RDG Co. Bethlehem Branch

6ABC reported that a $300,000 grant was presented today at a meeting in Quakertown for continued service restoration planning. They refered to the line as the Septa Stony Creek / Quakertown line, no additional details though other than the efforts to restore commuter service to the "quickly growing region". The momentum seems to be increasing on this project and there was some good publicity, including a nice video shot of the Q'town train station. Let's hope it keeps moving.

They have a video too, filled with the normal railroad puns....

http://www.wfmz.com/cgi-bin/tt.cgi?acti ... ryid=13666

There's also an adjoining article talking about how the SVM likely won't reach Berks county, since there's only enough federal money to make it to Phoenixville.

Passenger Trains to Upper Bucks County May be Back on Track
Story posted on 2006-03-06 18:52:00

Passenger rail service could soon be returning to Upper Bucks County. The idea seems to be picking up steam at the local, state, and federal levels.

WFMZ's Joscelyn Moes joins us live from Quakertown with the story.
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Rob and Wendy every few years...the idea of restarting passenger rail service to upper Bucks County chugs out of planning meetings, but it's usually gotten derailed, until now.

It's full steam ahead to bring passenger trains back to Upper Bucks County. In 19-81...SEPTA suspended its service to Quakertown because of dwindling ridership. Now...local leaders say a return trip is needed.

2:49-2:59--Michael Fitzpatrick
Population of Richland Township has about doubled in the 25 years. The population of Milford Township has about doubled in the past 25 years. These are the outlying communities to Quakertown borough.

Reporter:
Monday...U.S. Representative Michael Fitzpatrick presented a 300-thousand dollar check to the Bucks County TMA. The money will go towards a review of what it will take to get this project rolling.

5:46-5:53--Bill Rickett
Essentially we will be doing needs analysis which will include cost analysis as the Congressman mentioned looking at the state of the trackage.

Reporter:
Phase one of the project would be a 21-mile line linking Shelly to Lansdale. Phase two...an 11 mile southern extension from Landsdale to Norristown. And Phase three...could extend service ultimately over the SEPTA Norristown Line to Center City Philadelphia. Bucks County TMA officials say the line will be functional for both commuter and freight.

6:04-6:15--Bill Rickett
The issue was again brought this morning can commuter and freight co-exist on the same line. I can not only tell you it can it will. It's done all over the country and it will be done here.

Reporter:
According to a business plan, the start-up cost would be about 95-million dollars.

Officials hope to have trains running on these tracks, in 5-7 years.

Live in Quakertown, Bucks County, Joscelyn Moes, 69 News.

New article, but basically the same information about the 300k grant.

http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/all-e ... pinion-hed

March 9, 2006 From The Morning Call
New rail service in Bucks, Montgomery deserves study, federal funds

Commuter rail service has been nothing more than a pipe dream since the Lansdale to Quakertown line and the Quakertown to Bethlehem route ended in the early 1980s. But now there is hope for some service to be restored. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick of Bucks County presented $300,000 in federal funds to state Sen. Rob Wonderling, whose district includes portions of Bucks, Montgomery, Lehigh and Northampton counties.

The goal is to ultimately restore passenger service in phases: from the Shelly area in Richland Township, Upper Bucks, through Quakertown, Perkasie, Sellersville, Telford, Souderton and Hatfield to Lansdale in Montgomery County, followed by an extension from Lansdale to Norristown. This matters to the Lehigh Valley, too, because a drive to Upper Bucks is quicker than one to Lansdale, where trains connect to Philadelphia.

The federal funds will cover a detailed inspection of the existing rail beds so an overall cost projection for restoration of commuter rail service can be determined. An initial study by Gannett Fleming of Philadelphia, completed for the Bucks County Transportation Management Association, estimated the cost at about $98 million. That's less than earlier estimates because the new plan calls for less costly, used diesel cars. Also, Sen. Wonderling explained to a gathering of the Upper Bucks Chamber of Commerce last month, the key is to have a public-private organization manage the rail service. Plans are under way for a non-profit organization called the Quakertown-Stony Creek Rail Association.

Gannett Fleming's study mentions a 1995 analysis predicting annual ridership on the line of 377,000 to 613,000. However, Rep. Fitzpatrick told The Morning Call for a story Tuesday, the populations of Milford and Richland townships have doubled and the employment population in the area is up 40 percent since rail service ended. Also, freight rail service is going strong.

More federal money, plus some county and local funding, must still be identified to make commuter rail service a reality. But given the growth of the region, it's a dream worth pursuing.

