Stony Creek Branch

Not to be confused with Stoney Creek Secondary.

Stony Creek Branch
Overview
Owner	SEPTA
History
Opened	30 December 1873 (1873-12-30)
Technical
Line length	9.9 mi (15.9 km)
Route map Bethlehem Branch Doylestown Branch Lansdale 10.0 Dale SEPTA Main Line 9.0 Kneedler 8.0 West Point 7.0 Acorn 5.0 Belfrey 4.0 Custer 3.0 Hartranft Norristown–Elm Street 0.0 Elm Norristown Branch This diagram: view talk edit

The Stony Creek Branch is a railway line in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It runs 9.9 miles (15.9 km) from Lansdale, Pennsylvania, to Norristown, Pennsylvania, connecting the Bethlehem and Doylestown Branches with the Norristown Branch. Although SEPTA owns the line, it is freight-only. CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Railway, and the Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad have trackage rights on the branch.

History

The Stony Creek Railroad was incorporated on April 14, 1868, to build south from the North Pennsylvania Railroad main line at Lansdale along Stony Creek to Norristown, Pennsylvania.[1] The line, 10.3 miles (16.6 km) long, opened on December 30, 1873, under the control of the North Pennsylvania.[2][3] Its Norristown station was located at Main and Markley, the present site of Norristown–Main Street.[4][5]

The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad leased the North Pennsylvania on May 14, 1879.[6] The Reading, through the Norristown Junction Railroad, built a connection between Norristown Branch and the Stony Creek Railroad in 1880.[7] Under the Reading, the division point between the two lines shifted north, with the Norristown Branch moving north to include the Norristown–Main Street and Norristown–Elm Street stations. The truncated Stony Creek Branch stood at 9.9 miles (15.9 km).[8]

The Stony Creek Railroad was one of twelve railroads merged into the Reading Company effective December 31, 1945.[9] On the Reading's final bankruptcy in 1976 the branch was conveyed to SEPTA, with Conrail retaining trackage rights.[10] Today, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Railway, and the Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad have trackage rights on the branch.[11]

Notes

1. ICC (1931), p. 761.
2. "New Railroad". Reading Times. January 1, 1874. p. 4. Retrieved June 4, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
3. Holton (1989), p. 288.
4. Bean (1884), p. 748.
5. "Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Norristown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania". Sanborn Map Company. February 1886. p. 3. Retrieved June 4, 2022.
6. Holton (1989), p. 274.
7. Coates (1990), p. 66.
8. "Reading Company Timetable" (PDF). Reading Company. January 1, 1973.
9. ICC (1947), p. 573.
10. USRA (1975), p. 328.
11. "Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad, LLC—Acquisition and Operation Exemption—CSX Transportation, Inc" (PDF). Surface Transportation Board. July 22, 2011. Retrieved June 4, 2022.

References

• Bean, Theodore Weber, ed. (1884). History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Vol. 2. United States: Unigraphic.
• Coates, Wes (1990). Electric trains to Reading Terminal. Flanders, NJ: Railroad Avenue Enterprises. OCLC 24431024.
• Holton, James L. (1989). The Reading Railroad: History of a Coal Age Empire : The Nineteenth Century. Vol. 1. Laury's Station, PA: Garrigues House. ISBN 0-9620844-1-7.
• Interstate Commerce Commission (1931). "Interstate Commerce Commission Reports: Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States. Valuation reports". U.S. Government Printing Office.
• Interstate Commerce Commission (1947). "Annual Report on the Statistics of Railways in the United States, the Interstate Commerce Commission for the Year Ending December 31, 1945". U.S. Government Printing Office.
• United States Railway Association (1975). Final system plan for restructuring railroads in the Northeast and Midwest region pursuant to the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 (PDF). Vol. 1. Washington, DC. OCLC 2889148.