North Pennsylvania Railroad
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North Pennsylvania Railroad (NPR) was a railroad company formed in 1855, and served Montgomery County, Bucks County and Northampton County. Construction of the line started in 1852 and became operational three years later.
In 1856 the company suffered its first accident in the The Great Train Wreck of 1856. the following year, a branch was built from Lansdale to Doylestown and during the 1860s another extension was built to Sellersville, running parallel to Bethlehem Pike. This railroad was eventually completed to Bethlehem, and later became the Reading Company's Bethlehem Branch, a two-track main line, with one portion near Telford being three-tracked. A single-track tunnel is in Perkasie.
The Reading Company leased North Pennsylvania Railroad on May 14, 1879, which later led to the eventual demise of NPR due to the bankruptcy of the Reading Company and subsequent merger into Conrail.
The line is owned today by SEPTA, which only operates its commuter trains as far north as Lansdale, where the R5 line continues to Doylestown. Freight trains are operated on the portion from Lansdale to Quakertown by CSX and East Penn Railroad.
North of Quakertown, the line is completely abandoned, however, most of the rail infrastructure is intact except for a cut made near DeSales University to extend Porter Lane, and the line between Bethlehem and Hellertown including Saucon Yard, has been removed. None of the former stations remain north of Quakertown, and all of the block signals north of Lansdale have been destroyed by vandals, although many are still in place. Grade crossing signals are still in place in many locations north of Quakertown.
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