago metropolitan areas. In 2016, the Regional Rail system had an average of 132,000 daily riders; the core of the Regional Rail system is the Center City Commuter Connection, an underground tunnel linking three Center City stations: the above-ground upper level of 30th Street Station, the underground Suburban Station, Jefferson Station. All trains stop at these Center City stations. Operations are handled by the SEPTA Railroad Division. Of the 13 branches, seven were owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad, six by the Reading Company; the PRR lines terminated at Suburban Station. The Center City Commuter Connection opened in November 1984 to unite the two systems, turning the two terminal stations into through-stations.
Most inbound trains from one line continue on as outbound trains on another line. Service on most lines operates from 5:30 a.m. to midnight. Each PRR line was once paired with a Reading branch and numbered from R1 to R8, so that one route number described two lines, one on the PRR side and one on the Reading side; this was deemed more confusing than helpful, so on July 25, 2010, SEPTA dropped the R-number and color-coded route designators and changed dispatching patterns so fewer trains follow both sides of the same route. Former Pennsylvania Railroad linesAirport Line: terminates at the Philadelphia International Airport. Chestnut Hill West Line: terminates in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. Cynwyd Line: operates weekdays only; until 1986, trains continued on to Ivy Ridge station in northwestern Philadelphia. Media/Elwyn Line: terminates in Elwyn; until 1986, trains continued on to West Chester. SEPTA is in the process of restoring service to Wawa three miles west of Elwyn by 2020. Paoli/Thorndale Line: trains terminate at Malvern or Thorndale.
Until 1996, trains continued on to Parkesburg. In March 2019, SEPTA announced a plan to extend service to Coatesville three miles west of Thorndale, once a new train station is constructed. Trenton Line: terminates in Trenton, New Jersey; this line uses Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, offers a connection at Trenton to New Jersey Transit's Northeast Corridor Line for continued service to New York City. Wilmington/Newark Line: terminates in Wilmington, with some weekday trains continuing to Newark, Delaware; the Delaware Department of Transportation subsidizes Delaware service. This line runs on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. Former Reading Company linesChestnut Hill East Line: terminates in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. Fox Chase Line: terminates in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia; until 1983, connecting diesel trains continued to Newtown, Pennsylvania. Lansdale/Doylestown Line: terminates at Doylestown. On weekdays half of the local trains terminate at Lansdale while the remainder of the local trains, some expresses, continue on to Doylestown.
Manayunk/Norristown Line: terminates at Elm Street in Norristown. Warminster Line: terminates in Warminster. West Trenton Line: terminates at the West Trenton station in Ewing, New Jersey. There are 154 active stations on the Regional Rail system, including 51 in the city of Philadelphia, 42 in Montgomery County, 29 in Delaware County, 16 in Bucks County, 10 in Chester County, six outside the state of Pennsylvania. In 2003, passengers boarding in Philadelphia accounted for 61% of trips on a typical weekday, with 45% from the three Center City stations and Temple University station. SEPTA uses a mixed fleet of General Electric and Hyundai Rotem "Silverliner" electric multiple unit cars, used on all Regional Rail lines. SEPTA uses push-pull equipment: coaches built by Bombardier and Pullman Standard, hauled by ACS-64 electric locomotives similar to those used by Amtrak; the push-pull equipment is used for peak express service because it accelerates slower than EMU equipment, making it less suitable for local service with close station spacing and frequent stops and starts.
As of 2012, all cars have a blended red-and-blue SEPTA window logo and "ditch lights" that flash at grade crossings and when "deadheading" through stations, as required by Amtrak for operations on the Northeast and Keystone Corridors. SEPTA's railroad reporting mark SEPA is the official mark for their revenue equipment, though it is seen on external markings. SPAX can be seen on non-revenue work equipment, including boxcars, diesel locomotives, other rolling stock; the Silverliner coaches, built by Budd in Philadelphia and first used by the PRR in 1958 as the Pioneer III for a prototype intercity EMU alternative to the GG1-hauled trains, were purchased by SEPTA in 1963 as Silverliner II units. In 1967, the PRR took delivery of the St. Louis-built Silverliner III cars, which featured left-hand side controls and flush toilets, were used for Harrisb
30th Street Station
30th Street Station is an intermodal transit station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is Philadelphia's main railroad station, is a major stop on Amtrak's Northeast and Keystone corridors, it doubles as a major commuter rail station. It is served by several SEPTA city and suburban buses, as well as buses operated by NJ Transit and intercity operators, it is the tenth-busiest train station in the United States. The station is located at 2955 Market Street, it is located in Philadelphia's University City neighborhood, just across the Schuylkill River from Center City. The building, which first opened in 1933, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Amtrak's code for the station is PHL, its IATA Airport Code is ZFV on United because Amtrak's service to Newark Liberty International Airport is codeshared with United Airlines. 30th Street Station is Amtrak's third-busiest station, by far the busiest of the 24 stations served in Pennsylvania, serving 4,411,662 passengers in fiscal year 2017.
