Port Reading Railroad

Origins

The Port Reading Railroad started at the Port Reading Junction in Manville, New Jersey (near Bound Brook) with the Lehigh Valley Railroad and Central Railroad of New Jersey and headed eastward across northern Middlesex County, New Jersey to a terminus port called Port Reading, which was situated on the Arthur Kill in Woodbridge Township near Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Port Reading was constructed specifically to serve the needs of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway.

Via the Port Reading Railroad and the affiliated Port Reading shipping terminal (which was also built by the Philadelphia and Reading Railway) along the Arthur Kill waterway, trains from the Reading Co's Trenton line (originally the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad) were capable of providing through service to/from the New York ports to points south and west, via a connection along the Raritan River from Manville, New Jersey to Bound Brook that was built between the Philadelphia and Reading Railway's Trenton line and the newly built Port Reading Railroad. Remnants of this connection, such as decaying trestles and track, can still be seen along the CSX/NS mainline through this area. The structures closest to the river are the former Reading Co. connection.