06-08-05 PHOTOS: Reading Country USA

About a month ago I took a trip with a friend up to Reading Country in central-eastern PA. This has been one of my earliest railfan haunts back in the late 1990's, but I had not been back there since and I was eager to visit a few of the places and see how they had changed.

The old Reading system used to be quite impressive with a uge network running through the foothills to gather up anthricite coal for use in home heating systems. Today, north of Reading, the once vast network is nothing more than a patchwork of secondard tracks, but its still an interesting anvunique system full of legacy infrastructure. It has been my lifelong goal to walk through all 7 Reading tunnels and after this trip I am up to 4.

First stop was CP-PHOENIX in Phoenixville. This interlocking composes a brief single track segment through the Black Rock tunnel. The east end of the portal still had its Conrail era small target searchlights, but the west end revently had the Reading signals replaced with a Darth Vader, both at the home signal and the distant. Still, NS appears to be showing no plans to convert the line from 251 to 261 operation. Rule 251 is such a welcome relief in this world which has become overrun with CTC.

Moving on, I stopped by the site of the old Reading Outer Station in downtowne Reading. Unfortunately the station burned down in the 1980's and the last time I was there there was just a big enpty patch in the middle of the wye that served the station. Well boy was I surprised when I found that it had been filled in by some Dept of public works building. don't worry, there's still plenty of room for yards for the future SVM. While there I took photos of CP-OLEY and CP-CENTER.

Next stop was the Reading and Northern yard at Port Clinton. The R&N runs the former Reading main line out to Sunbury PA and also the Cormer Lehigh Valley main line from M&H Jct to a point past Scranton. their offices, shoppes and dispatching centre are located at Port Clinton.

Other fun bits there include a vintage US&S M3 switch machine and this neat hillside logo.

Moving on, my next goal was to walk through the currently abandonned Lofty tunnel. However when we got there, the RoW was flooded and i lacked deep water footwear.

Not to be defeated, we drove to the still active Tamaqua tunnel and after a bit of hiking in tick country we located the north portal. The tunnel offered a nice blast of natural AC as we walked through to the south portal.

The next stop on my trip was the towne of Tamaqua PA with the historic Tamaqua Station and the less historic Reading and Northern station.

Finally, the last stop was BIRD tower in Birdsboro. BIRD is where the Reading Main Line joins with what is called the Turkey Path, an alternate 3rd track to bypass reading city. Is also used to provide access to the Wilmington and Northern line to Wilmington. The RoW here is 4-tracks wide and the interlocking used to be very complex. The tower housed the air compressor for the pneumatic switches and you can still see some of the pipes. However today BIRD interlocking only has a single switch between the Turkey Path and the #2 S/B main line.

You can see ALL the photos at:

http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/06-08-05_READING_COUNTRY/-Thumbnails.html

My SEPTA train enters Bryn Mawr interlocking under a SLOW APPROACH due to an Amtrak Keystone cab-car test train passing in front of us.

The closed yet still standing BRYN MAWR Tower with a Stop and Proceed indication on the bracket mounted position light. 

 My SEPTA train deposits it at Wayne with Silverliner IV #349 in the rear position.

Searchlight dwarf signal at CP-CENTER.
 

OLEY Tower at the neck of Reading Yard.

Reading and Northern  SD50 #5014 with SW1500 #1548.

A natural spring near the Lofty tunnel. Boy, doesn't that look refreshing?

A day lilly was on hand to brighten the mood a bit.

Inside of the Tamaqua tunnel, one of the 7 tunnels on the Reading system.

This point is EXACTLY 100 miles from Reading terminal in Philadelphia.

Old crossing guard tower in Tamaqua.

BIRD Tower, closed many years ago when control passed to OLEY tower, but was left standing as the relay room.  This was previously a large interlocking plant on the Reading main line that was also the junction with the Wilmington and Northern line to Wilmington and what is also known as the Turkey Path to Reading that crosses the river and serves as a third main track. 

Vintage Reading signal coming off the Turkey Path.  In 2006 CP-BIRD consists of a single switch for the Turkey Path track back into the eastbound main.

 #2 track eastbound signal with the concrete arch bridge that goes on to cross the Schuylkill River.