railroads of new jersey

[lionel2986]

Like most of you, there are many trains I would like to own. In order to control my addiction to this hobby, I recently decided to stick to certain road names to limit the number of trains I buy. I do not own many trains and would like to keep it this way. I need money for other stuff too. I am more of an operator than a collector, so I don't need a huge collection. I would like to start buying trains that actually have run next to each other or on the same track. In other words, railroads that have competed with each other, or have shared track around the same time period. I live in north/central New Jersey and have done some research. I have found out that railroads that have run through this state are Reading, Jersey central, Pennsylvania, Lehigh valley, B&O and of course the modern ones such as Conrail, CSX, etc. My first engine was an inexpensive 2-4-2 Pennsylvania steam engine, and I've liked Pennsylvania railroad since. I plan on buying a GG-1 in the future and want to buy other trains that have crossed my state on their trip to New York City from Philadelphia. I really like the Jersey Central Blue comet, so I would like to own one of those in the future. In order to fund this change on my layout, I plan on selling some of my trains I have lost interest in, and wouldn’t belong on my layout due to my new restriction on road names. I will not sell my first trains because of the memories I have with them. So, I guess the road names I will buy are Pennsylvania, and Jersey Central. Does anyone know if a Lackawanna passenger set would look right running side by side with a GG1 or Jersey Central freight? Or did Lackawanna primarily run from New York City to upstate New York and would look right running next to a New York Central? I don't plan or replicating actual track plans. I just want to run trains that have run side by side in the past.

[dwiemer]

Lionel2986,
Don't forget Erie Lackawanna, ran along the "West Shore" line down to Weehawken. Also, New York Susquehanna and Western, Deleware and Hudson, and Penn Central. If you go to Ebay you can pick up a GG1 for not all that much money, another option is to call places like Ma and Pa junction, or Hollash's trains and they have the Williams GG1 for about $150.00. As for Lackawanna running side by side with GG1 and JC, sure did, in Jersey City and the area.
Dennis

[Anonymous]

Phoebe Snow used to run from Hoboken to Bufallo. Delaware and Lackawanna, Erie, their merged lines (EL) and the Lehigh Valley can be added to your list. LV also ran some passenger service.

[Anonymous]

I rode the Lackawanna to High School every day on the Gladstone to Hoboken line (late 50's, Peapack to Bernardsville). While at college in Phila., took the PRR or the Reading home for a few weekends. Joe

[Anonymous]

Didn't the Jersey Central run down the PRSL from winslow junction to Atlantic city? PRSL = Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines.
Prior to Amtrac the only Railroad to have direct service from Washington into NYC was the PRR.

[phillyreading]

Don't know if the Reading Railroad ran into New Jersey but I know the Central of New Jersey ran on Reading Company track in the Allenton PA area. The names of the Reading Railroad are; Reading Company for passenger service and Reading Lines for freight service. The Reading Railroad was the number five freight hauler in the 1950's
so I wiould guess that Reading Lines ran into parts of New Jersey every day.
Lee F.

[njalb1]

Reading Company (pronounced "Reding"), a name remembered mainly as a railroad, was in its heyday a multifaceted industrial giant. Originally established as The Philadelphia & Reading Railroad in 1833 to transport anthracite coal, the pioneering 94-mile line evolved into a mighty corporation serving eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Operations included coal mining, iron making, canal and sea-going transportation and shipbuilding. With its great complex of shops for locomotive and car building and repair, and constant advances in railroad technology, the company held a position of leadership in the railroad industry for over a century.

By the nature of the territory which it served, the P & R fueled the Industrial Revolution which led the United States to economic leadership. With lines reaching out to the North, South, East and West, the P & R served the heart of the most densely industrialized area of the nation, and by the 1870s became the largest corporation in the world.

During this period the P & R established a subsidiary, The P & R Coal and Iron Co. to gain control over the vast anthracite deposits being mined for shipment over its lines. As one of America's first conglomerates, this attracted the infamous "robber barons" of the latter 1800s, such as Carnegie and Vanderbilt. During the company's final spectacular attempt at expansion through control of lines to New England, Canada and the West, the formidable J.P. Morgan pulled the financial rug out from under The Reading, and forced the company to settle into its traditional role as a regional railroad–mainly a carrier of anthracite.

During the 1890's, to ward off government efforts to break up monopolies, the P & R's owners created a new holding company named Reading Company, to own on paper, the P & R RR and P & R C & I. Finally, a Supreme Court ruling forced a complete separation of the P & R entities. On January 1, 1924, the P & R C & I became independent, and Reading Company became the railroad's operating name.

After World War II as America began to turn away from coal as its major fuel, The Reading's fate began to turn as well. Dragged down by the failure of surrounding lines on which it depended for traffic to offset the loss of the coal business, The Reading entered bankruptcy in 1971. Its operations were taken over as part of the federally financed CONRAIL, on April 1, 1976.


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The Lines
The Reading Lines, as they came to be known, were actually a conglomeration of a number of successor railroads. On December 31, 1923, the "Reading Company" was separated from the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company, forming what most people today think of as the Reading Lines. The components of the eventual railroad were:

• Atlantic City RR
• Catasaqua and Fogelsville RR
• The Gettysburg and Harrisburg Rwy
• The North East Pennsylvania RR
• Perkiomen RR
• The Philadelphia and Chester Valley RRThe Philadelphia, Newtown, and New York RR
• Pickering Valley RR
• The Port Reading RRReading and Columbia RR
• Stony Creek RR
• The Williams Valley RR
• The Delaware River Ferry Co. of New Jersey
• Philadelphia and Reading Rwy
• The Chester and Delaware River RR
• Middletown and Hummelstown RR
• The Rupert and Bloomsburg RR
• The Tamaqua, Hazleton and Northern RR
• The Norristown Junction RR
• The Philadelphia and Frankfurt RR
• The Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Pittsburgh RR
• The Schuylkill and Lehigh RR
• Shamokin, Sunbury and Lewisburg RR
• New York Short Line RR
• Norristown and Main Line Connecting RR
• Reading Belt RR

[phillyreading]

Part of the Reading Railroad still servives but as Reading & Northern Railroad.
There was another spur company but it has gone out of business, Blue Mountain & Reading Railroad. Not all of the Reading went into Conrail. Also Conrail has sold off most of its rolling stock & locomotives to CSX Railway.
Originally the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad run along the Skukill River from Reading to Philadelphia, and predates the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Thanks for the information on the Reading Company.
Lee Fritz

[Anonymous]

Delaware Lackawana, Central New Jersey, Rockaway Valley, Morristown and Erie, PRR, ConRail, New Jersey Transit, Erie, Erie Lackawana, Amtrak, Philladelphia and Atlantic, Raritan Railroad, Reading, Lehigh Valley, Black River and Western, Lehigh and New England, Lehigh and Hudson River, Delaware Hudson, NYC(West Shore), NY Ontario and Western, New York and Long Branch, New York Susquehanna and Western, PATH, New York and Greenwood Lake, Staten Island Railroad, Tuckerton Railroad.