how many divisions were there in the Reading?

i've been told, the only Reading mainline was between Pottsville and Philadelphia, and that every other route was a branch. How many branches were there and what were they?

thanks
greg

a good start would be to check out the Timetables in the Downloads section. There were ALOT of branches.

I think this is a complicated thing to answer. Some of the lines were held as railroad companies, and some were held as branches. I am guessing, although not certain, that a branch was the term used for a line that did not exist as a separate company. It was either contructed by the P&R without creating a separate corporation with issued stock or was a previously existing railroad company that was merged into the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company, the holding company of the P&R, or another railroad company held by the holding company. For example, the Lebanon Valley branch was originally set up as a railroad company (the Lebanon Valley Rail Road Company) with funding from the P&R but was merged into the P&R soon after completion. It then became known as the Lebanon Valley Branch.

The Reading had numerous holding companies: the Excelsior Enterprise Company (1871), the National Company (not sure of date), and then finally the Reading Company (1896). Many of what we would call branches were separate companies held by the P&R or later the Reading Company. At some point, these companies were merged into the P&R or Reading Co.

I hope I got all this right. If not, someone please chime in.

I don't know all about the mergers and mainlines verses branch lines. However the name Reading Company refers to the passenger division of the Reading Railroad and Reading Lines is the freight division of Reading Railroad, this happened sometime in the early 1900's. Passenger engines would mainly have the word Reading on the side and freight engines would have Reading Lines.

The Philadelphia & Reading Railways & Mining Company was busted up by a robber baron sometime between 1890 and 1920, I think that it was J.D. Rockafeller. That was when everything went to different names and companies.

Lee Fritz

would it be easier to figure this out by knowing the locations of the division points or major engine terminals?

The Reading had 3 divisons in the 20th Century. Philadelphia, Reading and Shamokin. There may have been a Catawissa division at one time, but I would need to review more reference material. As far as phillyreading's comments, the Reading was broken up by the Government, but J P Morgan is the primary "robber baron" that is responsible for ending the Reading's attempt to expand to Pittsburgh by acquiring the South Pennsylvania Railroad. FYI the original South Penn right-of-way is now part of the PA Turnpike.