This view of the Pennsylvania Railroad Yard and Freight House in Reading is a Craig Bossler photo that was shared by John Hall (from his father's collection). In this pre-Hurricane Agnes view, taken from the Penn Street Bridge, we can see a variety of PRR motive power, including the center-cab Baldwin locomotives that used to serve the line to Pottsville, along with Alco switchers and road switchers. There's also an old steam locomotive tender at extreme right. You can also see the block of row houses in back of the freight houses that is visible in other photos in this album, as well as a great view of the north and west sides of the Wertz Warehouse. Finally, Reading Hardware can be seen toward the upper left of the photo, so if you follow the tracks from directly behind the PRR Freight House, you can get an understanding of the topography of the West Reading Branch.

This photo was taken from the Bingaman Street Bridge near the southern end of the branch, and shows the old Anchor Hotel, with Berks Packing directly behind it. This view would be looking roughly northeast, with Hopper Paper/Georgia Pacific to the left, and the UGI Yard and Reading Hardware to the right. Where the hotel sits is presently the middle of Second Street as it runs under the bridge. Photo Courtesy Berks Packing Co.

This black and white view of the Spruce Street Yard was provided by John Funk, long time Reading and Conrail yardmaster. The Freight House at right is in better condition, and we can see that there were several tracks on either side of the building. Also, take note of the buildings on the west side of the yard at the left of the photo - in later years this was all replaced by more modern warehouse-type buildings. Finally, the small building at the extreme right of the photo is Altman's Feed.  A better view of this building can be found elsewhere in the photo album.

In this view provided by John Funk, we catch a glimpse of the complex trackwork that was common along the West Reading Branch, as the Reading and PRR tracks intersected and crossed each other in this area. Also, note the bumpers on the end of the yard tracks at right, and the fact that from this location north to Penn Street (you can see the Penn Street Bridge in the far background), it
appears to have been in-street running. In later years this street was removed as can been seen in some other photos in this album.

Moving north past the Yard, we are moving closer to Penn Street and the PRR station/freight house. This view also includes an exceedingly rare shot of the south wall of Wertz Warehouse in its heyday - later photos show only the remaining framework of the water tank, and most phots are looking south from the PRR yard and show the north side of the building. Oritsky's suite factory and Hodges Bedding are at the extreme right.

This close up photo of the area around Wertz Warehouse shows that the building was serviced via a track into the area obscured by the roll-up door. John relates that cars were also unloaded at the north end of the building, presumably off the track that runs through the center of the photo. The mixture of roadbed and in-street trackage along this section of the line makes for an interesting contrast in scenery.

This view is looking northbound along Front Street, with Court Street intersecting and heading east behind the Stichter Hardware building in the right of the photo. the long building parallel to Court street in the upper right corner of the photo also belonged to Stichter, and the West Reading Branch is the track that curves from the center of the photo off to the right. The branch ran through a cut between the rear Stichter Hardware building and Schindlebeck's coal yard's elevated trestle (there are photos of that area later in this album); a Reading hopper can be seen on the trestle in the upper right of the photo. The tracks curving off to the left are the Reading's original Schuylkill and Lehigh Branch, which followed the river north past Dana, and Carpenter,
eventually heading up through the rural part of the county to its terminus at Slatington.

Bill Weand ran across this OLD photo of the Spruce Street Freight house in its heyday. Compare this view with the following picture from the 1970s. By the 1950s-1960s, the freight house was no longer used to service customers - all LCL deliveries were handled by the 8th Street Freight House. A team track was in place for loading and unloading, and a few yard tracks were rented out to Textile Chemical.

This is a view of the Spruce Street Freight House. This appears to be of the south end of the building looking north. The building is closed and falling into disrepair. The Reading's Second Street Branch originally ran behind this building and continued northward on South Second Street.