Stations on the Pottstown/Reading/Pottsville line

Don't know if this should be on the RDG board or the SEPTA board, but it's here because it's RDG heritage...

On a 2005 vacation in Berks County, I drove past the Franklin St. station in Reading (where I caught a SEPTA train to RT in Philly in 1979) and found it boarded up and decrepit. Uptown, I found the "outer" station, now used IIRC by the Reading city public works department.

On the way home from that vacation, I drove down High St. in Pottstown and came within view of the RDG station there. I drove right by it in 1996 and to my recollection it had become a bank.

I've driven past Royersford station several times while visiting my stepbrother in Royersford (last time, Dec. '06). I forget whether it's in use now or not.

In 1997 I walked past the old Valley Forge station near Washington's HQ. It looked like it'd become a maintenance bldg. for VFNHP.

Anyone know what's become of the stations in Phoenixville, Birdsboro, Pottsville and elsewhere along the Reading/Pottsville ex-SEPTA line? And what are plans for the station buildings not in current use?

motor

Phoenixville station is alive and well as a restaurant. I believe Royersford is now occupied by a real estate office. Birdsboro station has been leveled but the tower still remains. The last time I was at the original Valley Forge station, it appeared to be unoccupied. I have also heard recent reports that there were some renovations being made to the stairs and platform so there may be plans to use it in some capacity. Perkiomen Junction station is also still standing, I believe it is being used as a residence.

Pictures and the fate of many of the other stations can be found here:

http://www.thebluecomet.com/readingmain.html

motor, just an aside regarding the Outer Station in Reading: the station driveway approaches still exist, but the building burned down in a spectacular nighttime fire during February 1978. I'm not sure exactly which building you mistakenly believed in 2005 had once been the Outer Station. In 1997 I photographed the Reading Company YMCA, which stood a short walk north of the Outer Station and across the street from a supermarket whose parking lot abutted against the elevated right-of-way. I hope that's still there now!

glennk419 has covered the remaining stations which still existed during the last years of SEPTA diesel service between Norristown and Reading. As for the main line north of Reading, the state of its passenger station buildings has been "scorched earth" for decades. Tuckerton, Rickenbach, Leesport, Dauberville, Mohrsville, Shoemakersville, Berne, Hamburg, and Port Clinton are all long gone...some as early as the mid-1950s. I think the only one of these which survived until SEPTA killed the diesel trains in 1981 was Hamburg, even though by that late date the building was likely closed and had no ticket agent.

North of where the Little Schuylkill Branch to Tamaqua diverged from the main line at Port Clinton, things improved slightly. Auburn station still exists; when I last drove by it 5 years ago, it looked like a private dwelling.

Landingville is gone, but Schuylkill Haven station is now that borough's police station.

I'm not 100% certain that Cressona still exists, but I do recall some railfan apocrypha that said it's now used as a yard office by the Reading and Northern Railroad.

And in Pottsville itself, the great old 1880s-era passenger station was destroyed around 1961, but - amazingly - the freight depot still stands!

Returning briefly to the Norristown-Reading part of the main line, there are other small towns which once had obscure stations that very few now remember. They certainly weren't going to even slow down the "King Coal" or the "Schuylkill" for these, much less stop there! Linfield, Stowe, Douglassville, Monocacy, Lorane (formerly Exeter) and Neversink...all buried under the silt at the bottom of memory's ocean.

The portion of the Pottsville station that fronts the street still exists! It was carefully restored by an architectural firm that has its offices in it. There was a presentation at an RCT&HS meeting some years ago by one of the people from that firm, and he described the unusual construction of the station: namely, the iron rods that hang from the roof and support the floor(!) You are correct, the passenger platform and other stuff was removed, but the earliest and most interesting part still exists!

Mr. Gowen, on your 1997 visit, did you take note of what occupied the actual OS site, other than the driveway? Was the DPW building the OS's replacement? That may have been what I spotted. In fact, now that I think of it, that *wasn't* the old OS I spotted.

motor

From a discussion that I had this weekend...

Apparently, the Valley Forge station is going to be made into a new visitor center and the parking lot will be moved closer. This is being done so to move these away from Washington's headquarters.

Derf wrote:From a discussion that I had this weekend...

Apparently, the Valley Forge station is going to be made into a new visitor center and the parking lot will be moved closer. This is being done so to move these away from Washington's headquarters.

Thanks for the update. It will be great to actually get inside the station.

Per the National Park Service website:

"rehabilitation of the historic Valley Forge Train Station as a visitor orientation space;"

'-see http://www.nps.gov/vafo/planyourvisit/hqprojects.htm for more info