Reading Perkiomen Branch

AlexC wrote: Stuff like that would be in the Hagley Library right?

Yes, the Hagley is your best bet, though it's by no means a guarantee. Contact Christopher Baer for working out details of your on-site examination of the Hagley's records. Bear in mind that Hagley's RDG holdings are mainly corporate data from the senior management, and not personnel data concerning the employe records of the many rank-and-file folks.

It's a shame that so much of the RCT&HS' official Reading Company data that "might have been" was lost in the same spectacular fire which destroyed Reading's Outer Station in 1978. It is my belief that this one disaster is why the majority of the RDG paper data preserved by the Society is largely from the Motive Power and Rolling Equipment Department...I think that's just about all that they could get. Finding employe information is now extremely difficult at best, if not impossible in most cases. What a loss for historians!

If anyone reads this, what happened to the Perk Branch site? http://charyna.homeunix.com/trains/PerkBranch/ The entire site seems to be down.

The Outer Station DID NOT have employee files stored in it. Also,any OLD-PRE-1930's files were destroyed in the early 1960's at Reading ,Pa. Some of these were donated to different museums at this time. The MP&RE office did have some EMP. applications for employment stored there.Remember,Conrail was in charge of those files and alot went to the trash men BEFORE the RCTHS got wind of it. The O.Sta files that went up in fire were all gone over (picked over)before that fire happened. Everybody thinks so much TREASURE was lost in that fire,but the opposite is true. The BULK of that paper was junk. The Reading Terminal IS where the EMP files were,that data was spread to the four winds. Some might have gone to Conrail,but they arent saying. Corporate policy is to retain files for 50-75 years,no lie! Some, NOT ALL Rdg Terminal data was hauled directly to Buck Mountain in oil- topped-over- paper in gondolas and simply dumped in the hole..... My hope is the stuff that is still extant can be put to good use soon,as 30 some years have passed. IMHO Bob Gottschall

rwk wrote:If anyone reads this, what happened to the Perk Branch site? http://charyna.homeunix.com/trains/PerkBranch/ The entire site seems to be down.

I believe the machine that Alex was running this on has crashed. I've been trying to persuade him to serve the site on a different machine, but he hasn't found the time to do so yet. It was definitely the best site on the Perkiomen Branch, and one of the best arranged line specific sites there was.

In case you haven't heard, the excursions are back this year. They appear to be split into trips from Emmaus and then from Pennsburg.

I kind of wish they they could use cars with windows that open. The air conditioning was nice last year, but it was sort of a clinical, commuter rail experience being closed up in the M&E cars. Oh well, I know that the society doesn't have the roller bearing cars for that. Let alone that R&N is going to "discontinue service" on the Hamburg line, landlocking the equipment anyways....

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PERKIOMEN BRANCH EXCURSIONS

Saturday & Sunday October 3&4 & 10&11 2009

OCT. 3-4 SAT/SUN: RDG FP7 PERKIOMEN BRANCH EXCURSIONS from Emmaus, PA. 1- 1/2 hour round trip from Emmaus through the ¾ mile Dillinger Tunnel. Trains depart 7:30am, 11am, 1pm, and 3pm. The 7:30am train only will go all the way to Pennsburg and return. Tickets: $22 for adults, $12 for children 3-12. No charge for children under 3 sitting on the lap of a paying adult. Individual Parlor Car tickets may be sold if not sold out to groups. To purchase tickets go on http://www.2009Emmaus.org website and print tickets. On site tickets may be available day of rides only if a ride is not sold out. Board at Kline’s Lane. Trains are NOT handicap accessible. If you have special needs please visit the information booth upon arrival. The train can NOT accommodate walkers, wheelchairs, or strollers. Riders should arrive 30 minutes early to allow boarding time for on time departure. Smoking, food and drinks (except for water) are not permitted on the train. No Refunds. No Public Restrooms on the train, there will be portable restrooms at the site. Railroad reserves the right to substitute locomotives.

