If you’ve played the board game Monopoly, chances are the Reading Railroad rings a bell. Sandwiched between the tiles for Income Tax and Oriental Avenue, the Reading is the first railroad property you encounter after passing Go. It is named after the Reading Company, a railroad established in 1833 to transport coal from the mines of northeast Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. Over time, it expanded to provide not just freight deliveries but passenger service as well throughout much of eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey (via Wikipedia).
By the early 1970s, as coal mining wound down and passengers more often sought private automobiles over train transport, the Reading Company was facing difficult corporate headwinds. It closed in 1976, merging into Conrail. That same year, however, a group of volunteers came together to try and preserve as much of this historic railroad as possible. In that year the Reading Railroad Heritage Museum was born. The centerpiece of the museum is the train yard, which is now home to over seventy pieces of equipment, including engines, freight cars, passenger cars, and cabooses, all lovingly looked after by an army of dedicated volunteers.
On a cool, rainy Sunday in mid-September, my wife and I clambered into the Acura and set our sights on the town of Hamburg, Pennsylvania to have lunch with family members, and then tour this cool piece of railroad history. Along the way, I’ll also share about a fun sporting event we attended, and give some updates from the garage.
Let’s begin:
The Reading Railroad Heritage Museum
Our destination? The town of Hamburg, a suburb of Reading, Pennsylvania.It was a dismal drive to eastern Pennsylvania, as we encountered a seemingly endless line of showers as soon as we left our house.About ninety minutes after leaving our house, we had arrived in the town of Hamburg. My wife and I noted that many of the small towns in the coal mining regions of Pennsylvania look quite similar to one another.Our first stop was to meet up for lunch with family at Copperz Brewing Co., a family-owned brewery and restaurant.Lunch was excellent! It was fun catching up with our relatives, and the food and drinks were terrific. My wife had the chicken bacon ranch flatbread, served on a gluten-free cauliflower crust.Meanwhile, the town of Hamburg has a “Burger Fest” every Labor Day weekend, and Copperz always enters their burgers into the festival’s “best burger” competition. The burger was excellent – two thumbs up! Also? We’ll definitely need to come back next year for Burger Fest! Fueled up, we said goodbye to our family members and headed across town.We drove only a few minutes before we reached our main event. From the outside, the Reading Railroad Heritage Museum is housed in a nondescript building in a warehouse district.One step into the foyer and we knew we had arrived at the right place. As soon as we paid our modest entry fee ($9 for adults), the cashier asked if we’d like to take a private tour of the rail yard where the museum’s train equipment is only display. As the rain had momentarily ceased, we agreed to the tour.Our tour guide, Keith, showed us around the yard with enthusiasm. Highly knowledgable, he pointed out that these two locomotives were painted in the color scheme reserved for freight trains on the Reading.Black, on the other hand, was used by the Reading Railroad for passenger cars. This EMD FP7, built in 1950, is a diesel-electric engine… in today’s car terminology we might call it a hybrid!Several pieces of equipment had long and storied careers, such as this GP7, which was sold from Reading to a succession of railroads before eventually finding its way to the museum.Keith encouraged us to poke our heads into GP7’s cab. It’s hard to fathom that relatively few controls are needed to move something so massive.Beyond engines, there were numerous other pieces of railroad equipment, such as this 1927 Cafe-Parlor car. While I love automobiles, I do regret being born too late to have experienced the golden age of rail travel, when someone could stroll down the train to a car like this for a meal, a drink, or to socialize with other passengers.Keith took us into a freight car to check out a yard control panel that once operated in Reading. When trains roll into a station, the engineer driving the train can relax, because that is when the yardmaster gets to work. A yardmaster controls the movement of trains, connecting engines with freight or passenger cars, directing some trains to side tracks for maintenance while others are sent off to their next destination.We asked Keith what kinds of qualifications would be needed to be a yard master. “A college degree wasn’t required, but you got lots of on-the-job training, and needed to have excellent attention to detail.”The museum has one piece of equipment from the age of steam locomotives. Once coal was no longer the primary power source for trains, this coal tender was repurposed as a rolling water tank for passenger trains to supply the cars with water.Longtime readers will know that my favorite part of a train is the