Doing some snooping I came across this: http://www.readingrdi.com/ Turns out after 1976 only the railroad ceased to exist but some abandoned lines continued to be owned. I see some serious preservation that could be done here with the publicity files and, should there ever be a reason, some old branches could be preserved assumning they don't get sold.

This is a link to a DVRPC document that inventories the rail properties in NJ/PA
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... hA&cad=rja

May help you identify some lines for you

It reminds me of how the venerable New York & Harlem RR still existed on paper until as recently as 2006 (!) as a subsidiary of American Premier Underwriters (formerly known as Penn Central) and owned 156 miles of former NYC right of way in New York State including Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. They finally sold out to Andrew Penson's Midtown Trackage Ventures LLC, and the New York & Harlem was dissolved after 174 years of corporate existence. (The property has since been transferred to an entity called Argent Ventures LLC, which leases it all to Metro North.)

-Philip Marshall

A bit of the former Wilmington & Northern branch was owned by this company. It is my understanding that it has been sold to the company currently operating the line.

It is interesting to see these "afterlife" railroad companies, especially when they still own assets of the former railroad. For a while Reading International was using the Reading Crusader logo. The Penn Central, Milwaukee, Rock Island and RF&P all had post railroad companies that lasted quite a long time. The Erie Lackawanna lasted for about 15 years, but only to manage its claims against the USRA and to sell its real estate.

With regards to the New York & Harlem, I was a shareholder until we were bought out. Near the end the successor company to American Premiere Underwriters owned something like 95% of the stock so the vote was a certainty.

There are still a handful of these interesting leased lines still out there. I still own stock in the Allegheny & Western (CSX/G&W), Dayton & Michigan (CSX), and the Mobile & Birmingham (NS). Then there are these Southern Railway/Mobile & Ohio stock trust certificates that pay a dividend (now from NS) but in theory can be surrendered for an equal amount of M&O stock (now worthless!).

There is also the peculiar case of the Wiscasset & Quebec RR in Maine, of which I'm a shareholder. Chartered in 1854, it later became the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington two-footer. More than 80 years after abandonment in 1934, the original W&Q still exists and owns large sections of right of way, including some unbuilt portions going north of Albion toward Burnham, and also toward Farmington on the proposed FS&K connection to the Sandy River RR. It leases a small piece in Alna to the WW&F Railway Museum.

The W&Q is said to be the second oldest corporation in the state of Maine.

-Philip Marshall

Had some time on my hands found the following
- Montgomery County lists 63 "properties" owned by Reading Railroad (reading International), many are next to active rail lines or land locked parcels of no value.
- One in Hatboro PA off Byberry road is 8' wide by 20' and has no tax assigned as an example.
Seems they are trying to give this away !
- Viaduct Reading Company (Pennsylvania) - reference old Reading Company Viaduct in center city. "What’s more, Reading International Inc., the California-based movie theater and real estate company that is the descendant of the Reading Railroad, wanted to give the city between $2 million and $3 million to take the property off its hands, say veteran economic development professionals who were with the city's Commerce Department at the time. "

“The reason why nothing’s been developed is it is owned by the Reading company still,” said Andy Toy, who was the city’s first brownfields coordinator and worked at Commerce for 15 years, handling real estate transactions, zoning issues and sheriff’s sales. “It’s a liability for them.”
Also found the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad with a number of "parcels" did not even try to look any up.

I worked in the Engineering Department of the Reading Company from 1972 up until Conrail. In the last few months before April 1, 1976, there was a great flurry of activity to determine what lands would be transferred to Consolidated Rail Corporation and what would remain with the Trustees appointed by the bankruptcy court. The Trustees actively pursued retaining as much non-operating real estate as possible, even along mainlines and branch lines that USRA was transferring to Conrail, particularly any parcels that had billboards on them. The 8’ x 20’ parcel mentioned above was probably a billboard. At least initially, these real property assets were held in the name of Eastern Real Estate Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Reading Company.

/s/ Larry
Lawrence G. Lovejoy, P.E.
Reading Company Employee #91436

These properties are supposed to be put up for sale (in 2017?)

Dave