PORT CLINTON, Pa. — The Reading & Northern Railroad has acquired an industrial complex located near the center of its 400-mile system that has previously been occupied by a fire truck manufacturer.
The nine-building, 10-acre complex is in Nesquehoning Borough in Carbon County, adjacent to the town of Jim Thorpe and about 30 miles from the railroad’s Port Clinton headquarters. It is currently home of KME Fire Appartus. KME announced last fall it was ceasing operations at the site, formerly home of the Kovatch Fire Truck company, and placed the property on sale. The purchase by the Reading & Northern includes an agreement to lease the buildings to KME to complete their last fire trucks at the location.
The facility is adjacent to the 19.5-mile rail line the railroad purchased last year from Carbon County and plans to upgrade to 40-mph operation [see “Digest: Reading & Northern owner plans to spend $4-5 million …,” Trains News Wire, May 10, 2021].
“We are investing in our future and the future of the communities we serve,” Andy Muller, Jr., founder, owner, and CEO of Reading & Northern, said in a press release. “Our company is growing by leaps and bounds. In fact, we believe we will be enjoying double digit carload and revenue growth for years to come fueled in large part by the increasing worldwide demand for Pennsylvania anthracite coal. … We expect our coal business to grow substantially in 2022 and for years to come.”
Facility includes buildings with heavy crane systems, and Muller said the company anticipates locating “important parts of our freight and passenger operations in Nesquehoning, which sites in such a perfect location for our railroad and our employees. We will now have the room to grow our equipment maintenance and repair facilities as well as provide much-needed storage.”
For those keeping score at home, Nesquehoning is on the ex-CNJ line between Jim Thorpe and both Tamaqua and Hauto. It’s in the middle anthracite field and serves the collieries that produced CNJ’s on line anthracite traffic.
On RBMN it’s on the thru line from Port Clinton thru Tamaqua up to Hauto (RDG) then thru Nesquehoning (CNJ) to the new wye at Nesquehoning Jct. and to the right for Jim Thorpe or to the left and thru the Lehigh Gorge (CNJ & LV) to Wilkes-Barre.
Another example of long term planing verses the short term profit motive of the larger class 1 railroads. The Reading and Northern being a non publicly owned railroad also helps. Since they don’t have Wall Street stockholders or analysts pushing for better profits every quarter or year. The R&N can concentrate on making these long term investments that will not necessarily show up in a year or less but contribute to the long term growth of the business.
Very rue, Robert. Andy Muller has accomplished amazing things.
The C1’s could take a lesson on how to run a railroad.