This past Saturday night witnessed a very fun event which relates to the Bethlehem Branch. The Quakertown Train Station Historical Society hosted a railroad-themed slideshow inside the newly-restored passenger station. This event was intended as a fundraiser for continuing work on the station.

While the $20 ticket price was quite high for a slideshow, dinner and refreshments were included...and, after all, the object was to finish the work on the beautiful 104-year-old building. Amazingly, the event was so well patronized that the organizers completely filled the station and had to turn away hopeful last-minute customers! I never would've expected that.

While all four photo presentations were fascinating, entertaining and educational, the one which meant the most to me was the one directly concerning the Bethlehem Branch - especially the non-electrified section. I am no stranger to the branch's corporate beginnings, operational history, and physical characteristsics. In light of the rampant decay since SEPTA & Conrail said "we surrender" in 1981, my knowledge is somewhat like a forensic autopsy report on a battered corpse.

I can hardly begin to tell you how.....strange.....it was to see the branch north of Lansdale shown as a functional, working railroad with fairly heavy (though not constant) freight and passenger train traffic. A far cry from today, when East Penn's (mumble)times-a-week local freight job, or the occasional CSX B738 switch job constitutes "major activity". And the right-of-way sure had little resemblance to the wasteland of today. For example:

Automatic block signals which actually lit up!

Instead of paved-over ruins, there were crossbucks and warning flashers to protect crossings for RDCs zipping along!

Stations which actually sold passenger tickets to the public, instead of firewood, flowers, or nothing at all!

Lengthy iron-ore freights which could run fast enough that if you took a photo of one just north of Telford, you'd have to jump right onto the Route 309 highway and "floor it" as far as Hilltop or Coopersburg in order to get far enough ahead for more photos!

I know that I'm not making a subtle point here. I hardly need to. Even in its present rot and obscurity, the evidence of a true railroad is still there to be seen. For a while last weekend, I saw exactly what the Bethlehem Branch looked like when it still functioned as a true railroad. No wonder that the Quakertown station was jammed solid with people that night -- mostly people old enough to have their own memories of those times 30 and 40 years ago, and a very few younger folks like me who got to use the slide projector as a time machine.

It was a little bit sad. Not depressing, just...bittersweet, like a poem which can bring a tear to your eye. But it could also be a tear of happiness.

It was very cool. Five diesels pulling 60 cars of ore, making the Port Richmond--Bethlehem Steel 110/115-mile round trip in four hours. Yesss!

Best of all, it was great to see so many people who cared.

Boy, I wish I could have been there. That's the line I grew up with, which got me completely into railroading. There was nothing better to me as a kid than hustling to the depot at Perkasie after school and waiting around for that big block signal to light up for the 4:30 northbound RDC run. It wouldn't be long after that train left that the signal would light again for the northbound local freight, usually powered by a hastily stenciled CR SW1500 still in shiny cream and green RDG colors. If I didn't have to hoof it back home ten blocks for dinner, I could wait for the 5:25 southbound, then it was absolutely time to get home before dark. I would occasionally see unexpected treats like power moves with shiny new CR blue paint jobs or the 16 axle depressed-center flat that was parked at the Shelly & Sons siding with a large generator to be unloaded. I regret never having seen one of those ore drags but it must have been quite a sight. I wish our old buddy Franz Ferdinand would make his way back to this thread with some scanned pics that he has in his archives; that guy was a treasure trove of Beth Branch knowledge.

Not sure if this has ever been answered in this forum (or even this thread), but didn't CSX (don't think it was NS) have some plans to use the Bethleham branch for Coke traffic to the Bethleham works, but that facility was completely closed before the ConRail sale was finalized (not entirely sure if the time-table works out right on this, as I thought Conrail was the one who embargoed traffic on the line)

Sir Ray wrote:Not sure if this has ever been answered in this forum (or even this thread), but didn't CSX (don't think it was NS) have some plans to use the Bethleham branch for Coke traffic to the Bethleham works, but that facility was completely closed before the ConRail sale was finalized (not entirely sure if the time-table works out right on this, as I thought Conrail was the one who embargoed traffic on the line)

This has come up before on this forum (probably lost in the system change), but the rumor that I heard, was that CSX was interested in taking over operation of the branch and restoring service north of Quakertown, in order to run trains to the Coke plant in Bethlehem. Then, "the steel" closed up shop, and then the coke works closed up shop, so it never went further.

jrevans wrote:

Sir Ray wrote:Not sure if this has ever been answered in this forum (or even this thread), but didn't CSX (don't think it was NS) have some plans to use the Bethleham branch for Coke traffic to the Bethleham works, but that facility was completely closed before the ConRail sale was finalized (not entirely sure if the time-table works out right on this, as I thought Conrail was the one who embargoed traffic on the line)

This has come up before on this forum (probably lost in the system change), but the rumor that I heard, was that CSX was interested in taking over operation of the branch and restoring service north of Quakertown, in order to run trains to the Coke plant in Bethlehem. Then, "the steel" closed up shop, and then the coke works closed up shop, so it never went further.

