Pottsville town trackage

Curious about the trackage in Pottsville. Looking at old pics, it seems the RDG trackage stub ended in town along Rt 61. There was wooden coach sheds and a small yard. In later years, after the '60s, the trackage was cut back to where the KFC is now but even in CR days there was a small yard there. When was this trackage removed? Was it by CR or RDG? Also after pax service ended what did the RDG use the yard for? On the blue comet site is shows locos and hacks parked there in the 70s.

carajul wrote: in CR days there was a small yard there. When was this trackage removed? Was it by CR or RDG?

I don't think the RDG took out trackage if they didn't exist anymore.. You answered this one yourself.

Passenger service to Reading and Philly didn't end until 1983. The yard trackage came out some time after that.

-Micah

The RDG most certainly did exist after CR. They still exist today as a movie theatre company. In fact they still owned the then-abandoned mainline from St. Clair yard north to Frackville until they sold that row in 1978. Selling off their assets that CR didn't buy was how they paid off their creditors.

If pax service ended in 1983 I guess the small yard in town was ripped out in 1984-ish?

What about the PRR that went thru town up to Lofty via Darkwater? When did that get ripped out? 1960s???

the reading has a great movie theater in manville nj. thier logo goes from tracks into movie film. they still own over 300 acres in pa and other states left over from railroading.

The Reading Company left over after Conrail wrapped up their real estate disposal in May of 2000. The Philly HQ was closed then and that's when the 'real' Reading died. The last Conrail predecessor to do so using their own name.

The corporate hulk was bought by an individual who's in the multiplex movie theater business. He carried on the name, but it's not what you're thinking it is.

-Micah

56-57 wrote: Passenger service to Reading and Philly didn't end until 1983. The yard trackage came out some time after that.

All SEPTA ex-RDG pax service west of Pottstown to Pottsville stopped at the end of June 1981, actually. About three weeks later the Norristown-Pottstown RDC shuttle was killed and remaining service consisted only of the electric MUs to Norristown.

carajul wrote:Curious about the trackage in Pottsville. Looking at old pics, it seems the RDG trackage stub ended in town along Rt 61. There was wooden coach sheds and a small yard. In later years, after the '60s, the trackage was cut back to where the KFC is now but even in CR days there was a small yard there. When was this trackage removed? Was it by CR or RDG? Also after pax service ended what did the RDG use the yard for? On the blue comet site is shows locos and hacks parked there in the 70s.

One issue that tends to complicate this RDG subject is the amount of PRR trackage & facilities which also once existed in Pottsville. Knowing what railroad's tracks were shoehorned where in downtown is really hard to untangle sometimes. All the more because we're talking about a geographically tiny area that was once packed with comprehensive and duplicative infrastructure belonging to two different railroads who were neutral at best and more often hostile at worst.

As the 1960s dragged on and became the 70s, the RDG went into its final bankruptcy, etc., there was little business in Pottsville itself for the RDG. Mirroring the same massive and long-term decline that essentially destroyed the anthracite industry, the city's economic strength contracted in a similar fashion. Every photo I've seen of the Reading's presence in Pottsville from 1960-ish onwards generally shows a sprawling expanse of awful-looking track, or a tiny handful of switcher engines, or a single RDC taking a siesta at the sad remains of the former passenger terminal. The subjective impression is one of near-death.

carajul wrote: If pax service ended in 1983 I guess the small yard in town was ripped out in 1984-ish?

I don't have my paper archives with me at the moment, but I do know that Conrail formally abandoned the last 0.6 mile of the ex-RDG Main Line from old MJ Tower (POTTS, in its final years) into downtown Pottsville in 1985. I can't imagine that the remaining yard trackage in town survived for very long after that.

carajul wrote: What about the PRR that went thru town up to Lofty via Darkwater? When did that get ripped out? 1960s???

That's another obsessi----uhhhh, minor interest of mine. A complex subject that I can't approach without calling for (paper-based) reinforcements. It's a damn shame that almost none of the relevant data have been digitized yet by someone, someplace.

Please continue, folks; this thread's subject fascinates me and has for some years now.

I always seem to get that date for the end of SEPTA service wrong.. 81 instead of 83.. Thanks!

-Micah

As far as the PRR went, my best conjecture is out of service no later than 1970. Growing up in Schuylkill Haven, I would constantly hassle my elders about why there where no trains running on said line, and the consistent answer was "they stopped running before you were born". In addition, there was no industry to speak of on that line north of Auburn, save whatever anthracite traffic they might have had. I spent the first fifteen years of my life in Schuylkill County, and never saw any PRR/PC equipment moving anywhere up that way...and believe me, I looked long and hard for trains constantly. When you see nothing but MP15's, you get to hunger for something different.

The plans for the Detroit Mobile Homes siding across Rte. 61 just South of Schuylkill Haven suggested that the crossing equipment was installed in 1973. Of course, that is not proof that the track (North of Auburn) was ever used after 1970. New Hope & Ivyland RR bought the crossing equipment from PennCentral about 1979.