caboose. This Northeastern-style caboose was open for tours, and Keith had barely finished asking if we wanted to step inside when I raced up the stairs.The caboose served two roles. First, it offered basic accommodations to train crew when they needed to stop and rest during a long journey. Second, it allowed the conductor, who oversaw the train’s operations, to keep an eye out for problems along the length of the train (most especially fire). Modern sensors have made the caboose obsolete, but my inner-7-year-old would love to stay in a caboose overnight.This MU Power Car is an all-in-one operation. Designed to run along electrified commuter lines outside of Philadelphia, this passenger car requires no engine to pull it – it gets all the juice it needs from overhead cables.The museum has willing volunteers, but there is only so much time, money, and energy to go around. Numerous cars await refurbishment. Keith noted that there is a plan for every single car in the museum’s possession to be restored, but that process takes time. One day, this passenger car will return to its former glory.EMD NW2, #103, is the only currently-operational locomotive in the museum. Its job is to move cars around the rail yard, including into the large building in the background where the locomotives, cars, and cabooses are painstakingly restored to their original glory.After our tour, we visited the museum and learned more about the Reading Railroad, along with rail travel in eastern Pennsylvania more broadly.I appreciated how the museum had this yard control console from the Lebanon Valley Junction station set up to look like it was waiting for the yardmaster to begin their next shift.Trains are truly huge pieces of machinery. This side marker light, which looks tiny on a train, was surprisingly massive up close. It’s easy to lose perspective on just how big railroad equipment can be.And, of course, what railroad museum is complete without a working model train set? After an enjoyable few hours, it was time to head back home.The drive back to New Jersey was a slog. Fog replaced rain as our primary obstacle, making our route along I-78 less than ideal.Seemingly impervious to inclement weather, the TLX got us home safely, as always.
College Football!
Despite living near Shi Stadium (home of the Rutgers University football team) for the past 9 years, I had never attended a Rutgers football game. We decided to fix that.Parking near the stadium is minimal, so on game day the university utilizes its fleet of buses to transport fans to the game from distant lots. The routes to bus stops are well-marked, easy to follow, and the buses are safe, convenient, and free.We joined the hordes of fans walking to the game through the Rutgers Boardwalk, which features carnival rides, food vendors, live music, and other festivities for several hours prior to kickoff.We had a blast! Rutgers was playing a vastly superior team in the University of Southern California, and while Rutgers did not win, they came very, very close to stealing a victory. It made for a fun afternoon!Equally entertaining was the halftime show, featuring the Rutgers Marching Band, Cheerleaders, and Dance Team.These are some seriously talented young people!As we walked to catch the bus for our ride back to the Jeep, I thought back to the last time I visited Shi Stadium during the heart of the pandemic. On a Saturday afternoon when football should have been played, I instead parked my car in front of the main gate, with no one in sight as far as the eye could see. I’m glad those days are behind us.Six years ago, almost to the weekend. Fast forward to this visit, and the same space where my car once sat was filled with throngs of fans coming to watch the game.
Garage Updates
The first update is an automotive one. After over 60,000 miles of excellent service, I removed the well-used Nokian WR G4 tires and replaced them with a set of… (drum roll please)… Nokian WR G5 tires!These are the same tires we put on my wife’s Jeep Grand Cherokee last winter, and they proved capable of handling any winter weather we threw at them. Here’s hoping I have just as good luck with the set on my car as well!And last, but certainly not least, September 29 marked one year since we adopted Mikko. He’s been a ball of energy, fun, and love, and we are so glad to have him in our home. And yes… he’s kind of a big deal.
Wrapping Up
If you are a train enthusiast, the Reading Railroad Heritage Museum is well worth a visit. It is open Saturdays from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm and Sundays from 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm. Admission is quite affordable – $9 for adults, $8 for seniors ages 65+, children ages 5-12 are $3, and children under 3 enter for free. Better yet, stop at Copperz for a burger, and then check out the museum!
Thanks, as always, for coming along on another journey down the open road ahead.
Happy gotcha day to Mikko!
That looked like a cool museum for big kids like us to visit. Thanks for sharing the pictures.
It’s a really cool museum, staffed by some super-dedicated volunteers. Thanks for reading!!