Greetings all,
I've been a member of this site for a number of months but this is my first posting. I am a native of Reading, (Laureldale...actually...one block from what was the hill track)I've been living in northern Nevada since 1994. A little over 3 years ago, I returned to model railroading after a long hiatus. With my layout...now 14x19x13, I want to bring Reading and the Reading into Nevada. I remember the Reading and their operations quite well...growing up along the hill track in the sixties up to the formation of Conrail. My dilemma now is finding photos of the city dating in the 60's and early 70's. My intention is to model(loosely)a small area of Reading outside center city. I've tried a long list of online sources Berks HS, Shorpy, travel sites, etc. not much luck. I found lots of photos homes for sale, plates of food and motel/hotel rooms but not too much of the old look of Reading.
Any thoughts...suggestions to image oriented web sites? Sadly, with as many photos as I have from my life in the Reading area...I have no photos of my own of the city.

Mark Hoffman

Welcome Mark,

Hopefully you have found some photos and documents on the site that are useful. Depending on what in particular you are looking for a specific request could generate some results. i.e. You are looking for photos of the Wernersville station of the Schuylkill River Bridge at Valley Junction.. etc., etc.

If you are on Facebook, amazingly some really interesting things show up. For example the is a group called "Where in Reading/Berks is this?" where people post pictures and everyone tries to guess where or what it is. There has been some really neat items, including newspaper photos posted. Also a group called "Friends of the Reading Railroad" There is also a Facebook extension of this "Reading Modeler" site.

Rob

BTW Mark, I spent a lot growing up time in that section of Laureldale myself as my cousins lived on Elizabeth Ave. in the block just west of the Hill. We watched the new bridge get built over the tracks and used the area from the cemetery to the playground to Sterner's as a giant playground.

Rob

Hi Mark,

To add to what Rob said, two other Facebook groups that might add to your search are "Go ReadingBerks" and "Our Time, Our Story, Our City". They arent railroad specifically oriented but the Reading / Berks County area in general. I think you'll find a number of people here familiar with your neck of the woods. Both my parents are Muhlenberg alums.

I like this!
I'm a 1979 grad of Muhlenberg and lived two streets east of the bridge on Elizabeth Ave., Marion St to be specific. I can't begin to count the number of trains I saw on the hill while going to and coming home from school at that time. I remember the telltales at the bridge till about 1973 or 74.
I bailed from Facebook not too long ago...just way too much BS.

I'm finding these days that the more I research the look of Reading from the past, the more I am remembering the look. One image I found via Wikipedia showed a tremendous latitude of building styles from Victorian to contemporary within a few blocks. The view was taken from the Abe Lincoln at the upper floors looking north. The difficulty is finding street views. I have a few good ones of Penn St at different times. I think the views I'm looking for more so, would be along N 5th St where many of the small mom and pop businesses could be found.
I'll continue looking, but if anyone has any leads on sites with some good photos...please let me know.

Mark

You can try wwww.goreadingberks.com