On an average day in fiscal 2013, about 12,000 people boarded or left trains in Philadelphia, nearly twice as many as in the rest of the Pennsylvania stations combined. The Pennsylvania Railroad, headquartered in Philadelphia, acquired tunnel rights from the Schuylkill River to 15th Street from the city of Philadelphia in return for land that the city needed to construct the Benjamin Franklin Parkway; this allowed the company to build both Suburban Station and the 30th Street Station, which replaced Broad Street station as the latter was too small. Broad Street Station was a stub-end terminal in Center City and through trains had to back in and out, the company wanted a location which would accommodate trains between New York City and Washington. D. C. Broad St. station handled a large commuter operation, which the new underground Suburban Station was built to handle. The Chicago architectural firm of Graham, Anderson and White, the successor to D. H. Burnham & Company, designed the structure known as Pennsylvania Station–30th Street in accord with the naming style of other Pennsylvania Stations.
Its design was influenced by the Northeast Corridor electrification that allowed trains to pass beneath the station without exposing passengers to soot as steam engines of earlier times had. The station had a number of innovative features, including a pneumatic tube system, an electronic intercom, a reinforced roof with space for small aircraft to land, contained a mortuary, a chapel and more than 3,000 square feet of hospital space. Construction began in 1927 and the station opened in 1933, starting with two platform tracks; the vast waiting room is faced with travertine and the coffered ceiling is painted gold and cream. The building's exterior has columned porte-cocheres on the west and east facade, shows a balance between classical and modern architectural styles.30th Street Station had a Solari board dating back to the 1970s that displayed train departure times, the last such board at an Amtrak station as all the others had been replaced with digital boards. On November 30, 2018, Amtrak announced that the Solari board at 30th Street Station will be replaced with a digital board in January 2019.
Upon retirement, the Solari board will be relocated to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg. However, on December 11, 2018, Amtrak announced it will reconsider its decision to replace the Solari board after Congressman Brendan Boyle contacted Amtrak CEO Richard H. Anderson and urged for the Solari board to remain at the station. Amtrak says; the sign will be temporarily housed at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania until the 30th Street Station renovations are complete. Amtrak removed the Solari board from 30th Street Station on January 26, 2019. On February 28, 2019, the new digital board at 30th Street Station began operation. In 2005, Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trust asked Amtrak to change the name of 30th Street Station to "Ben Franklin Station" as part of the celebration of Ben Franklin's 300th birthday in January 2006; the cost of replacing signs at the station was estimated at $3 million. In January, Philadelphia Mayor John Street threw his support behind the name change, but others had mixed reactions to the proposal.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, a former mayor of Philadelphia, was lukewarm, while Amtrak officials worried that a "Ben" station could be confused with its other three "Penn" stations. On January 25, 2006, Pew abandoned the campaign. In August 2014, a federal law was passed that will change the name of the station to William H. Gray III 30th Street Station in honor of the late congressman. At the time, the change was scheduled to occur "in the next few months"; the building is owned by Amtrak and houses many Amtrak corporate offices, although Amtrak is headquartered at Union Station in Washington, D. C; the 562,000 ft² facility features a cavernous main passenger concourse with ornate Art Deco decor. Prominently displayed is the Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial, which honors Pennsylvania Railroad employees killed in World War II, it consists of a bronze statue of the archangel Michael lifting the body of a dead soldier out of the flames of war, was sculpted by Walker Hancock in 1950.
On the four sides of the base of that sculpture are the 1,307 names of those employees in alphabetical order. The building was restored in 1991 by Dan Peter Kopple & Associates; when the station was renovated, updated retail amen
Olney, Philadelphia
Olney is a neighborhood of Philadelphia, United States. It is bounded by Roosevelt Boulevard to the south, Tacony Creek to the east, Godfrey Avenue to the north, the railroad right-of-way west of Seventh Street to the west. Although Olney is a quiet residential neighborhood, portions do serve as major commercial centers for many surrounding groups. 5th Street has a Korean-American business district in the vicinity of Olney Avenue, Hispanic businesses flourish in the southern reaches of the neighborhood. Fisher Park is located in Olney, it is a 23-acre public park, laid out and owned by Joseph Wharton, founder of Swarthmore College and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. It was donated to the city by Joseph in 1908 as a "Christmas gift" to Philadelphia. Fisher Park has a football field and tennis courts, a wooded hiking area. Olney is named after the estate of Alexander Wilson, who resided on Rising Sun Avenue, near Tacony Creek. Wilson chose the name for his residence because of his love for the poet William Cowper, of Olney, England.
