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  • Symbol Freights on the Bethlehem Branch

  • Discussion Related to the Reading Company 1833-1976 and it's predecessors Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road and then the Philadelphia and Reading Railway.
Discussion Related to the Reading Company 1833-1976 and it's predecessors Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road and then the Philadelphia and Reading Railway.

Moderator: Franklin Gowen

 #1166551  by potamus
 
I was wondering if anyone can give the a list of symbol freights run on the RDG's Bethlehem Branch in the late 60's. I am trying to model the Bethlehem Branch and would like to set-up and name my trains. My search so far has uncovered the following, but I'm not sure the information is right.

Train XB24 - night ore train from Port Richmond to Bethlehem
Train BX33 - early morning empty ore train from Bethlehem to Port Richmond
Train PB-1: Through Freight - no further information or direction?????
Train PB-3: Through Freight - no further information or direction?????
Train ????: Bethlehem Ore extra - day run
Train ????: Local freight

Any help or information would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Potamus
 #1167429  by maddoxdy
 
That's as far as I got, aside from the commuter/passenger trains. I think the local switch job came down from Saucon Yard and worked as far as Telford. Everything below that came up from Lansdale. That is speculation. There is a note in the special instructions "Eastward trains with work to do at Telford, must pull into Telford middle siding from west end and cut train, leaving on the siding that portion of train not required in work to be done; cut shall be made so that after returning for recoupling, entire train will be clear of main track."

HTH,
Doug Maddox
 #1170735  by jrevans
 
In the Lansdale_rails yahoo group, they mention symbol BX330 instead of BX33.

They also mention that:
Local jobs were handled by the Lansdale shifter and the Norristown shifter.
And as per Wayne Toy in the Lansdale_rails yahoo group on 4/26/2006:
After 1967, XB24 ran from Abrams to Saucon via the Stony Creek, while the
return BX330 ran from Saucon to Abrams via Nicetown with a B&O set-off at
Nicetown.

In early CR, BX330 often times terminated at Nicetown.

XB24 dropped incoming freight in Lansdale, while BX330 picked up outbounds out
of Lansdale.

Prior to 1967, PB1 and PB3 ran out of the original North Pennsylvania Railroad terminal at 3rd and Berks Street, Philadelphia to Saucon, with BP2 and BP4 returning.