I came upon this and I'm not really sure what it means aside from passenger trains from the museum in Hamburg can't run for now.

http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=151304

If I'm not mistaken, this is the former original (1983) Blue Mountain & Reading short line, the one that later evolved into the excursion operation with 425, 2102, and PRR E8's.

The extraordinary irony of this, at least for the Reading Co. T&HS, is that this is a former PRR line............

Since there are no customers on the line, if I were the museum I would start thinking about where to get the money to buy the line if ultimately the R&N files to abandon it.

Which goes back to my original point: This is an ex-PRR line, as I recall. Now, the RCT&HS may be lucky enough to have that museum yard/etc. in Leesport, and it may well be close enough to Reading and I-78/etc. for adequate patronage...... but wouldn't it be not quite part of the "mission statement" for the RCT&HS to be buying a former PRR line?

The RCT&HS has a reasonably good relationship with the Reading & Northern, it appears. Has anyone in the RCT&HS examined whether the Leesport location should be considered permanent, or whether it should be considered a staging area for an eventual move to Port Clinton, Tamaqua, or elsewhere on Reading trackage? Maybe a lease of the Leesport-Hamburg line may be more appropriate?

[quote="Alexander D. Mitchell IV"] Has anyone in the RCT&HS examined whether the Leesport location should be considered permanent? Maybe a lease of the Leesport-Hamburg line may be more appropriate?[/quote]

RCT&HS has been moved out of the Leesport location (after over 21 years there) as part of moving everything to Hamburg.

A lease or purchase of some portion of the line by RCT&HS would be the logical next step . . . hopefully not too far in the future.

As far as a RDG museum being on a PRR branch: it was a tough pill to swallow. It took nearly 20 years of trying to establish something in one of the RDG Shops (in the city), then an exhaustive search for a location that met criteria. The Hamburg ex-foundry site was chosen, due in part to the host RR's promise of good working relationship . . .

Not to sound sarcastic or anything, but did anyone really READ what was said?

They are discontinuing service on the section of line in question, in turn for storage space for storage of cars which equal income. If the line is clogged up with cars and a customer suddenly appears out of no where for service between two said locations, the Railroad then has to move all stored cars to get to said customer.

More time and more money than worth, for maybe one or 2 cars. But so long as the line is in "active" status, they have to provide service.

Filing a petition to discontinue service does not spell end to the line, in fact it prolongs its laid out existance. Think EBT.

This is just a common sense move. Sucks for the RCT&HS, but they knew this from the beginning that they did not own the line...and all signs have pointed that the R&N wanted [their] equipment off the line so R&N could store cars.


I would HIGHLY doubt the R&N would sell the line anytime soon. Too much EASY money to be made while the economy takes it's toll on the National Railroads.

Yes, I agree that the line is not going to be torn up tomorrow or even next year. Some day the economy will recover and the stored cars will go away. Unless one of the locations of the former customers is sold to someone who wants rail service (unlikely) there will continue to be no freight customers. There aren't any new locations available to locate a new customer and frankly why would the R&N attempt to attract someone to a dead end stub away from most of their service? There are plenty of places the R&N will show to a potential shipped and this line isn't one of them. So what happens when the price of scrap metal goes up or there is a need for rail somewhere else on the system? If I am a museum that hopes to have operations, or at least are connected to the outside world then I would be think up contingency plans.

...and it does make sense for the museum to come up with a plan. But already, people are spelling it out like its the end forever and the museum is up the creek now.

The filing in question can be found on the STB website, Docket Number: AB_996_2_X :

http://www.stb.dot.gov/filings/all.nsf/ ... 225497.PDF