Reading Seashore Lines, The Pictorial documentary of the Atlantic City Railroad

Description: RailroadTreasures offers the following item: Reading Seashore Lines, The Pictorial documentary of the Atlantic City Railroad The Reading Seashore Lines A Pictorial documentary of the Atlantic City Railroad by Coxey & Kranefeld Soft Cover 2007 168 pages Table of Contents INTRODUCTIONThe Reading Seashore Lines4 CHAPTER 1The Mainline to Atlantic City12 Brigantine Branch72 Baltic Avenue Extension92 Mississippi Avenue Branch93 CHAPTER 2The Gloucester Branch96 CHAPTER 3The Williamstown Branch107 CHAPTER 4The Cape May Branch116 Sea Isle, Beesleys Point and Ocean City Branches142 Stone Harbor Branch158 Wildwood Branch162 STATION INDEX168 Many southern New Jersey towns, including Barrington, Pleasantville and Tuckahoe, have a street named Reading Avenue. These streets were not named after the nearby city in Berks County, Pennsylvania, but rather for the railroad that passed through town. The Reading Company once maintained a state of the art mainline from Camden to Atlantic City with branch lines to all the Cape May County resorts as well as suburban and farming communities in Camden and Gloucester counties. The corporate title of this small but well run operation was the Atlantic City Railroad. Beginning in the 1890s, the Reading also referred to it as "The Royal Route to the Sea" and by 1920 it was called the "Reading Seashore Lines." The Reading was a unique railroad from its beginning in 1833. Unlike most early roads, it was built and sustained by one commodity, anthracite coal, for much of its existence. Eight years before the Philadelphia & Reading's (P&R) charter was granted, the Schuylkill Canal was transporting coal to Philadelphia. The P&R began carrying coal in 1842 and by 1844 the P&R was handling more coal than the canal. Competition from other coal carrying railroads was growing by the late 1860s, so the P&R got into coal mining, and later iron production, to have better control of its destiny. During the 1870s anthracite mines were aggressively acquired along with ships and barges to distribute its coal along the Atlantic coast. With a growing concern that the company was too dependent on anthracite, the P&R began an expansion program to diversify its traffic base. In 1872 the railroad expanded to Williamsport. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) blocked further expansion during this period of intense competition. The PRR had gained access to southern New Jersey in 1871, when it leased the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company, which controlled the West Jersey Railroad. At that time both the Camden & Atlantic (C&A) and narrow gauge Philadelphia & Atlantic City (P&AC) were independently owned. The P&AC was not successful and was forced into receivership in July 1878. William Massey, who had controlling interest in the line as well as being a C&A shareholder, offered his P&AC shares to the C&A. Serious negotiations began in 1881 and the board approved the purchase in May 1882. However, an anti-Massey faction on the C&A board was able to get a court injunction to block the sale in June and then influenced the board to sell the C&A to the PRR, which took control January 1, 1883. The Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) had extended into southern New Jersey in 1879, when it leased the financially troubled New Jersey Southern (NJS). The NJS had interchanged Philadelphia traffic with the C&A until the PRR ended the agreement shortly after they took control. The CNJ then sought to get control of the failed P&AC in March. At the P&AC's September 1883 foreclosure sale, the P&R, which had leased the CNJ in the spring of 1883, purchased the narrow-gauge line for $100,000. The P&R had financially over-extended itself acquiring anthracite properties and was forced into receivership in 1880. The company was reorganized in 1883, but failed again after leasing the CNJ. The company was reorganized in 1888 and a more aggressive administration began a massive expansion program. The most ambitious effort occurred in 1892 when the P&R leased the Lehigh Valley and Jersey Central extending the railroad northwest to Buffalo, New York and then, via control of several connecting railroads, extended the P&R northeast to Portland, Maine. Again the overextended system failed. As part of the 1896 reorganization, the P&R became a subsidiary of the newly formed Reading Company that also held the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company. The creation of a holding company was done to circumvent the new 1874 Pennsylvania constitution that prohibited railroads from owning coal companies. Nevertheless public pressure grew against the Reading's monopoly and federal antitrust proceedings forced the Reading Company to sell their coal and iron businesses. The railroad officially became the Reading Company in 1923 after completion of the government ordered sale. The P&R was the Baltimore & Ohio's entry to New York and New England while it was the New York Central's entry to Philadelphia. These two companies acquired a controlling interest in 1902 and the Reading ceased to be an independent carrier. While most of the Reading System remained tied to the coal trade, it included two high-speed, high-density passenger corridors marked by fierce competition with parallel lines of the PRR, namely, Philadelphia-Jersey City and Camden-Atlantic City. Beginning in the mid 1890s, the profitable P&R used its resources for improvements instead of route expansion. The P&R was a pioneer in signal development with the installation of automatic block signals between Camden and Atlantic City in 1896. Between 1896 and 1911, 44 high-speed Atlantic type locomotives were acquired enabling many fast schedules to be established between Camden and the coastal resorts as well as between Philadelphia and Jersey City. The Atlantic City Railroad (ACRR), the Reading's seashore railroad, ran some of the world's fastest scheduled passenger trains for many years. All pictures are of the actual item. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us. Shipping charges Postage rates quoted are for shipments to the US only. Ebay Global shipping charges are shown. These items are shipped to Kentucky and then ebay ships them to you. 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Price: 100 USD

Location: Talbott, Tennessee

End Time: 2024-10-15T02:29:25.000Z

Shipping Cost: 13 USD