Thanks Gang for the wonderful information. Very helpful. With regards to the symbol freights that were mentioned (ie XB24, BX3, XB23, PB1 and BP2)..... any comments on the type cars, loadings etc for these trains? Was it all just a mish-mash of cars or predominately one type? Was it predominately fulls in one direction and empties in the other? Was the freight hauled in these trains destined for Bethlehem (northbound) and Philadelphia (southbound)or for other railroads (ie CNJ)? Were these freights run day or night?

Given all the ways to get to Philadelphia and Bethlehem via the RDG there had to be some reason why freight was moved specifically over this line. Ore trains made sense in the it was the most direct route.

Any information on this would be helpful and would allow me to better fill out my waybills for the cars in these trains.

I'm certain that most extras from Pt. Richmond to Bethlehem were primarily ore trains. General Freight from the south, arriving via B&O probably moved to Abrams and was combined with other freight for the XB trains, no doubt loads toward Bethlehem and empties back to Abrams. It was most probably a road local, like RP16/PR14, moving blocks for further shifting by the local/traveling shifter. Just like the Rutherford to Bethlehem train (HB4 or HB8 depending on the timeframe) moved traffic to Saucon which was then distributed by the Bethlehem to Lansdale local.

I have significant movement data for the Reading division in 1967, but not for any part of the Philadelphia Division. Keep looking around.

Also, with regard to the times of trains - as a general rule, the number in the train symbol denotes the departure time of the train - so for example, XB24 would have departed around Midnight.