The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad (P&R) was one of the first railroads in the United States. Along with the Little Schuylkill, a horse-drawn railroad in the Schuylkill River Valley, it formed the earliest components of what became the Reading Company. The P&R was constructed initially to haul anthracite coal from the mines of the Coal Region in Northeastern Pennsylvania to Philadelphia.[2] The original P&R mainline extended south from the mining town of Pottsville to Reading and then to Philadelphia. The lline followed the gently graded banks of the Schuylkill River for nearly all of the 93-mile (150-km) journey.[2][3] From its founding in 1843, the original Reading mainline was a double track line.
1833–1893
Filed for bankruptcy February 23, 1893, possible beginning of the Panic of 1893.