Hello Everyone...It's been quite some time since I've posted here. Just been spending way too much time on the job working to put wealth in someone else's pocket...for a slowly shrinking paycheck. (we all know how that one works) And dealing with a raging sciatic nerve that has finally calmed down...as a result I haven't been doing a lot of model railroading. Now it's time to get back on that horse.
Thinking of the Reading...in Reading in their final days before Conrail...aside from those railroads that directly connected with the Reading (WM, CNJ, NYC/PC, EL...etc). What other railroads may have had power wandering into the Reading area on occasion. I was 15 in 1976 when Conrail started and didn't get into RR photography till 1978. I simply don't remember any foreign power at all just before 1976.
Just curious more than anything
Mark H

I thought I read or heard somewhere that the D&H had rights on the Lebanon Valley. Maybe someone who is less dumb than me knows something about this.

after the 1972 formation of Chessie System, all three of the railroads units could be seen on the Reading, also Reading units could be seen on the Chessie on lines between Pa. and Chicago.

Don't forget the occasional necessary detour due to accident or natural disaster. I have a picture in my mind of an Erie train on the Reading but don't recall where I saw it. Nay-sayers have a tendency to say this or that never happened, but "Never" is a long time and all it takes is one picture to disprove.

2 different hurricanes in the early to mid 1950's there were detours,
probably if Erie it would be Bloomsburg, and Rupert areas.

Mark,

I Thought this was an interesting question, although I model much earlier, worth looking into. I went off to my "archives" and found some interesting photos to share, along with a specific area of the Reading system to research deeper for your curiosity. The photos I uploaded are as follow,
1) WM 236 4-25-72 on the PH&P branch FD&S Vol.9 No.2
2) CNJ 2504, RDG 3608 9-10-75 Steel City PA on the Lehigh Valley trackage
FD&S Vol.10 No.1&2
3) RDG 3805, B&O 3843 2-26-76 Philadelphia, Train NE 87 FD&S Vol.1 No.3
4) RDG 5210, Chessie 4112, RDG 3623 6-23-73 Port Kennedy Train
Westbound NE 84 FD&S Vol.1 no.3
5) WM 29, RDG Trainmaster 3-5-61 Carlisle Jct FD&S Vol.2 No.3&4

Lastly, don't forget the CNJ, especially in and around the Outer Station, and also Jim Herzog wrote an article as other members mentioned on detour trains. This appeared in the May 2007 issue of RMC. The bottom line in my quest to this answer yielded the PH&P branch is the place to look!

Bill