A new effort is underway to explore options for actively preserving SEPTA's Fox Chase-Newtown line, which shutdown January 1983 and has not been maintained since. The line is currently in an overgrown state with the exception of crossings.

The organization sponsoring the preservation effort is the Newtown Branch Preservation Foundation (http://www.newtownfoundation.org). I am one of the members of the group and am seeking advice/support on how to advance such an effort.

The group is going to form as a 501c3, and is currently trying to open discussion with SEPTA, Bucks County and Montgomery County. Starting last fall, about 25 volunteers went out on the line and cleared brush off a 1/8 mile section of the line in Southampton using household gardening tools. For being inactive over 30 years, that part of the line appears to be in good shape.

The crux of the plan is to obtain permission/rights to clear the rest of the line, maintain the vegetation, document and preserve railroad artifacts (such as signal towers, cantelivers, track and bridges), make parts of the line available for guided walking history tours. The long range goal, many years down the road, is to operate a short scenic trolley between Southampton Station and the township park, about 2 miles. Beyond that, if funding were available, more of the line could be opened to a full blown heritage operation, and possibly freight service. The group would seek to have the line designated a national historic landmark because of various events that happened throughout the line's history.

If anyone has been involved with similar efforts, I'd like to hear from you. The group is trying to learn as much as possible in dealing with the line's owner, the various townships, NIMBYs, funding, grants, etc.

Good luck with your plans, but how does your 501c3 proposal and freight service go together?

Wes

Several not for profits operate freight service along with there passenger operations. The Wilmington & Western in Delaware does. Do you perceive a problem with this? I believe this has been discussed here before if you care to search the Interchange.

Mike Tillger

Mike -

The Indiana Railway Museum out of French Lick, Indiana owns the entire 33 mile ex-Southern Railway branch between French Lick and Huntingburg. The common-carrier Dubois County Railroad was set up and is owned by IRM and operates on the south portion where the freight business is located. IRM operates their regular tourist trains on the north portion. There is some special train operation now on the south end, mostly out of Jasper, Indiana which is just north of Huntingburg.

Les

If I learned anything from the "save the depot" campain in East Brookfield, you will need more than a few people who like your plan. You need to be able to unite the majority of the community. While we did get people to rally behind us, we had the minority in town, and the Board of Selectman was a bit skeptical to the outcome, so they didn't come out and say they wanted to see the depot saved. If anything, they viewed us as people spewing utter nonsense, shooting down Amanda Lambert (Dan's wife, and originator of our initial plan) her sister, Heather Messier. But the concern presented by the Board at town meetings when the depot was brought up was the safety factor in the intermediate time (if we had succeeded) between aquiring the depot, disassembling the components, and rebuilding the structure. So, in short:
1) Unified majority of support
2) Reach a common consensus with the local government(s)
3) Gather a small, dedicated group of individuals to assist (something I'm assuming you already have) in all the details, no matter how big or small
4) Know the people you work with. I view one of the greatest successes of a railway preservation group in being the tight-knit group of volunteers and friends they forge over the years.

I wouldn't worry about the "considering freight" comment. That's a fairly typical comment from someone who is basically out to save the line or do something useful with it, but hasn't decided what yet. They'll get a lot clearer once they see the Tourist Railroad Guidelines... and it becomes abundantly clear that you're either going to run freight, or make a volunteer-run tourist line work, exclusively. You want to look at Ind.RM and TVRM, but you need to go and actually look at them. Notably the non-retiree crew who is working on a weekday.

Fundamentally what this group is about is preserving the line; which is an ideal role for a 501c3, a bit like the NWP Historical Society, Friends of East Broad Top etc. I would advise staying in touch with those other groups which you have so much in common with. Better to learn from their mistakes than waste precious resources repeating them.

Normally I say "own it", but in this case SEPTA owning it is fine. That will help with the NIMBY problems, of which you'll have many.

You need to be in sync with the other groups involved in advocacy for the branch. It sounds political.

I consider reactivation of the branch for commuter service to be a foregone conclusion given the long term trends in petroleum supply. The only question is when. The better you do to prepare for that, the sooner and cheaper it will be. When you hang trolley, talk to SEPTA about how to build it. It's cheaper to build a 600V trolley for 25,000V than retrofit (which is basically impossible). It's likely that SEPTA would help, at least with materials, because they would have a vested interest in you doing it right. It is also correct for the line, if it was ever electrified. Restoring accurate trolley is a specialty of the Western Railway Museum, I'd talk to Chris Pagni who also happens to know a great deal about modern high voltage catenary.

I'd also worry about resolving that diamond crossing at Bethayres. That is a deal-breaker especially if you electrify. The nearby bridges make that a rather expensive problem to solve.

This line was never electrified. It fell victim to SEPTA's retreat from diesel operated service in the early 1980's. I seem to remember seeing a good part of the RDC fleet in storage in Newtown Square back in the early 1980's (just last week eh?).

I don't have a problem with it, nor do I donate to private business's. However I do donate to museums/ preservation groups. Try not to blur the line. If I can make a distinction, I'm sure others will too.