The mansion was demolished in 1924. Up until the late nineteenth century, Olney was a vast, hilly farmland in the hinterland of Philadelphia County; until the population consisted of farmers and wealthy Philadelphians who could afford to live away from the city. As the city of Philadelphia grew northwards, the area became more urbanized. People seeking to escape the growing population density towards the center moved to Olney. Soon thereafter, businesses began appearing centered at 5th Street and Olney Avenue. Industry was attracted and companies such as Heintz Manufacturing Company and Schwartz, Brown Instrument Division built factories in the neighborhood, but this took second place to the strong commercial district, led by the Olney Businessmans' Association. The population grew more after the construction of the Broad Street Subway which had its original terminal at Olney Avenue, it promised to get riders from Olney to City Hall in less than twenty minutes for fifteen cents. In addition to trolley lines that traveled east and west, this made Olney Philadelphia's northern transportation hub and gave Olneyites easy access to the entire city and beyond.
In 1925, Colney Theatre was constructed which had the largest one-floor seating capacity in the world with room for 2000 people. In 1931, Olney High School graduated its first class and for a time had the largest enrollment in the city with 3600 students. Olney High School's alumni include Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Del Ennis, comedy writer Barry S. Waronker, local news reporter Sheila Washington, former Feltonville historian Dennis Dalbey. Olneyites lobbied the city intensely for the constructions of playgrounds and the library at 5th Street and Tabor Road. Community members put together an amateur Olney Symphony Orchestra and started their own newspaper, the Olney Times. Between the 1960s and 1980s, Olney began experiencing demographic change, as European-American residents moved out of the neighborhood in a process sometimes described as "white flight"; as part of the deindustrialization of Philadelphia, industry closed factories and moved from the area. During this time there was an increase in crime in Olney.
The receding population was supplemented by a new wave of residents, including African Americans from elsewhere in the city, immigrants from Asia and Latin America. This new population filled the vacancies left behind in the commercial district; these groups created organizations such as the Korean Community Development Services Center. By the mid-1980s Koreans began moving out into Olney and other communities. By 1986 up to 5,000 Koreans lived in Olney, many Korean businesses were situated along North Fifth Street. Many Korean area residents referred to the area as "Koreatown."The Olney station of the Broad Street Subway, while no longer the terminal, is the second most used. There are thriving business districts at 5th and Olney and Olney, Front and Olney; the Adams Avenue Bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. Olney, as with all areas in Philadelphia, is zoned to the School District of Philadelphia. Olney has six public elementary schools: Lowell Finletter Morrison Grover Washington, Jr. Marshall OlneyOlney has two general zoned public high schools.
Toward the southern reaches of the neighborhood Olney High School is the prime school. Samuel Fels High School is now accepting students living in the northern reaches of the neighborhood after violence in Olney High School became too prevalent. Central High School, the Philadelphia High School for Girls, The Widener Memorial School are located in Logan, a neighborhood that borders Olney. There are several parochial schools in Olney. Elementary schools include Saint Helena-Incarnation Regional Elementary School as of September 2012 merging Incarnation Catholic School & Saint Helena, Olney Christian School which opened in September, 2012. Area high schools include International Christian High School, which used to be Cedar Grove Christian Academy. Prior to its closing in 2010, Olney was the home of Cardinal Dougherty High School, once the largest Roman Catholic high school in the United States; the Free Library of Philadelphia operates the Greater Olney Branch. La Salle University borders Nicetown-Tioga and Germantown.
Though the un
Wayne Junction station
Wayne Junction station is a SEPTA Regional Rail station located at 4481 Wayne Avenue, extending along Windrim Avenue to Germantown Avenue. The station is located in the Nicetown neighborhood of Philadelphia. Wayne Junction serves as a multi-modal transfer point between six of SEPTA's regional rail lines as well as three major transit routes – the Route 75 Trackless Trolley and the Route 23 and 53 bus lines; the station serves more than 321,000 riders annually in 2018. The original station building was designed by architect Frank Furness and constructed in 1881; the current station building was designed in 1900 by architects Wilson Company. An old post card once boasted that "more trains stop here than at any other station in the world." The station, located in fare zone one, does have a sales office but lacks any dedicated parking spaces. Wayne Junction is undergoing a $11,165,600 renovation that will include a new low level railway platform, an additional high-level platform in the inbound side, two new elevators, new canopies and windscreens.
