Wilmington and Northern Branch

From Reading, Pennsylvania, to Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, the line followed the left bank of the Schuylkill River, running parallel to the Pennsylvania Railroad's Schuylkill Branch. At Birdsboro, the line turned south, eventually picking up the West Branch Brandywine Creek and following it into Coatesville, Pennsylvania, and an interchange with the Pennsylvania Main Line. From Coatesville, the line continued south to Wilmington, Delaware, where it interchanged with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.[1] Passenger trains used the B&O's Water Street station in Wilmington.[2]

The Wilmington and Reading Railroad, formed in 1866, completed the line between Wilmington and Coatesville in 1869, and extended to Birdsboro in 1870, where it met the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. In 1874 it built its own line into Reading, along the left bank of the Schuylkill.[3] The Wilmington and Reading was reorganized as the Wilmington and Northern Railroad on April 3, 1877.[4] The Philadelphia and Reading leased the company and its lines in 1900, but no merger ever occurred. Following the lease, the section between Reading and Birdsboro was considered part of the Reading Belt Branch, a freight bypass around Reading, although the Wilmington and Northern remained the owner.[5][6]

The Wilmington and Northern's days as a (paper) railroad company ended with the Reading Company's final bankruptcy and conveying of most of that company's lines, both those directly owned and those leased, to Conrail. The northern part of the line, between Coatesville and Birdsboro, was conveyed to Conrail.[7] The "Reading estate", the successor corporation to the bankrupt Reading Company, continued to own the portion between Coatesville and Wilmington, and Conrail operated services there under subsidy.

The shortline Octoraro Railway began operating the southern portion in 1977, again under subsidy from Pennsylvania and Delaware.[8] The state of Pennsylvania, with financial support from the federal government, acquired the line from Coatesville to the Delaware border in 1981, leaving the Octoraro Railway in place as the operator.[9] In 1982, the Lukens Steel Company founded the Brandywine Valley Railroad to serve its steel mill in the Coatesville area. The Brandywine bought a 3.65-mile (5.87 km) section of the line from Conrail, extending from the interchange track with the former Pennsylvania main line south to Modena, Pennsylvania.[10]

The Octoraro Railway ceased operations in 1994 and was replaced by the Delaware Valley Railway. The Delaware Valley Railway, a RailAmerica subsidiary, continued to operate the former Wilmington and Northern Branch between Modena and Elsmere Junction, albeit without a subsidy from Pennsylvania.[11] The Delaware Valley itself ceased operating in 1999, and the Brandywine Valley Railroad took over operations over the line, subsequently buying the line from Modena to the Delaware border from the state of Pennsylvania in 2001.[12]

In 2003 Bethlehem Steel, successor to Lukens, went bankrupt and was acquired by International Steel Group (ISG). ISG formed ISG Railways to acquire all of Bethlehem Steel's shortline railroads, including the Brandywine Valley Railroad.[13] In 2005 East Penn Railways acquired both the Delaware section of line from the Reading estate and the 17 miles (27 km) from the Delaware border to Modena from ISG, leaving the Brandywine Valley Railroad in control of the industrial trackage in Coatesville.[14][15] East Penn Railways and Penn Eastern Rail Lines merged in 2007 to become the East Penn Railroad.[16]

North of Coatesville, Conrail filed to abandon the line in 1984. All that remains is an industrial spur leaving the Harrisburg Line of the Norfolk Southern Railway at Birdsboro to serve a quarry.

• Lewis, Edward A. (1991). American Shortline Railway Guide (4th ed.). Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing. ISBN 0-89024-109-0. OCLC 25150373.
• Harwood, Herbert H., Jr. (2002). Royal Blue Line: the classic B & O train between Washington and New York. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-7061-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• 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.
• Interstate Commerce Commission (1931). "Interstate Commerce Commission Reports: Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States. Valuation reports". U.S. Government Printing Office.
• Wagner, A. E. (1913). The Story of Berks County (Pennsylvania). Eagle Book and Job Press.
• United States Railway Association (1975). Final system plan for restructuring railroads in the Northeast and Midwest region pursuant to the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 (PDF). Vol. 1. Washington, DC. OCLC 2889148.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• United States Railway Association (1975). Final system plan for restructuring railroads in the Northeast and Midwest region pursuant to the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973: Official errata supplement. Washington, DC. OCLC 2531897.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)