General Discussion (Classic Trains)

Not so long ago in Trains Magazine I saw a photo of the Reading Railroad's old North Broad Street Station, with the intriguing comment below that at one point the New York Central and Reading Railroad jointly considered operating a section of the Twentieth Century Limited from Philadelphia to Chicago.  Does anyone have any further information about this fascinating sidelight to history, or, for that matter, where I might locate either relevant New York Central or Reading archives?

 John

As far as I know, although Reading Terminal has been recycled for non-transportation uses and replaced by underground Market East as a SEPTA commuter train downtown station, North Broad is still very much in business as a SEPTA station.

Interesting to speculate what route a 20th Century Philly section could take.  Down the West Shore from Albany to connect with the CofNJ and then the Reading at BOund Brook?  Reading and then the Lehigh Valley to Buffalo? Major LV-CN through Penn Station, NY - Chicago trains did have Philly Sections splitting at Bethlehem and running over the Readaing.

daveklepper wrote:

Interesting to speculate what route a 20th Century Philly section could take.  Down the West Shore from Albany to connect with the CofNJ and then the Reading at BOund Brook?  Reading and then the Lehigh Valley to Buffalo? Major LV-CN through Penn Station, NY - Chicago trains did have Philly Sections splitting at Bethlehem and running over the Readaing.

I was thinking it might have gone northwest from Philadelphia to Newberry Jct (Williamsport), and then west on NYC to Ashtabula or north through Corning to Lyons.

I think this is the route I saw mentioned (thorugh Pennsylvania on various Reading and NYC lines to Ashtabula), and one of the main reasons the idea was discarded was the concern these lines, many of them secondary, would have to be expensively upgraded.

 It really is fascinating to consider all the possibilities, including the probable likelihood that it would have been a hard go, financially.  Three major railroads would then have had premier trains Chicago to Philadelphia, Pennsylvanie (the home road), B&O, and now Reading/NYC (not to mention Lehigh Valley).  Was there really enough extra-fare traffic for all three?  I expect it would have been a case of market 'cannibalization', and might have severely impacted the Century operation, as it was a major money-maker in the early years of the era (B&O probably was also making some money on its premier trains, but the Broadway was never as big a pull as the Twentieth Century)

I thought of 3 routes, all impractical: (1) RDG-CNJ-Jersey City-National Docks Ry- West Shore -

already mentioned;  (2)  RDG-Newberry-NYC.   The Corning route would have consumed about 12 hours just to get to Lyons, NY, and join the main line;  the Newberry-Ashtabula route involved trackage rights over the PRR  (!!) McElhattan-Keating, PA, OR, I believe a collection of branches was available via Orviston, Philipsburg, PA (maybe a change of ends there- I believe NYC came in from the north and left to the west), Clearfield, DuBois, Brookville, Franklin, Ashtabula.   I don't even want to think of the time - probably 24 hours minimum either way!   (3)  IF the South Penn project had been completed to Pittsburgh, Reading might have had a real shot via a P&LE connection at Pittsburgh then Youngstown;  the Harrisburg-Pittsburgh line was much shorter and better but of course was never built. 

One other possiblilty might have been RDG-Central States Dispatch freight route, but Wheeling & Lake Erie didn't like passenger trains!  The B&O did and might have been used west of Cherry Run, but their Capitol Limited took precedence.

Ah, what might have been!  

James E. Bradley  Hawk Mountain Chapter N.R.H.S.