Railroads of Pennsylvania Read online

  Railroads of

  Pennsylvania

  2ND EDITION

  Lorett Treese

  STACKPOLE

  BOOKS

  Copyright ©2012, 2003 by Stackpole Books

  First edition published 2003. Second edition 2012

  Published by

  STACKPOLE BOOKS

  5067 Ritter Road

  Mechanicsburg, PA 17055

  www.stackpolebooks.com

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Stackpole Books.

  Printed in the United States of America

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Cover design by Tessa Sweigert

  Front cover: The Pennsy at Broad Street Station by John Winfield

  Back cover: Pennsylvania’s Rockville Bridge by John Winfield

  Both images used with permission of John Winfield, www.winfieldrailart.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Treese, Lorett, 1952–

  Railroads of Pennsylvania / Lorett Treese. — 2nd ed.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-0-8117-0011-5 (pbk.)

  1. Railroads—Pennsylvania—History. I. Title.

  HE2771.P4T74 2012

  385.09748—dc23

  2012017243

  eBook ISBN: 978-0-8117-4887-2

  CONTENTS

  Preface

  SECTION ONE: Greater Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley

  Great and Growing Railways of the Region

  Rail Stories of the Region

  The Region’s Railroad Giants

  Sampling the Region’s Railroad Scene

  The Region’s Rail-Trails

  SECTION TWO: Dutch Country

  Great and Growing Railways of the Region

  Rail Stories of the Region

  The Region’s Railroad Giants

  Sampling the Region’s Railroad Scene

  The Region’s Rail-Trails

  SECTION THREE: Valleys of the Schuylkill and Susquehanna

  Great and Growing Railways of the Region

  Rail Stories of the Region

  The Region’s Railroad Giants

  Sampling the Region’s Railroad Scene

  The Region’s Rail-Trails

  SECTION FOUR: Pennsylvania Wilds

  Great and Growing Railways of the Region

  The Region’s Rail Stories

  The Region’s Railroad Giants

  Sampling the Region’s Railroad Scene

  The Region’s Rail-Trails

  SECTION FIVE: Upstate Pennsylvania

  Great and Growing Railways of the Region

  Rail Stories of the Region

  The Region’s Railroad Giants

  Sampling the Region’s Railroad Scene

  The Region’s Rail-Trails

  SECTION SIX: The Alleghenies

  Great and Growing Railways of the Region

  The Region’s Rail Stories

  The Region’s Railroad Giants

  Sampling the Region’s Railroad Scene

  The Region’s Rail-Trails

  SECTION SEVEN: Pittsburgh and Its Countryside

  Great and Growing Railways of the Region

  Rail Stories of the Region

  The Region’s Railroad Giants

  Sampling the Region’s Railroad Scene

  The Region’s Rail-Trails

  SECTION EIGHT: Pennsylvania’s Great Lakes Region

  Great and Growing Railways of the Region

  Rail Stories of the Region

  The Region’s Railroad Giants

  Sampling the Region’s Railroad Scene

  The Region’s Rail-Trails

  Contact Information for Regional Sites

  Bibliography

  Index

  PREFACE

  Picking Up the Pieces

  In 1812, John Stevens, sometimes called the father of American railroads, published Documents Tending to Prove the Superior Advantages of RailWays and Steam-Carriages over Canal Navigation. It was a groundbreaking pamphlet because it proposed the construction of a railroad at a time when America had no steam locomotives or passenger cars. Stevens envisioned a railway constructed of timber, its “moving power to be a steam-engine” that would burn wood. He thought that a railroad could be built more quickly and with fewer casualties than a canal, and that it would be no more expensive than a turnpike.

  Although Stevens expected to be “stigmatized as a visionary projector,” he argued, “Sooner or later, then, the improvement now proposed will be brought into general use, and, if I mistake not, long before the projected canal [the Erie Canal] will be completed.” He might have been somewhat optimistic, but Stevens was right. Within another two decades, railroads were springing up all over the eastern United States, first as feeders to canals, then alongside the canals they were replacing.

  Railroads may have been the best thing that ever happened to America. They opened markets, making it possible for geographically distant regions to be closely tied economically. Railroads greatly expanded the volume of trading on Wall Street and provided opportunities for many Americans to work, apply their ingenuity, and perhaps even earn a fortune.

  In Pennsylvania, railroads transported natural resources like coal, oil, and lumber, as well as agricultural products, to urban consumers, and carried manufactured goods and machinery to rural areas. Cities like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Reading, and Harrisburg developed as railroad hubs, while towns like Altoona were founded to maintain railroad property. Railroads made the Commonwealth one of America’s leading industrial and richest states.

  Pennsylvania’s railroad mileage began to diminish around the time of the First World War. Passenger traffic began declining during the 1920s, and railroad freight volume joined the downward trend soon after World War II.

