THE PHILADELPHIA, READING AND NEW ENGLAND.

This company is a consolidation, under the auspices of the Phila. & Reading, of the Central New England and Western RR. and Poughkeepsie Bridge companies, which were consolidated in July, 1892, after having been in the hands of receivers for some time. By securing control of these companies--the management being vested pro forma in the Philadelphia and Bound Brook Railway Co.-the Reading commands the only unbroken rail connection between the anthracite coalfields and New England. The company owns 58 and leases 120 miles, and the first mortgage bonds are guaranteed by the Reading. The following has been published with regard to the reorganisation:

"The plan contemplates the surrender of the present securities and the creation of new obligations on the joint railroad and bridge properties. The new first mortgage bonds are guaranteed, principal and interest, by the Philadelphia & Reading Company, and the new issue of securities will be as follows:

Over $17,000,000 is said to have been expended on these properties, and when the lines now in course of construction are completed they will afford connection in New England with the New York, New Haven & Hartford at several points, the New York & New England, the Housatonic Railroad, the Naugatuck Railroad, the Boston & Maine Railroad, the Connecticut, and the Boston & Albany."

CHAPTER XIX.

THE PHILADELPHIA AND READING SYSTEM.

Even before it gained control of three other important coal roads, the Philadelphia & Reading was one of the most notable systems of the United States, and since the consummation of one of the most gigantic combinations ever conceived it has attained what is undoubtedly a national importance. Controlling both the production and the transportation of a commodity upon which more than upon any other the industrial greatness of the East depends, this system would be of exceptional significance even if it did not possess other features which, for almost half a century, have kept it prominently before the public.

The Reading was projected to carry coals from the anthracite coal basin in Schuylkill County to tidewater in Philadelphia. The modest line originally contemplated was little over a hundred miles long, but by degrees it grew into a system embracing over 8,000 miles of track; and although the range of its operations was extended simultaneously with its mileage, the Reading continues to devote itself chiefly to the mining and transportation of coals. But it no longer carries them exclusively to its original terminus on the Delaware; it has its own lines to Philadelphia, New York, and New England, and its own terminals on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario; it made arrangements for through traffic with the Erie, the New York Central, and the Baltimore and Ohio, and owns floating equipment and depots in almost every important centre of the East; it mines the greater part of

the coal it carries, and has a passenger service on some parts of its system as excellent and on others as proportionately important as can be found anywhere in the States. In short, the Reading system of to-day represents over $500,000,000 of capital, employs 100,000 men, and in local importance excels by far any other railroad in the East.

The entire system consists of the following parts:

Phila. & Read. RR. Lines owned

proper:

327 miles.

Lehigh Valley RR. Lines owned and leased.

system: (leased by Ph. & R.) Delaware, Lackawanna & Western

(controlled by owners of

3,944

Total length of lines owned, leased and controlled by Ph. & Reading....

In the chapter preceding this details relating to the leased systems are given, so that for the present we need only describe the Reading proper. This consists of a large number of small lines, the longest of which, the main line from Philadelphia to Reading, is but 98 miles in length, and the entire system is divided into 44 separate lines, of which 10 are owned, 19 leased, and 15 controlled of the total 445 miles have double track and 728 single, and the total length of all lines, reduced to single track and inclusive of sidings, amounts to 2,460 miles. Most sections are provided

with steel rails, which on the main lines are of the heaviest type, on branches of lighter weight; while some feeders and sidings have iron rails. The railway is in good condition throughout; indeed, a certain part of it, the main line from Philadelphia to Bound Brook, which is connected with Jersey City, is commonly regarded as the best piece of track in the country; as mentioned before (p. 114) several records. have been made on this division. Yet it cannot be said that the Reading, on the whole, creates a very favourable impression, no matter at which point we see it; especially in Philadelphia it looks far from perfect. In that city it runs through a number of anything but inviting streets, the rails resting on the level ground like those of a tramway. The stations might most appropriately be called sheds, and are by no means in keeping with the requirements of such an important passenger line. They point to the regrettable fact that passenger traffic has long been neglected and does not flourish. With the goods terminus, however, it is different, and at Port Richmond, on the Philadelphia river front, the road possesses superior accommodation in vast yards, covered with tracks, sheds, and sidings, while there are excellent means for the conveyance of coals and merchandise to the water's edge. As to the passenger accommodation in Philadelphia, its inferiority is for the greater part accounted for by the secret and open opposition of the powerful Pennsylvania Railroad, which, as has been remarked in a previous chapter, for years successfully opposed the acquisition by the Reading Company of adequate terminal facilities in Philadelphia. Indeed, it is only quite recently that the Reading company succeeded in obtaining permission to build a new terminus in a very central position, at 12th and Market-streets, a few blocks above the fine Pennsylvania "depot " opposite City Hall, and in a situation a trifle better than that of the Pennsylvania terminus. This new station, whence the trains will run along an elevated road, will probably become one of the best appointed termini of the States,

and there can be no doubt that it will cause a great increase in passenger traffic, for it need hardly be said that many travellers abstain from patronising the Reading on account of its bad stations in Philadelphia. To illustrate how far this goes it may be mentioned that within five years the number of passengers arriving at or departing from the Penna. RR. station increased a hundred per cent., whereas during the same period the traffic to and from the two Reading terminus only grew to the extent of fifteen per cent. Hence it may be confidently expected that improved accommodation will considerably increase the Reading's passenger traffic, especially as this road, owing to its numerous branches which radiate from Philadelphia, will enjoy special advantages in the conduct of local traffic with Northeastern Pennsylvania. A subsidiary company, the Philadelphia & Reading Terminal Company, has been formed, having a capital of $8,500,000, and guaranteeing the terminal bonds, secured by a mortgage upon the property, which are issued by the railway.

The Reading, as is well known, has its own line from Jersey City to Philadelphia, connecting with the Baltimore & Ohio RR. (q. v.) in its fine station on Chestnut-street. Only as far as Bound Brook (where the new line to Port Reading branches off) does this line belong to the Reading, the short section between Bound Brook being the property of the Jersey Central, over which the Reading trains run under a traffic agreement arrived at when the J. C. was leased to the Reading for the first time. As has been indicated above, this section is one of the finest pieces of track in the world, and trains which covered a mile in 391/2 seconds have been run on it. This part of the system in particular will derive considerable benefits from the completion of the new terminus in Philadelphia; at present the Pennsylvania has the lion's share of the traffic between New York and that city.

Leaving Philadelphia along the double-tracked main line, we follow the banks of the Schuylkill, a river running through