Reading Railroad Incorporated by Act Passed April 4, 1833

The Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company was incorporated by special act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, approved April 4, 1833.

The charter granted to the company, December 5, 1833, authorized it to construct a railroad from Reading to Philadelphia. At Reading it was proposed to connect with the Little Schuylkill Navigation and Railroad, which had been incorporated in 1827, to build a railroad from Tamaqua to Reading. By a latter statute the company was authorized to extend its road from Reading to Port Clinton, where connection was made with the Little Schuylkill and Navigation and Railroad.

The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was planned primarily to transport anthracite from the Schuylkill region to Philadelphia and intermediate points, especially where a number of blast furnaces were then operating.

Anthracite was known to exist in the Schuylkill Valley as early as 1800, since which time the iron industry had become one of much importance, the first furnace being established on Manatawney Creek, near Pottstown, in 1716. Wood and charcoal were first used in smelting the ore, but the increasing scarcity of these fuels led to experiments, which, in 1808, proved that anthracite could be used advantageously as furnace fuel.

Anthracite was first transported by the Schuylkill Canal from the vicinity of Pottsville to Philadelphia, and the furnaces in the Schuylkill Valley. The growing need for this new fuel in domestic and furnace use and the limitations of canal transportation led to the era of railroad construction between the anthracite regions and tidewater ports.

On December 5, 1839, the railroad was opened to traffic from Reading to Philadelphia, and on January 1, 1842, the first locomotive and train passed over the entire line between Mount Carbon in Schuylkill County, and Philadelphia. On May 17, 1842, the Richmond Branch, from the Falls of the Schuylkill to the terminal at Port Richmond, on the Delaware, was opened, from which time the Reading has been an important railroad.

In 1853 the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company began the construction of the Lebanon Valley Railroad, extending from Reading to Harrisburg. The line was completed in 1858, and merged into the Reading Railroad.

May 8, 1871, the parent company bought the Northern Liberties 243and Penn Township Railroad, in Philadelphia, control of which had been obtained in 1857.

In the period between 1859 and 1870, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company commenced the systematic extension which has resulted in the development of the present Reading System. In that period the company acquired through purchase or lease twenty-six railroads. Between 1870 and 1880, thirteen more were acquired; in the next decade nine were added; from 1890 to 1900 eight were acquired and since 1900, four more were added, until, at the present time the Reading Company, with its affiliated lines operates 1619.15 miles of railroad, exclusive of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and 3.63 miles of road leased jointly by the Reading Company and the Central Railroad of New Jersey.

Forming quite a contrast with the huge high-speed Pacific type locomotives used today, are the locomotives used in the early days. At first these locomotives in appearance were somewhat grotesque. Their loud puffing was alarming, and the twenty-mile speed was terrifying.

One of these early engines, the RocketRocket, has been preserved for posterity and is on exhibition in the Columbia Avenue Station in Philadelphia.

The Rocket never ran when it rained. On clear days it was capable of taking a train at nearly thirty miles per hour. It burned wood as fuel but later adopted coal.

The engineer of the Rocket was also the fireman. When his steam was running low he reached over, grabbed a log from the pile along the platform, thrust it into the fire box, then again became an engineer. There was only one lever, and that was the throttle. All the way ahead there was one speed, same in reverse. There were only four wheels and no driving rods. There were no brakes on the Rocket. It had a kerosene bull’s eye and a pop whistle, and at night when it came crashing along at its twenty-mile clip, its bull’s-eye quivering, its stack emitting sparks, its whistle popping, it was the marvel of the countryside.

Of almost equal interest are the stories of the first day coaches and the Pullman cars. In the early days the coaches were very narrow, built to meet the conditions of the narrow-gauge tracks, as there was a row of double seats in one side of the aisle and a row of single seats on the other.

There were first and second class coaches, designated by the figure 1 and 2 on the sides of the car. Those of the first class were upholstered with black hair cloth, while the second-class had only plain wooden seats and backs. The windows were small and placed near the roof.

In the winter the cars were heated with wood stoves. The cars were lighted with candles. When a change from one line to another was made each passenger picked out his own baggage and attended to its loading on the new train.

244At the dining stations the menu consisted of coffee and ham sandwiches and sometimes beef stew.

The first sleeping cars were the ordinary day coaches changed by adding sleeping requirements. They were usually divided into four compartments, in each of which three bunks were built against one side of the car, while in a corner of the rear end of the car were provided water, a towel and a basin. No bedclothes were furnished, and the passengers, fully dressed, retired upon rough mattresses with their overcoats pulled over them for covering.

Continued patronage by the public of the day coaches, parlor, sleeping and dining cars led, step by step to the facilities for comfortable and luxurious travel offered today, where there is nothing left to be desired and modern American railroad comfort is supreme.