http://www.2009emmaus.org/trainexcursions.htm


OCT. 10-11 SAT/SUN: RDG FP7 PERKIOMEN BRANCH EXCURSIONS from Pennsburg, PA. 1-1/2 hour round trip. The trips feature the 1798-foot long Dillinger Tunnel and Fall Foliage. Trains depart 7:30am, 11am, 1pm, and 3pm. The 7:30 run each day will be from Pennsburg all the way to Emmaus, a two-and-a-half-hour round trip of 28 miles. All four trips each day will go through the tunnel. The cost is $9.75 for children 12 and under and $19.75 for adults. They will be available by going to the Upper Perkiomen Valley Chamber of Commerce’s web site at http://www.upvchamber.org. Boarding is at Pennsburg Station, Route 663 and Railroad Streets in Pennsburg. Trains are NOT handicap accessible. If you have special needs please visit the information booth upon arrival. The train can NOT accommodate walkers, wheelchairs, or strollers. Riders should arrive 30 minutes early to allow boarding time for on time departure. Smoking, food and drinks (except for water) are not permitted on the train. No Refunds. No Public Restrooms on the train, there will be portable restrooms at the site. Railroad reserves the right to substitute locomotives.


http://www.upvchamber.org/cwo/other/Train

Did the Reading have a seperate station in Emmaus to serve the Perkiomen Branch trains? In old Official Guides, Emaus (as it was spelled in years past) is listed as a Reading station, and the index shows the tables in which to find the station. However, there's no mention of multiple stations. I know that the "Emaus" station on the East Penn line was located west of Emaus Jct.. I highly doubt that the Reading bothered to back in a passenger train from Philly to that station before continuing on to Allentown.
If there was a seperate "station," was it anything more than just a platform and perhaps a shack for a shelter?

The schedules on pages 10, 11, 15, 16, and others of this link give clues that there were 2 stations and no reversing move in 1953.

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/rdg/rdg-ett58.pdf

FUNNY YOU SHOULD MENTION THAT!

Recently, when I was poking around in the Railways to Yesterday library in Allentown, I came across a newspaper article that said that the Reading Emauys station on the Perk was sold to a gentleman who salvaged it for the wood. Those Dutchmen were quite thrifty! It showed a picture of the "station" which was barely larger than a door, and seemed to be not more than a shelter. I believe the article was dated 1948. I'll have to check it out again.

geep39 wrote:FUNNY YOU SHOULD MENTION THAT!

Recently, when I was poking around in the Railways to Yesterday library in Allentown, I came across a newspaper article that said that the Reading Emauys station on the Perk was sold to a gentleman who salvaged it for the wood. Those Dutchmen were quite thrifty! It showed a picture of the "station" which was barely larger than a door, and seemed to be not more than a shelter. I believe the article was dated 1948. I'll have to check it out again.

Thanks geep39 and Jim. Since the time table shows that the Perk branch statoin is 1.8 miles from the junction, I used Google Earth to make an educated guess as to where the station was. It looks like it was locatd at 4th St. and Minor St.
I figured it was nothing more than a shelter, if a building existed at all.

I resurrected my Perk Branch website last week.

You can find it here: http://pawatercooler.com/trains/PerkBranch/

Alex, thank you for bringing your Perk. Br. website online again as well as letting us know. This is wonderful news indeed! :D

Nice site Alex.....thanks!

How about a picture of RDG 2124 pulling a Ramble down the Perkiomen Branch in 1960:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=320175

The caption says that the location is Zionsville, but I think it looks like the bridge right next to Route 29 in Palm/East Greenville, just by Hosensack Road.

Either way, it's a winner!

This is Palm I know that bridge any where. I remeber seeing Reading 2102 going over it in the early 1990's when Reading & Northern ran their trips on the line. Today you almost can't see the bridge for the trees that have grown around it.

Len.

Schuylkill Valley wrote:This is Palm I know that bridge any where. I remeber seeing Reading 2102 going over it in the early 1990's when Reading & Northern ran their trips on the line. Today you almost can't see the bridge for the trees that have grown around it.

Len.

Thanks for verifying my suspicion Lenny. I live under ten minutes from there, and I thought that it looked familiar (especially the odd abutment/pier), but I wasn't totally sure since as you mentioned, there is now a lot of greenery in the area. From the google street view, you can't even see the bridge from Route 29.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 7,,0,-3.34

On that note, I checked out the google street view for where Treichler Road goes under that really low bridge on the Perk Branch. Sure looks like they needed to lower the cameras for that one:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 43,,0,4.34