Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad
 | |
 Map of Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad's routes and tracks in the Lehigh Valley and Northeastern Pennsylvania | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Port Clinton, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Reporting mark | RBMN |
| Locale | Lehigh Valley and Northeastern Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Dates of operation | 1983–present |
| Predecessor | Conrail |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 81⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Length | 400 miles (640 km)[1] |
| Other | |
| Website | www |
The Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad (reporting mark RBMN), sometimes shortened to Reading and Northern Railroad, is a regional railroad in eastern Pennsylvania. Its headquarters is in Port Clinton. The RBMN provides freight service on 400 miles (640 km) of track. Its mainline consists of the Reading Division between Reading and Packerton and the Lehigh Division between Lehighton and Dupont. Its main freight cargo is anthracite coal.[2]
Passenger excursions also run on RBMN tracks. The RBMN itself operates excursion service from Reading and Port Clinton to Jim Thorpe, and the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway (LGSR) offers service between Jim Thorpe and Lehigh Gorge State Park.
Main lines[edit]
RBMN operates two main lines:
- Reading Division: Reading, Pennsylvania to Packerton, Pennsylvania, along the Lehigh River:
- The line runs from Reading to Packerton along former Reading Company and Central Railroad of New Jersey lines. At its south end, it connects to the Norfolk Southern Railway's Reading Line; its east end is at the Norfolk Southern's Lehigh Line which parallels the RBMN's Lehigh Division.
- Lehigh Division: Lehighton, Pennsylvania to Dupont, Pennsylvania:
- This line forms a fork from Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, one branch running westerly through Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania and connecting via a junction to Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, or Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and the second branch runs northerly via the Lehigh River Gorge, climbs to Mountain Top, Pennsylvania, with a double track running from there most of the way to Duryea Yard at Duryea, Pennsylvania, and Taylor Yard in Taylor, Pennsylvania, outside Scranton, Pennsylvania.
History[edit]
Beginning[edit]
The Blue Mountain and Reading Railroad was founded in 1983 to provide freight service on the former Pennsylvania Railroad Schuylkill Division between Hamburg and Temple. Starting in 1985, the BM&R began operating passenger excursions over the line using two steam locomotives: ex-Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad 4-6-2 No. 425 and ex-Reading Company T-1 4-8-4 No. 2102. The BM&R also began operating three more state-owned lines, including the Allentown branch and Colebrookdale branch.[3] The railroad also entered into a partnership with the Reading Company Technical and Historical Society, which leased track space in Leesport and in return leased two diesel locomotives and assorted passenger cars for use on the line.
Expansion[edit]
In 1990, the Blue Mountain and Reading took ownership of 150 miles of track located in the Coal Region north of Reading. Shortly thereafter, the company renamed itself the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad and moved its headquarters from Hamburg to Port Clinton.[3] Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the RBMN acquired more lines in northeastern Pennsylvania, primarily of Reading Railroad, Central Railroad of New Jersey, and Lehigh Valley Railroad heritage.
In the mid-1990s, the RBMN discontinued the regularly scheduled passenger operations between Hamburg and Temple and instead focused on occasional excursions throughout the rest of its system. The partnership between the RBMN and Reading Company Technical and Historical Society had more or less ended by this point, but the group still leased track space in Leesport until 2008 when they moved to the Hamburg yard and opened the Reading Railroad Heritage Museum.[4]
Despite the discontinuation of the Hamburg to Temple excursions, steam operations continued. In 1995, No. 425 was present at the grand opening of Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton. No. 425 remained at Steamtown until 1997. Between 1998 and late 2008, all steam operations were suspended.
21st century[edit]
In 2005, regularly scheduled passenger excursions resumed with the introduction of the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway in Jim Thorpe.[5] In December 2016, the RBMN announced that it spent $2 million to build a train station at Pennsylvania Route 61 and Bellevue Avenue in Muhlenberg Township outside Reading, called Reading Outer Station, with plans to operate passenger excursions from there to Jim Thorpe.[6] The first round-trip excursion from Reading Outer Station to Jim Thorpe ran on May 29, 2017. It used refurbished Rail Diesel Cars built by the Budd Company in the 1950s and operated along the Pottsville Line between Pottsville and Philadelphia via Reading until SEPTA discontinued diesel service in 1981.[7]
Between 2009 and 2010, RBMN expanded operations due to the emergence of Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling in northeastern Pennsylvania. The railroad spent $100,000 to update an outdated and lightly used Pittston Yard between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. RBMN also purchased two new locomotives, 101 rail cars, and 6 miles (9.7 km) of track between Monroeton and Towanda, where much of northeastern Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale economic activity is focused.[8]
In 2017, the railroad completed its connections to the Hazleton Shaft and Hazleton Hiller Drying Plant.[9]
In 2019, an audit by the borough of Jim Thorpe revealed the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway owed the borough $90,000 in amusement tax. The Railway fought the tax bill in court, where the judge sided with the borough; the railway appealed the decision, arguing that the tourist railroad was "not an amusement".[10] Company officials threatened to leave the borough of Jim Thorpe,[11] and briefly ceased excursion operations in November 2019. RBMN officials shortly thereafter, negotiated a new agreement with the Jim Thorpe Borough government, and excursions resumed in February 2020.[12][13]
On May 6, 2021, railroad officials announced their purchase of the 19.5-mile (31.4 km) Panther Valley line from Carbon County for $4.7 million.[14]
On April 21, 2022, railroad officials announced their purchase of the property of the former KME Fire Apparatus plant in Nesquehoning for $2 million.[15]