Reading and Later Operation
The Reading briefly considered a revival of the project in 1869, but on May 1, 1869, it obtained a lease of the East Penn. This road would become a permanent part of the Reading system, and the Allentown Railroad's plants were negated forever. The Reading did lay rail on a small segment of the grade from the East Penn at Topton to reach Kutztown, a branch opened on January 10, 1870 or 1871. The Allentown Railroad remained a corporate entity in the Reading system until it was merged in on December 31, 1945 to simplify the corporate structure of that railroad and to save on taxes, as with a series of other mergers the next year. The line survived the bankruptcy and breakup of the Reading: it is now owned by the Kutztown Transportation Authority and operated by Penn Eastern Rail Lines, Inc.
A portion of the grade from Trexlertown to Breinigsville was used by the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad to build a branch to local limonite deposits. This line, too, eventually came under Reading control. Finally, the Reading used a short segment of the right-of-way in Allentown itself to reach a Mack Truck plant in 1917.
Read more about this topic: Allentown Railroad
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