Private company

Allentown Railroad

The Allentown Railroad was a railway company in the United States.1

Last updated Oct 18, 2026.

Overview

1853Founded1

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The Allentown Railroad was a railway company in the United States. It was incorporated in 1853 with the original intention to connect the Central Railroad of New Jersey at Allentown with the Pennsylvania Railroad's main line across the Allegheny Mountains. Though grading was almost entirely finished, the project was halted by the Panic of 1857, and the completion of the East Pennsylvania Railroad in 1859 made the Allentown Railroad's proposed line largely redundant. s a result, track was never laid on most of the line.2

How it started

Origins

The Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) had reached Phillipsburg, New Jersey in 1852, on the outskirts of the Lehigh Valley, and anticipated extension to Allentown. If a direct route could be built from Allentown to the Susquehanna River, western traffic could reach New York City faster than by detouring through Philadelphia and traveling north over the Camden and Amboy Railroad.

Such a route would run parallel to South Mountain and other mountains in the region, and a lateral railroad for the transport of anthracite coal already extended west from the Susquehanna. The Dauphin and Susquehanna Coal Company (D&S) operated a railroad which connected with the PRR at Rockville (where their main line crossed the Susquehanna), ran north along the river to Dauphin, and turned northeast to run up Stony Valley to the Rausch Gap coal mines. It proved to be a willing partner in the plan.

From Wikipedia’s article on Allentown Railroad, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Timeline

  1. Dec 31, 1945Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1853Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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