North Pennsylvania Railroad

The North Pennsylvania Railroad was a railroad company which served Philadelphia, Montgomery County, Bucks County and Northampton County in Pennsylvania. It was formed in 1852, and began operation in 1855. The Philadelphia and Reading Railway, predecessor to the Reading Company, leased the North Pennsylvania in 1879. Its tracks were transferred to Conrail and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in 1976.

North Pennsylvania Railroad
Overview
Dates of operation1852 (1852)1976 (1976)
Successor
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm)

History

North Pennsylvania RR
Lehigh Valley Railroad
to Allentown
Bethlehem
Lehigh Valley Railroad
to New York City
Shimersville
Shimersville Branch
Iron Hill
Hellertown
Doylestown
Lansdale
Norristown
Philadelphia and Reading RR
to Philadelphia
Hartsville
North East Pennsylvania RR
Abington
Delaware and Bound Brook RR
to Bound Brook
Yardley
Jenkintown
Philadelphia
Third and Berks
Philadelphia
Willow and Front

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 Waverly, New York and a junction with the Erie Railroad. The railway opened between Front and Willow Streets, Philadelphia and Gwynedd on July 2, 1855, a distance of 18+12 miles (29.8 km). On October 7 the Doylestown Branch opened to Doylestown via Lansdale.[1] Within Philadelphia, the company's passenger depot was located at Third and Berks; tracks continued south to a freight depot at Willow and Front street on the waterfront.[2]

In 1856, the company suffered its first accident in the Great Train Wreck of 1856, the most significant railroad wreck in the world up to that time. The railroad continued to expand northward from Philadelphia. The main line reached Bethlehem, running parallel to the Bethlehem Pike, on July 7, 1857. At Bethlehem the railroad interchanged with the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The Shimersville Branch, from Iron Hill to Shimersville on the Lehigh Valley Railroad east of Bethlehem, opened on January 1, 1857.[1] The branch carried little traffic; the North Pennsylvania leased it that same year to the Lehigh Valley and Delaware Water Gap Railroad as part of a stillborn venture to build a new route through Easton to a junction with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. By the time of the Reading lease the branch was out of service.

The company built, with the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad, a line from Jenkintown to Bound Brook, New Jersey, creating a new route between Philadelphia and New York. The Delaware River Branch opened on May 1, 1876, in time for the Centennial Exposition.[3]

Reading control

Lansdale station on the North Pennsylvania Railroad, built in 1902 by the Philadelphia & Reading Railway and currently used by SEPTA's Lansdale/Doylestown Line

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:

See also

Notes

  1. Poor 1860, p. 467
  2. "Terminal Facilities in Philadelphia". Railway World. 5 (12): 266. March 20, 1880.
  3. Warner 1957, pp. 53–54

References

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