Things dont look good for the Colebrookdale Spur

It appears the redevelopment authority purchased the land from the railroad and sold it outright to Walmart and the car dealership. That is going to make it very problematic to try to build a railroad on somebody's private business property that doesn't want it.

Why was the property sold, when it was known potential customers were north of it?

WashingtonPark wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 6:50 pm It appears the redevelopment authority purchased the land from the railroad and sold it outright to Walmart and the car dealership. That is going to make it very problematic to try to build a railroad on somebody's private business property that doesn't want it.

Much of the ROW was not owned by the redevelopment authority, including the piece sold to Walmart. It was owned by a different entity. Looking at the Berks County Recorder of Deeds site, the lot was sold to Walmart back in 2004 by these grantors:

DEED 2004058894 wrote:BOYERTOWN IND PKBGP
BOYERTOWN IND PKBGPGAMBONE BROS PRTNRSHP LLC GPGAMBONE FAM GP
BOYERTOWN INDUSTRIAL PARK
GAMBONE BROS PRTNRSHP LLC GP
GAMBONE BROTHERS PARTNERSHIP LLC
GAMBONE FAM GP
GAMBONE FAMILY GENERAL PARTNERSHIP

And it seems the Gambone bought it from individual sellers.

Interestingly, in 2006, in Instrument Number 2006087991, there was a RIGHT OF WAY / EASEMENT granted to Met-Ed for the power lines.

According to the county map, after the Walmart parking lot, the next section of ROW is owned by Met-Ed, and then the next section is owned by Conestoga Telephone up to Township Line Road. From there, the BECHTELSVILLE BORO owns it up to the Quarry.

Maybe it would be possible for the railroad to get an easement, like Met-Ed did?

My experience in real estate has been that easements are used for utilities for the general public good that involves minimal invasion of property. Electrical overhead wiles, water pipes underground, etc. Something like a ground intensive use like a railroad gets subject to condemnation proceedings for ownership where the new owner may get an easement to cross the property lost to reach other of his lands. It's going to be a heck of a job for the railroad to start condemnation proceedings on all of these major corporations so they can move a couple car loads of sand whenever he needs it, if ever.

According to the Reading Eagle, it looks like the railroad just got three more parcels:

The N. Reading Ave properties are just North of Manero's Service Center, but I'm not sure where the two Landis Lane properties are located. Maybe since the Foundry sold them, that could give us some idea of the location?

Easements can be made for any reason. Easements for roads for ingress/egress to an area is not unusual, so an easment for a RR to access a shipper could be done. The property owner has to agree to it, so that usually means $$.

There's quite a difference, though, between allowing a vehicle to access your property and allowing major changes to your land that a rail line would require. It would be very complicated and as you point out cost many dollars in fees and payments to the owner. Would it be worth all that time, trouble and money for whatever might get moved by rail?

jrevans wrote: ↑Sun Jul 23, 2023 9:54 pm According to the Reading Eagle, it looks like the railroad just got three more parcels:

Code: Select all

Colebrookdale Township
Lapex LLC to Berks County Redevelopment Authority, 865 A N. Reading Ave. and 865 R N. Reading Ave., $76,800.
Boyertown Foundry Company to Berks County Redevelopment Authority, Landis Lane, $132,930.60.
Boyertown Foundry Company to Berks County Redevelopment Authority, Landis Lane, $15,459.70.

The N. Reading Ave properties are just North of Manero's Service Center, but I'm not sure where the two Landis Lane properties are located. Maybe since the Foundry sold them, that could give us some idea of the location?

Is there anything in the article that says the Redevelopment Authority plans to use this for railroad property rather than some other development? Landis Avenue dead ends to the rear of the Boyertown Foundry if that helps any with the location.

WashingtonPark wrote: Is there anything in the article that says the Redevelopment Authority plans to use this for railroad property rather than some other development?

No. There was no article, just the public real estate transfer records.

But every property transfer record that I've seen in Boyertown or Colebrookdale for "Berks County Redevelopment Authority" has been for the railroad. And specifically, all of the other transfers that I looked at were adjacent to, or part of the ROW.

There were a couple of transactions around the station area, gaining the property to do a yard expansion. And with the recent commitment to extend freight service with some sort of transfer facility by N. Reading Ave, there were a series of transactions with addresses around that area. It's quite fascinating to see the properties being acquired. Hats off to Mr. Guest for being able to pull all of this off!

Thanks. It certainly looks like there is enough land in that area for a transfer facility if that is what they're putting together.

The Colebrookdale Railroad has a very detailed, 43 page "Independent Study" from 2020 available on their website. It talks about transload yards, and even the possible extension to the quarry.

https://www.colebrookdalerailroad.com/s ... _of_RR.pdf

There was a previous plan which detailed possible transload of incinerator ash for the local Rolling Hills landfill. The plan pretty much said that it would not be a money making operation to do the transload in Boyertown, and there would be a lot of trucks driving up steep hills the final ten miles to the landfill.

Is there any updates on the work they were starting earlier this year? They were starting to clear brush heading toward the foundry.

It's been 6 months since any discussion on the expansion of the line to a new transload facility. Anyone in the area seen any indications of the work starting or does more property need to be purchased?

So I wrote the railroad to ask the status this was their reply:

Good morning,

The project is still in the works. Trying to work out Admin and financial needs. Work to begin in earnest later this year.

Sincerely,
CRR

From: Don Anne <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2024 8:11 AM
To: CRR Information <[email protected]>
Subject: New Submission From Don Anne

Name
Don Anne
Email
[email protected]

Phone
5188521323
Subject
Update on freight services
Message
In December 2022 there were pictures of clearing track north of the Boyertown yard. There was mention of rebuilding the track to a customer and a new transload yard with big news in 2023. I was just wondering what the status of this work. What you are doing is very exciting. It's great to see a railroad building track and not tearing it up. Good luck with your future endeavors.

The July Trains has an interesting article on this railroad.