In FY 2013, Wayne Junction station had a weekday average of 521 alightings. The SEPTA's Roberts Yard and Midvale District Bus Garage are nearby to this station; the Chestnut Hill East Line joins the SEPTA Main Line at Wayne Junction. Wayne Junction is the last station before the Fox Chase Line splits off the SEPTA Main Line, at Newtown Junction. Additionally, Wayne Junction is served by the Warminster Line, West Trenton Line, Lansdale/Doylestown Line on the SEPTA Main Line. For most of the first half of the 20th Century, Wayne Junction served as the Reading Railroad's counterpart to the Pennsylvania Railroad's North Philadelphia Station, 2 miles away, it served a busy and prosperous business and residential area, drawing from North Philadelphia, Tioga, Logan and other points. In addition to the extensive commuter network, service was provided by the Reading Railroad on a regular basis to New York via the Jersey Central and to Bethlehem and beyond on the Lehigh Valley Railroad to Upstate New York and Toronto.
Beginning in the 1890s, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad passenger trains between Washington and New York City, including its famed Royal Blue stopped at Wayne Junction, using Reading and Jersey Central rails north of Philadelphia. Until the B&O discontinued passenger service on the line in April, 1958, it provided regular service to Washington with through sleepers to the West, including Chicago, St. Louis, Los Angeles on such trains as the Capitol Limited and National Limited; the station provided lunch room, as well as the usual telegraph office. On October 25, 1959, Wayne Junction was the starting point for the first of the Reading's Iron Horse Rambles excursions featuring their T-1 class steam locomotives; the surrounding neighborhood provided additional services. The station has been a contributing property in the Colonial Germantown Historic District since 1966, the Wayne Junction Historic District since 2012. In September 2017, developer Ken Weinstein outlined a $12 million proposal to redevelop properties in the immediate vicinity of the Station including 32 apartment units at the Max Levy Autograph Co. building, a pocket park on a vacant lot across the street, a 1950s diner, an office building, an artisanal manufacturing site, a barbecue and brewery.
Most of the development is taking place in a restored factory and warehouse structures, making use of the federal Historic Tax Credit program. In July 2018, the Pennsylvania state Historic Preservation Review Board approved the Philadelphia Historical Commission's request to create the Wayne Junction National Historical District, a collection of eight large-scale industrial buildings built between the late-19th and mid-20th century surrounding the Station; the eight properties include the Train Station at 4481 Wayne Avenue, New Glen Echo Mills at 130 W Berkley Street, Brown Instrument Company at 4433 Wayne Avenue, the Max Levy Autograph at 212-220 Roberts Avenue, Arguto Oilless Bearing Company at 149 W Berkley Street, Blaisdell Paper Pencil Company at 137-45 Berkley Street, The Keystone Dry Plate & Film Works / Moore Push Pin building at 113-29 Berkley Street, 200-10 Roberts Avenue. Media related to Wayne Junction at Wikimedia Commons SEPTA - Wayne Junction and Gateway to Germantown: Wayne Junction Construction Project Newer and Older Photos of Wayne Junction Wayne Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View Windrim Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View Germantown Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View
Reading Company
The Reading Company was a company, involved in the railroad industry in southeast Pennsylvania and neighboring states from 1924 until 1976. 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 railroad during its years, it was a successor to the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company founded in 1833. Until the decline in anthracite loadings in the Coal Region after World War II, it was one of the most prosperous corporations in the United States. Competition with the modern trucking industry that used the Interstate highway system for short distance transportation of goods known as short hauls, compounded the company's problems, forcing it into bankruptcy in the 1970s, its railroad operations were merged into Conrail in 1976, but the corporation lasted into 2000, disposing of valuable real estate holdings. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was one of the first railroads in the United States.
Along with the Little Schuylkill, a horse-drawn railroad in the Schuylkill River Valley, it formed the earliest components of what became the Reading Company. The P&R was constructed to haul anthracite coal from the mines in northeastern Pennsylvania's Coal Region to Philadelphia; the original P&R mainline extended south from the mining town of Pottsville to Reading and onward to Philadelphia, following the graded banks of the Schuylkill River for nearly all of the 93-mile journey. The line contained double track upon its completion in 1843; the P&R became profitable immediately. Energy-dense coal had been replacing scarce wood as fuel in businesses and homes since the 1810s, P&R-delivered coal was one of the first alternatives to the near-monopoly held by Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company since the 1820s. Soon the P&R bought or leased many of the railroads in the Schuylkill River Valley and extended westward and north along the Susquehanna into the southern end of the Coal Region. In Philadelphia, the Reading built Port Richmond, the self-proclaimed "Largest owned railroad tidewater terminal in the world", which burnished the P&R's bottom lines by allowing coal to be loaded onto ships and barges for export.