  When I researched and wrote the first edition of Railroads of Pennsylvania, I thought I was contributing to an era of railroad nostalgia that started in the 1930s, as well as the railroad heritage preservation and documentation efforts that continue today. The subtitle, Fragments of the Past in the Keystone Landscape, was inspired by the science-fiction time travel classic Time and Again, whose author, Jack Finney, used the word “fragments” to describe New York’s vintage buildings and neighborhoods: “fragments still remaining … of days which once lay out there as real as the day lying out there now.” Abandoned viaducts, rail-trails, and repurposed passenger stations were such fragments of America’s railroad past to me.

  However, around the time Railroads of Pennsylvania was published in 2003, America’s railroad industry was changing. The U.S. economy was emerging from a recession, and the demand for consumer goods surged. Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) led the way in constructing a rail connection to link ports where foreign manufactured goods were received to population centers where consumers were waiting to purchase them. Railroads and rail yards soon begat warehouses and distribution centers.

  Because fuel prices were rising and railroads could move freight using less fuel than trucks, trucking companies began loading trailers and containers on and off trains, causing the intermodal transportation industry to greatly expand. Truckers became railroad operators’ new best friends. So did environmentalists, who appreciated the reduced fuel emissions and highway congestion.

  Conrail had been permitted to cease serving routes that were inefficient to its own operations but often critically important to local businesses, thus creating
opportunities for short lines to become established and flourish. Today Pennsylvania has more short-line railroads than any other state. Pennsylvania short lines come in all sizes: some are mom-and-pop operations, while others are steadily growing through additions to their portfolios. The Commonwealth’s Class I railroads consider them important partners in providing customer service on a retail level.

  Starting in the mid-1990s, decades of railroad abandonment slowly turned into railroad reconstruction. Railroads invested in improving their infrastructure, such as by straightening curves that slowed trains down and making tunnels bigger. This rebuilding effort is curiously reminiscent of what took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when a lot of the Commonwealth’s more impressive railroad structures were constructed, such as the Tunkhannock Viaduct in Nicholson and the stunning passenger stations of Pittsburgh.

  Sometimes opportunities crop up suddenly, like the technology that made it possible to efficiently extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale geological formation, which stretches through much of northern and southwestern Pennsylvania. Both Class I railroads and short lines quickly positioned themselves to transport the supplies and equipment necessary to the energy corporations exploiting this natural resource.

  The digital revolution has also come to the railroad industry. Both trains and the tracks on which they operate are increasingly equipped with data-gathering devices enabling trains to run faster and safer. Pneumatic braking systems controlled by electronic signals instead of air pressure are perhaps the biggest breakthrough since the Westinghouse air brake.

  In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed a significant investment in BNSF, and this vote of confidence from one of America’s most successful investors, Warren Buffett, alerted other investors to the growth potential for railroads. Although the industry suffered together with the rest of the economy in 2009, by mid-2010 Railway Age magazine was reporting that railroads were beginning to recall furloughed crews and take freight cars and locomotives out of storage. By the fall of that year, freight volume once again approached 2008 levels. In 2011, a number of railcar manufacturers reported increased sales, and the railroad resurgence was back on.

  Like the first edition of Railroads of Pennsylvania, this second edition is not a comprehensive history of transportation in Pennsylvania, nor does it provide complete information on every railroad that ever operated or now operates in the Commonwealth. It is part history and part travel guide, intended to place many of the Commonwealth’s railroad artifacts, or fragments, in historical context. It is a collection of short essays about giants and humble beginnings, historic firsts and spectacular failures, world-famous landmarks, things that are no longer, current innovations, and formerly retired artifacts that are now back in business.

  The text is organized into eight sections corresponding roughly to the geographic regions of Pennsylvania defined by VisitPA.com, the state’s official travel and tourism website. For the convenience of travelers, I wrote the text so that readers can open the book anywhere and start reading.

  Each of the eight geographic sections contains a brief history of the major railroads associated with the region and what had happened to them. This section, “Great and Growing Railways of the Region,” also includes news on the activities of the major railroads and short lines that are forging ahead, often picking up the pieces of older systems, as well as the names of organizations that interpret railroad history. Full citations for material quoted from published histories of railroads appear in the bibliography.

  Each region also includes “Rail Stories of the Region,” with various tidbits and footnotes of railroad history, as well as details on local chapters of the National Railway Historical Society. “The Region’s Railroad Giants” features brief biographies of those who made their names or fortunes with the region’s railroads. “Sampling the Region’s Railroad Scene” provides information on museums, tourist railroads, and other railroad-related places to visit. There’s definitely a trend in modern America to adapt old railroad stations for reuse as restaurants. They are well suited for the job because their dominant architectural feature, a passenger waiting room, tends to be a large, open interior space often finely ornamented with marble, terra cotta, or stained glass. “The Region’s Rail-Trails” looks at the state of rail-trail construction in the area and guides readers to trails that are currently open.

