28 Facts About Reading Company

Reading Company was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail.

Commonly called the Reading Railroad, and logotyped as Reading Lines, the Reading Company was a railroad holding company for the majority of its existence and was a single railroad during its later years.

Philadelphia and Reading Company Railroad was one of the first railroads in the United States.

The original Reading Company mainline was double track from its very beginning in 1843.

In 1871, the Reading established a subsidiary called the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, which set about buying anthracite coal mines in the Coal Region.

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In 1879, the Reading Company gained control of the North Pennsylvania Railroad, which provided access to the burgeoning steel industry in the Lehigh Valley.

Reading Company was able to gain control of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, Central Railroad of New Jersey, and the Boston and Maine Railroad.

The Reading Company was relegated to being a regional railroad for the rest of its history.

Reading Company financed the construction of the Rutherford Yard to compete with the PRR's nearby Enola Yard.

The Reading Company took it over and began construction in 1854, opening the line in 1856.

In 1859, the Reading Company leased the Chester Valley Railroad, providing a branch from Bridgeport west to Downingtown.

Also that year, the Reading Company leased the Pickering Valley Railroad, a branch running west from Phoenixville to Byers, Pennsylvania, which opened in 1871.

The Reading Company eventually bought a majority of the CNJ's stock in 1901.

The Port Reading Company Railroad was chartered in 1890 and opened in 1892, running east from a junction from the New York main line near Bound Brook to the new port of Port Reading Company, on the Arthur Kill near Perth Amboy.

The Reading Company relinquished control of the Central New England Railroad and the Boston and Maine Railroad.

Also in 1893, the Philadelphia and Reading Company Railroad built its most famous structure, Reading Company Terminal in Philadelphia.

The Reading Company was created to serve as a holding company for the Reading's rail and coal subsidiaries: the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, and the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, respectively.

In keeping with the standards of much larger railroads, The Reading Company embarked on many improvement projects which typically were not attempted by smaller railroads.

Reading Company invested in the construction of new cut-offs, bypasses, and connections, much like the Pennsylvania Railroad's low-grade lines and the Lackawanna Cut-off.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was looking for access to the New York City market, and in 1903 it gained control over the Reading Company and ensured track rights over the Reading Company and Central New Jersey to Jersey City.

In 1900, the Reading Company Shops began construction along the Reading Company yards and North 6th Street, facilitating the maintenance and construction of a greater locomotive and rolling stock fleet.

Reading Company did not operate extensive long-distance passenger train service, but it did field a number of named trains, most famous of which was the streamlined Crusader, which connected Philadelphia and Jersey City.

Reading Company offered through passenger car service with the Lehigh Valley Railroad via their connection at Bethlehem.

Reading Company operated an extensive commuter network out of Reading Company Terminal in Philadelphia.

The Reading Company had taken great strides to wean itself of anthracite dependency but it still relied heavily on coal revenue, and Pennsylvania anthracite production had peaked in 1917 with 99.

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Reading Company was forced to file for bankruptcy protection in 1971.

Reading Company sold one of its last railroad-related assets, the Reading Terminal Headhouse, in 1991.

Reading Company is one of the four railroad properties in the game of Monopoly.