Dates of operation 1826–1952 Headquarters Philadelphia | Length 45,062 m Successor Reading Company | |
Track gauge 4 ft 8 ⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge Locale Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania | ||
The Little Schuylkill Navigation, Railroad and Coal Company (LSRR) was a railway company in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania in the 19th century. The main line ran from Port Clinton to Tamanend, for a total of 28 miles (45 km).
History
The railroad received a charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on February 28, 1826—firmly establishing it as a predecessor of the more famous Reading Railroad which would later acquire its rights and properties. Construction began in 1830; the tracks were constructed with strap iron on wood rails. The LSRR operated between Tamaqua, located at the end of the coal rich Panther Creek Valley and the Port Clinton terminus of the Schuylkill Canal, beginning in 1831 with horse-drawn cars.and later to a rail junction with the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company (famous as the Reading Railroad of the Monopoly board game, founded in 1833). Two steam locomotives were acquired by the railroad in 1833, but the wooden tracks did not support the engines, requiring a resumption of animal powered operations. This over-extended investment nearly bankrupted the young company so it was twelve years later before Iron "T" rails developed on the Camden & Amboy Railroad for the John Bull locomotive in the mid-1830s belatedly replaced the wooden rails in 1845, and the costly English locomotives were then returned to regular service. It completed a junction with the Catawissa Railroad at Tamanend (also called Little Schuylkill Junction) in 1854.
In 1857 the LSRR built a roundhouse in Tamaqua, housing 21 locomotives and a turntable. In 1863 the company was leased by the Reading Railroad for 93 years. It formally merged with the Reading in 1952.