  I am grateful to all those who helped me research and write this book. My husband, Mat Treese, accompanied me on all my railroad heritage treks, just as he did for the first edition. Once I decided to add information about the Class I railroads and key short lines operating in Pennsylvania today, his business experience as a corporate controller was particularly valuable. The staff and collections at the Mariam Coffin Canaday Library at Bryn Mawr College were tremendously helpful, particularly the members of the interlibrary loan department. I also thank the staff at the Hagley Museum and Library and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. Thanks are due as well to the following people for the interviews and information they provided: Tyler Glass and Tina Muller-Levan of the Reading & Northern Railroad; Jeff Stover of SEDACOG JRA; Lawrence C. Malski of the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority; Al Sauer of the East Penn Railroad; Rudy Husband and Bill Shafer of Norfolk Southern; Charles Fox, Deborah Reddig, and Bradley Smith of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania; and Loretta Becker of the Corry Area Historical Society. Finally, I thank Stackpole Books and my editor, Kyle Weaver, for taking a chance on a railroad book that was “just a little different.”

  SECTION ONE

  Greater Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley

  Great and Growing Railways of the Region

  The Pennsy

  On December 11, 1845, the newspaper known as the Pennsylvania Inquirer and National Gazette reported that “one of the largest Town Meetings ever held in Philadelphia on any similar occasion, took place last night at the Museum Building,” which was located at Ninth and Sansom Streets and also known as the Chinese Museum, as it housed Chinese artifacts collected by Philadelphia merchant Nathan Dunn. More than five hundred leading citizens had demanded the meeting. The problem? The developing West needed a transportation link to the East Coast, and the merchants of Philadelphia were on the brink of losing out to those of New York, Baltimore, and even Boston, who were actively courting its trade. The solution? As the Pennsylvania Inquirer reported, “The object was to adopt measures in favor of the immediate construction of a Railroad, by the most practicable route between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.”

  Pennsylvania already had a trans-Commonwealth transportation system known as the Main Line of Public Works, or more commonly the State Works, which had been constructed at taxpayer expense. It consisted of a railroad between Philadelphia and Columbia, but west of the Susquehanna River, freight had to be moved from a canal to a mountain portage railroad to another canal in order to reach Pittsburgh. Since railroads had proven themselves vastly superior to canals in the previous two decades, the logical solution would be to construct a continuous railroad to Pittsburgh from Harrisburg. To those who argued that such a project would draw business from the State Works and therefore deprive Pennsylvania of revenue, the merchants at the town meeting replied that if western trade continued to be diverted to other cities, the State Works was going under anyway.

  When the Pennsylvania legislature met the following January, members debated bills to incorporate a company to build such a railroad and to allow the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to connect its own line with Pittsburgh. After many petitions were received and ballots were taken, the house and senate passed the Act Incorporating the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR), which was signed by the governor on April 13, 1846. The railroad that would become known as the Pennsy, also the Standard Railroad of the World, was born.

  Since the Pennsylvania Railroad was a private venture, its initial task was raising capital, so its commissioners opened subscription books in Philadelphia and other Pennsylvania municip
alities. When this traditional fund-raising method generated less than was needed, as George H. Burgess and Miles C. Kennedy describe it in their Centennial History of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, “The City of Philadelphia was divided into blocks, which were to be canvassed from house to house, if necessary, by persons assigned to the work. Subscriptions of as little as one share were to be solicited.” After $3 million had been subscribed, the Pennsylvania Railroad was formally organized in March 1847 with a board of thirteen directors under the leadership of Samuel V. Merrick, a prominent Philadelphia manufacturer who was also head of the Franklin Institute and had been in charge of the Philadelphia Gas Works.

  For their chief engineer, board members elected J. Edgar Thomson, who had made surveys for the State Works railroad between Philadelphia and Columbia. By 1849, the Pennsy was operating trains between Harrisburg and Lewistown, and it expanded its service to Hollidaysburg the following year. In 1854, the railroad’s greatest topographical challenge, the Allegheny Ridge, was finally addressed by the magnificent Horseshoe Curve and nearby Allegheny Tunnel. According to Burgess and Kennedy, the Pennsy’s officers and directors declared the line complete on November 1, 1855.

  As had been predicted, the Pennsy’s new rail line between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh made the prospect of traveling the same distance over the Commonwealth’s canal-rail-canal system far less attractive and therefore even less profitable for the government. Pennsy officers were frustrated by the comparatively poor condition of the Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad, which the Commonwealth still owned and the Pennsy’s trains had to use to reach Philadelphia. An increasingly obvious solution was for the Commonwealth to get out of the transportation business altogether by selling its entire system to the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1855, J. Edgar Thomson, who was then president of the Pennsy, offered Pennsylvania’s secretary of state $7.5 million for “the main line from Philadelphia to the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers.” The sale was completed at an auction held at Philadelphia’s Merchant’s Exchange in 1857.