Good luck,
Wes

A museum operates a mail-order book store, gift shop, restaurant or snack bar to help the bottom line. Many would say that moving a few freight cars is not much different from a business standpoint. It is a small portion of the whole and the money still flows back to the non-profit and supports the overall mission. Additionally if there is a small amount of freight moving it can help with getting grants.

Tom,
You put into words, my thoughts.
Thanks,
Mike Tillger

Keep your freight operation separate from the museum/ tourist operation if possible. I don't believe there is any reason why a non- profit can't own a for-profit division (just like the gift shop, etc.) as long as there is a clear line drawn and all tax rules are met.

It could perform the group's passenger operations under contract, ensuring a consistent quality of operations and somewhat more streamlined reporting.

Bear in mind I'm in Canada and although our laws are very similar, they do vary in detail from the US laws. Get the appropriate legal and financial advice and you'll be OK.

Best of luck with your project.

Steve Hunter

Here are a few photos along the route:

Huntington Valley


Bryn Athyn


Southampton


Southampton


Churchville


Churchville


Holland


George School


Wish I had taken the opportunity to ride this line prior to SEPTA's decision to
abandon it. Located northeast of Philadelphia, it's an incredibly scenic route one
would never assume you were traveling between densely populated locations.


As a caption for this photo, I wrote a rather interesting story of the line's history:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=325689

Let me tell you about a line called the SEPTA R8, the line that almost became a main line from Philadelphia to NYC. The line was chartered as the Philadelphia and Newtown Railroad in 1860 and opened on June 14th, 1876, between Newtown, PA (just NE of Trenton, NJ) and Newtown Junction in NE Philadelphia. Hoping to end a feared monopoly of Phila. to NY traffic by the expanding PRR, the line is renamed as the Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad in 1873. In 1879 the line failed and came under control of the North Pennsylvania Railroad which, at one point, comes under control of the PRR in an effort by the PRR to thwart competition of it's monopoly on Philly to NY traffic gained when it leased, on December 1, 1871, the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company. That line included the original Camden & Amboy Railroad from Camden, NJ (across the Delaware River from Philadelphia) to South Amboy, NJ (across Raritan Bay from New York City), as well as a newer line from Philadelphia to Jersey City, NJ, much closer to New York, via Trenton, NJ. In 1874 the North Pennsylvania approved the construction of the Delaware River Branch, splitting from the main line at Jenkintown (near Philly) and running to the Delaware River at Yardley (Near W.Trenton). With this move, a new route to NY was eminent and the PRR no longer had a need for it's line and consequently the Reading Company gained control of both the line and the North Pennsylvania Railroad. In doing so, the Reading gained access to the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad in 1879. Later, in 1901 the Reading gained a controlling interest in the Central Railroad of New Jersey thereby allowing it to offer seamless rides from Reading Terminal in Philadelphia to the CNJ's Jersey City Communipaw Terminal by way by way of a new N. PRR line from Philadelphia to Yardley, PA (near Trenton, NJ and now part of the SEPTA R3 and CSX's Trenton Line). On January 14, 1983, 107 years of rail service between Newtown and Center City Philadelphia ends due to SEPTA's insistence that traffic does not warrant keeping the line in service . If you have corrections or further questions, I'm in room 17 of the psychiatric ward... Caution; further research may lead the mind to oblivion, however - it may be worth it. Hope you enjoyed the ball of yarn I've unraveled!

/Mitch

On the tax issue i care not what 'many' would say, i care what irs says.
You could goose it past the irs by interpreting the freight mixed freight. Except--

On the freight issue, likewise but the fra. They don't goose so easy.
Running a little bit o freight is like being a little bit pregnant.
Fra has made their position clear. Trouble is people dont read it.

I really wish the term "nonprofit" would die a long overdue death. 501(c)(3) 's are tax-exempts or charitable organizations (TE/CO), even if some insist on perpetuating the myth of the "non-profit" as an imprimatur of nobility.

The confusion arises because the IRS and state regulators of CO's generally have as an organizational and operation requirement of obtaining and maintaining charitable/tax-exempt status a prohibition on individuals profiting from the operation of the business. The IRS uses the term "prohibited inurement" to describe such impermissible returns to INDIVIDUALS.

That does not mean the organization should not be run profitably. While there are limits to how much a TE/CO can earn from business activities, any business activity not within the scope of the "exempt purpose" can is distinguished and accounted for as "Unrelated Business Income" and the appropriate tax is paid, just as if it were earned by any run-of-the-mill corporation.

Nonprofit may be a common misnomer, but it sure isn't a recipe for success.

Robert,
Your post is clear as mud. Follow the rules and you will stay out of trouble, no rule says a nonprofit can not operate a freight train. Neither the IRS or FRA has a rule that prohibits it.

Superheater, Stop thinking only in terms of accounting, this is a forum on preservation and there are non-profits and for-profit organizations involved, that is the context we use the terms in.

Mike Tillger