In 1871, the Reading established a subsidiary called the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, which set about buying anthracite coal mines in the Coal Region. This vertical expansion gave the P&R full control of coal from mining through to market, allowing it to compete with like-organized competitors such as Lehigh Coal & Navigation and the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company; the heavy investment in coal paid off quickly. By 1871, the Reading was the largest company in the world, with $170,000,000 in gross value, may have been the first conglomerate in the world. In 1879, the Reading gained control of the North Pennsylvania Railroad and gained access to the burgeoning steel industry in the Lehigh Valley; the Reading further expanded its coal empire by reaching New York City by gaining control of the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad in 1879, building the Port Reading Railroad in 1892 with a line from Port Reading Junction to the Port Reading on the Arthur Kill. This allowed direct delivery of coal to industries in the Port of New York and New Jersey in northeastern New Jersey and New York City by rail and barge instead of the longer trip by ships from Port Richmond around Cape May.
Instead of broadening its rail network, the Reading invested its vast wealth in anthracite and its transport in the mid-19th century. This led to financial trouble in the 1870s. In 1890, Reading president Archibald A. McLeod saw that more riches could be earned by expanding its rail network and becoming a trunk railroad. McLeod went about trying to control neighboring railroads in 1891, he was able to gain control of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Boston and Maine Railroad. The Reading achieved its goal of becoming a trunk road, but the deal was scuttled by J. P. Morgan and other rail barons, who did not want more competition in the northeastern railroad business; the Reading was relegated to a regional railroad for the rest of its history. The Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road was chartered April 4, 1833, to build a line between Philadelphia and Reading, along the Schuylkill River; the portion from Reading to Norristown opened July 16, 1838, the full line December 9, 1839.
Its Philadelphia terminus was at the state-owned Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad on the west side of the Schuylkill River, from which it ran east on the P&C over the Columbia Bridge and onto the city-owned City Railroad to a depot at the southeast corner of Broad and Cherry Streets. An extension northwest from Reading to Mount Carbon on the Schuylkill River, opened on January 13, 1842, allowing the railroad to compete with the Schuylkill Canal. At Mount Carbon, it connected with the earlier Mount Carbon Railroad, continuing through Pottsville to several mines, would be extended to Williamsport. On May 17, 1842, a freight branch from West Falls to Port Richmond on the Delaware River north of downtown Philadelphia opened. Port Richmond became a large coal terminal. On January 1, 1851, the Belmont Plane on the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, just west of the Reading's connection, was abandoned in favor of a new bypass, the portion of the line east of it was sold to the Reading, the only company that continued using the old route.
The Lebanon Valley Railroad was chartered in 1836 to build from Reading west to Harrisburg. Reading financed the construction of the Rutherford Yard to compete with the PRR's nearby Enola Yard; the Reading took it over and began construction in 1854, opening the line in 1856. This
Side platform
A side platform is a platform positioned to the side of a pair of tracks at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. Dual side platform stations, one for each direction of travel, is the basic station design used for double-track railway lines. Side platforms may result in a wider overall footprint for the station compared with an island platform where a single width of platform can be shared by riders using either track. In some stations, the two side platforms are connected by a footbridge running above and over the tracks. While a pair of side platforms is provided on a dual-track line, a single side platform is sufficient for a single-track line. Where the station is close to a level crossing the platforms may either be on the same side of the crossing road or alternatively may be staggered in one of two ways. With the'near-side platforms' configuration, each platform appears before the intersection and with'far-side platforms' they are positioned after the intersection. In some situations a single side platform can be served by multiple vehicles with a scissors crossing provided to allow access mid-way along its length.
Most stations with two side platforms have an'Up' platform, used by trains heading towards the primary destination of the line, with the other platform being the'Down' platform which takes trains heading the opposite way. The main facilities of the station are located on the'Up' platform with the other platform accessed from a footbridge, subway or a track crossing. However, in many cases the station's main buildings are located on whichever side faces the town or village the station serves. Larger stations may have two side platforms with several island platforms in between; some are in a Spanish solution format, with two side platforms and an island platform in between, serving two tracks. Island platform Split platform
SEPTA City Bus: 8