Yep, that was the rumor. CSX wanted to be able to provide service between Sparrow's Point (Baltimore) and Bethlehem and didn't want to pay NS for trackage rights. If only.......

Franklin Gowen wrote:This past Saturday night witnessed a very fun event which relates to the Bethlehem Branch. The Quakertown Train Station Historical Society hosted a railroad-themed slideshow inside the newly-restored passenger station. This event was intended as a fundraiser for continuing work on the station.

Best of all, it was great to see so many people who cared.

I was there too (thanks for saving me a seat, Mr. Gowen...) and it was really impressive.

The station has a nice website: http://www.qtowntrainstation.org/

Seeing all of those trains on tracks that are so dead today was incredible. There were tracks that I didn't even know existed.
- A set of crossovers at the north end of Telford
- A siding by the Sellersville station
- The entire East Penn yard facility by CP Burn
- A tower at Emmaus junction
- The amount of tracks by the Bethlehem Station. There was a small yard where the Perkins is.
- etc....

It was neat to see the pictures of big, heavy ore trains pulling the grade to Rochkill, with sand flying off of the drivers. Wow! I bet it sounded awesome too! The presenters were all top notch and we were surrounded by relative railfan greatness. The amount of local area railfan history in that room was impressive. Lots of elderly gentlemen who knew a LOT of stuff. I even saw some of the EPRY crewmen there at the show.

With the good turnout of this event, I bet that there will be more to come.

Reports are that a total of 56 cars rolled through and/or were exchanged between CSX and EPRY at Telford today, necessitating the use of all four CSX locos assigned to Lansdale. While this certainly isn't the Reading or even Conrail, those rails must be pretty shiny and it sure is great to see the additional traffic on this line. Even in light of the federal study grant, let's hope for more state grants to maintain and improve what's in service today along with a brighter future tomorrow.

How often do they do this interchange at Telford?
If you had to guess, what is a weekly count of cars coming in?
JS

CSX typically runs to Telford a couple times a week depending on traffic levels. Recently, there has also been at least one occasion where they made two trips in a single day. There does not seem to be a fixed schedule for the days of the runs but on the days that there are, midday to early afternoon is your best chance for catching some action.

Monday, April 10th was a big day for the EPRY.
I caught one of their return runs to Quakertown as they passed through Perkasie around 4:30pm. They were pulling approximately 30+ cars. A mixture of mostly RBOX boxcars with several WC short hoppers, two lumber cars, and a few red boxcars. Sorry didn't get a total count or the rail code for the red boxcars.
They have been running almost every weekday since they picked up the extra business from the roofing plant and since the new Shelly's plant opened. They even ran on a Saturday a month or so ago.
They seemed to be running a little faster than normal on Monday. Maybe to make the Rockhill grade? I haven't seen that many cars on a train since they hauled the pipes for the new gas pipeline a few years ago.
Any news on when they will have the used engine running they purchased a few months ago? If they have a breakdown with their existing engine, their customers would have a real problem based on the current business.

Has anyone actually *seen* the new Shelly's facility in Quakertown yet? Am I correct in thinking that it was constructed on the site of the old brick works, along the east side of the railroad? I have not yet made a trip up north with camera in hand to document this, but was hoping some else might have. I may have to make a point of doing do.

I'm also assuming that concurrent with the opening of this new facility, the empty railcars stored on both tracks between Mill St and California Rd have been removed. Can anyone confirm if this is the case?

Franklin Gowen wrote:Has anyone actually *seen* the new Shelly's facility in Quakertown yet? Am I correct in thinking that it was constructed on the site of the old brick works, along the east side of the railroad? I have not yet made a trip up north with camera in hand to document this, but was hoping some else might have. I may have to make a point of doing do.

I'm also assuming that concurrent with the opening of this new facility, the empty railcars stored on both tracks between Mill St and California Rd have been removed. Can anyone confirm if this is the case?

FrankyG,

I *saw* the new Shelly's facility, but before it was open. I believe that it is indeed located in the former brick works. I don't know about the stored cars being moved, but I'd imagine so, since they need to access the plant. I wonder which way the switch faces from the Northbound main.

Go get some pictures!