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SCHUYLKILL COUNTY RAILROADS

Minersville Station

 

In February 1911, the Philadelphia & Reading Co. announced plans to build a new station in Minersville, on the former Anthracite Lumber Company property between the main track (to the left in the photo above) and the Wolf Creek Branch (on the stub end of which 113 now lives).  An all brick-an- stone structure with indoor plumbing and electricity, it has one large main waiting room, built to accommodate men and women alike (even in the North, traditional stations had "separate but equal" waiting rooms for the two sexes).  Construction started in May 1911, and the depot opened for passenger service in April 1913.

 

Local traffic hit its peak not long thereafter with 24 arrivals and departures daily, but paved roads and automobiles swiftly put an end to such civilized travel; the station became a bus stop, then closed in the late 1930s.  After World War II, it became Warren Treiseis Bakery and Catering, which remained in the station until the early 1980s; the business was sold to the Cleary family and operated until 1987.  Now, the Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad owns the building and Project 113 leases it; repairs continue both inside and outside.

These 1914 images, by a Reading Company official photographer show the Minersville station when almost brand new.  Many more tracks passed it back then, but the building itself has changed surprisingly little.  Unfortunately, the benches and the water fountain have long since disappeared, but the waiting room and the ticket window still serve their intended purposes on days we operate!

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In the exterior photo, note in the distance at right the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge crossing over the Reading line; the stone piers for that bridge still remain in place, although the deck got scrapped decades ago.  In the 1895 map of Schuylkill County railroads below, the Pennsy branch appears as the red line heading west (to the left) from Pottsville.

This 1913 map (above) shows only the lines of the Philadelphia & Reading Railway (Reading Company) in the Anthracite Coal Region.

Not shown: the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania R.R., Jersey Central, Lehigh & New England, or any other railroad.

1895 map of the railroads of Schuylkill County (above).  Pennsylvania Railroad in red, others in black.

Many of these lines no longer exist; the Reading & Northern (below) operates those that still do.

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