The Philadelphia & Chester Branch of the Reading Railroad is a mostly abandoned railroad between Philadelphia and Chester, Pennsylvania.
The Philadelphia & Chester Branch of the Reading Railroad is a mostly abandoned railroad between Philadelphia and Chester, Pennsylvania.
History
In 1873, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad (P&R) extended its reach southward by leasing 10.2 miles of track from the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad (PW&B), which became its Philadelphia & Chester Branch. 2 It extended from the Gray’s Ferry Bridge across the Schuylkill River in West Philadelphia to Ridley Creek in Ridley Park in Delaware County. 3
The segment was part of the PW&B’s original 1838 line. In 1872, the company opened a new stretch of track further inland to serve more populated areas and reduce flooding incidents. On July 1, 1873, the PW&B agreed to lease the freight rights to the P&R for $350,000 at the time of the lease arrangement and $1 per year after that, stipulating that no passenger trains would use it. 4
In a bid to simplify the corporate structure, the P&R ceased operations in 1924, with the Reading Company taking over operations. 5
In 1971, the Reading Company filed for bankruptcy, 6 and in 1976, it sold its railroad assets to the Consolidated Railroad Corporation (Conrail) under the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act. Most of the former P&R right-of-way, which generally paralleled a Pennsylvania Railroad line, was abandoned and its tracks removed.
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Sources
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- “The Railway World.” United States Railroad and Mining Register Company, Jan. 1880, pp. 266-267.
- Basalik, Kenneth J., and Philip Ruth. “Philadelphia & Reading Railroad: Chester Branch.” Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2 Mar. 2015.
- Morlok, Edward K. “First Permanent Railroad in the U.S. and Its Connection to the University of Pennsylvania.” Transportation Data, 2005.
- Alecknavage II, Albert. “Reading Company History.” Philadelphia Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, 12 Jun. 2002.
- Treese, Lorett. Railroads of Pennsylvania: fragments of the past in the Keystone landscape. Stackpole Books, 2003, p. 114.
