Sample Freight and Passenger Schedules. This section will contain
a few sample freight and passenger schedules as operated by the Reading Company in its final years.
Table 1. Train BH 15 Bethlehem to Rutherford(Harrisburg)
Lv Bethlehem...................1500
AR Reading......................1700 so/pu
Lv Reading.......................1730
Ar Lebanon......................1830 so
Lv Lebanon......................1900
Ar Annville.........................1915 so
Lv Annville.........................1945
Ar Rutherford....................2030
so=indicates set off. pu=indicates pick up.
Makeup of this train:
1.Reading
2.Lebanon
3.Annville
4.Hagerstown and beyond
5.Rutherford and via.
Table 2. Train HB-6. Rutherford to Bethlehem
Lv Rutherford..............................0600
Ar Lebanon..................................0645 pu
Lv Lebanon.................................0730
Ar Reading..................................0830 so-pu
Lv Reading.................................1000
Ar Bethlehem............................1400
Makeup of this train:
1.Reading TOFC
2.Reading and Pottsville Perishables
3.Perkiomen Branch
4.Bethlehem Steel Company Loads
5.Bethlehem Steel Company Empties
6.Bethlehem Branch, including Bethlehem proper.
Table 3. Train NP19 Newberry Jct. to Philadelphia
Lv Newberry Jct..................................1930
Ar Rupert...............................................2130 so-pu
Lv Rupert..............................................2300
Ar Tamaqua..........................................0200
Lv Tamaqua.........................................0230
Ar Reading...........................................0400 so
LvReading...........................................0430
Ar Birdsboro.......................................0500 so-pu
LvBirdsboro.......................................0530
Ar Abrams...........................................0620 so
Lv Abrams..........................................0700
Ar West Falls......................................0730 so
Lv West Falls.....................................0800
Ar Nicetown......................................0810 so
lv Nicetown......................................0830
Ar Fairhill Jct....................................0845 so
Lv Fairhill Jct....................................0905
Ar Port Richmond...........................0915
Makeup for this train:
1.Rupert
2.Misc. B&O
3.Potomac Yard
4.W&N Branch-Wilmington
5.Abrams
6.West Falls
7.Nicetownn
8.Fairhill Jct.
9.Port Richmond
10.PRSL
Table 4. Train PN21 Philadelphia to Newberry Jct.
Lv Port Richmond..................................2030
Ar Nicetown.............................................2045 pu
Lv Nicetown............................................2120
Ar West Falls...........................................2130 pu
Lv West Falls..........................................2200
Ar Abrams...............................................2230 PU
Lv Abrams..............................................2345
Ar Reading.............................................0100 PU Rupert-EL
LvReading.............................................0300
Ar Tamaqua...........................................0430
Lv Tamaqua..........................................0515
Ar Rupert...............................................0630 SO
Lv Rupert..............................................0745
Ar West Milton.....................................0915 PU-SO
Lv West Milton....................................1000
Ar Newberry Jct.................................1100
Make up for this train:
1. Rupert EL
2.Rupert Local
3.West Milton
4.Newberry Jct.-Rdg
5.Newberry Jct.-PC
Schedules taken from Reading Company freight schedule book issued Oct. 1,1970 with updates to 5-30-72.
Summary of Freight Equipment
The following is a breakdown of the roughly 10,000 freight cars the Reading had in operation in
1964, to which nearly 4,000 more freight cars of all types were added during the railroad's final years of independent operation:
1.Boxcars,2722 in five varieties
2.Gondolas,3926, in three varieties
3.Covered Hoppers,1038
4.Open Top Hoppers,2931 in three varieties
5.Cabooses, 144
6.Flatcars, 62 in several varieties
7.Refrigerator cars, 12
Total: 10,,835 freight cars of all types then in operation.
Major Terminals: Port Richmond (Philadelphia),Abrams (King of Prussia),Reading, Allentown, Bethlehem,
Rutherford (Harrisburg). Reading's freight operations comprised over 100 scheduled trains a day, plus numerous extras, and
unit trains, as well as multiple sections of scheduled trains run as needed. The sample freight schedules shown above
represent only four of these trains, each of was generally made up with the delivery at the most distant point on the
train's run next to the caboose, while the first set off was placed directly behind the locomotive. Local cars in the train
were arranged in station order as well.
PASSENGER OPERATIONS
While most of Reading's passenger operations were oriented to the commuter going to and from Reading
Terminal in downtown Philadelphia, the railroad operated a few passenger services that took on the appearance of intercity
passenger services.The Wall Street and Crusader trains, which ran between Philadelphia and Newark,NJ were the better
known of these services. The following is the inaugural timetable of the Wall Street train, which was placed in service
on March 1,1948.
Eastbound Train (Mon.-Sat.)
Lv Reading Terminal..............0740
Lv North Broad Street............0746
Lv Wayne Junction.................0751
Lv Jenkintown.........................0758
Lv West Trenton.....................0818
Lv Belle Mead..........................0835
Ar New York.............................0931
Westbound Train
M-F Sat.
Lv New York......................1630..................1300
Ar Belle Mead....................1729..................1401
Ar West Trenton................1746..................1418
Ar Jenkintown...................1805...................1438
Ar Wayne Junction...........1813...................1445
Ar North Broad Street.......1818..................1450
Ar Reading Terminal..........1824..................1456
This train and its running mate,The Crusader, had a 33 year career of service to its riders, ending in 1981 when both
trains were discontinued and replaced, for a time by a connecting service at West Trenton between SEPTA and NJ Transit
services. The other passenger services that resembled intercity services were those between Philadelphia,Norristown,Reading,
and Pottsville, and between Philadelphia and Bethlehem, which, until 1961 connected with trains of the Lehigh Valley,CNJ-DL&W
trains.Condensed schedules of these two services appear below:
