Little Schuylkill Navigation, Railroad and Coal Company

Little Schuylkill Navigation, Railroad and Coal Company
Locale Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
Dates of operation 1826–1952
Successor Reading Railroad
Track gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length 28 miles (45 km)
Headquarters Philadelphia

The Little Schuylkill Navigation, Railroad and Coal Company (LSRR) was a railway company in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania in the 19th century. The main line ran from Port Clinton to Tamanend, for a total of 28 miles (45 km).

History

The railroad received a charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on February 28, 1826[1]—firmly establishing it as a predecessor of the more famous Reading Railroad which would later acquire its rights and properties. Construction began in 1830; the tracks were constructed with strap iron on wood rails.[2] The LSRR operated between Tamaqua, located at the end of the coal rich Panther Creek Valley and the Port Clinton terminus of the Schuylkill Canal, beginning in 1831 with horse-drawn cars.[3]and later to a rail junction with the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company (famous as the Reading Railroad of the Monopoly board game, founded in 1833). Two steam locomotives were acquired by the railroad in 1833, but the wooden tracks did not support the engines, requiring a resumption of animal powered operations. This over-extended investment nearly bankrupted the young company so it was twelve years later before Iron "T" rails developed on the Camden & Amboy Railroad for the John Bull locomotive in the mid-1830s belatedly replaced the wooden rails in 1845, and the costly English locomotives were then returned to regular service.[2] It completed a junction with the Catawissa Railroad at Tamanend (also called Little Schuylkill Junction) in 1854.[1]

In 1857 the LSRR built a roundhouse in Tamaqua, housing 21 locomotives and a turntable.[4] In 1863 the company was leased by the Reading Railroad for 93 years.[5] It formally merged with the Reading in 1952.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Poor, Henry V. (1860). Poor's History of the Railroads and Canals of the United States of America. New York: John H. Schultz and Co. p. 454.
  2. 1 2 Earl J. Heydinger (1962). "The Little Schuylkill". Bulletin of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society. Railroads of the First and Second Anthracite Coal Fields of Pennsylvania. 108: 19–28.
  3. ↑ Korson, George Gershon (1950). Black Rock: Mining Folklore of the Pennsylvania Dutch. North Stratford, NH: Ayer Company Publishers. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-405-10607-1. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
  4. ↑ Tamaqua Railroad Station - Historical Chronology
  5. ↑ Serfass, Donald R. (2010). Iron Steps: Illustrated History of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. CreateSpace. ISBN 978-1-4515-4765-8. Retrieved 2011-11-05.


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