Anthracite Railroad Records at the Pennsylvania State Archives
The Pennsylvania State Archives has extensive holdings on the anthracite railroads of eastern Pennsylvania, but they reside in various distinct collections, as listed below. By definition, an anthracite railroad hauled anthracite coal as one of its primary sources of freight traffic, and/or owned an anthracite mine. The principal carriers included the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Reading Company, the Lehigh Valley, the Delaware & Hudson, the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Lehigh & New England, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, the Erie, the Erie-Lackawanna, the New York, Ontario & Western, the Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley, the New York, Susquehanna & Western, the Wilkes Barre & Eastern, and the Lehigh & Hudson River railroads.
Researchers will find the following holdings and related records:
Central Railroad of New Jersey
MG-199 Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Collections:
Charles B. Schlegel Collection (RR77.102) - (mostly track charts, rule books and miscellaneous CNJ information) - [Holdings]
Philips Collection (principally research materials on "camelback"-type anthracite-burning steam locomotives) - [Holdings]
A total of (23) boxes of records from the CNJ Office of the Superintendent, Allentown, and (4) cartons of track charts as part of MG-199 currently remains unprocessed. Additional CNJ records are also scattered throughout the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad (MG-311), Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (MG-311) and Lehigh Valley Railroad holdings (MG-274). Archives staff is not able to do research for non-visiting patrons in this series. No comprehensive finding aid exists for these records.
Additional Resources at Other Institutions:
Most CNJ records were destroyed.
Hagley Museum and Library: Additional CNJ records, including New York & Long Branch and drawings of CNJ ferries, tug boats and other marine equipment.
Although many of the company's records were burned in a fire in 1991 shortly after takeover by the Canadian Pacific Railroad, some additional D&H records from their Albany, NY offices are at the New York State Library.
MG-300 Erie Lackawanna Railway Deposit - contains some EL track maps of DL&W routes.
MG-199 Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Collection (at the State Archives), Elwin Mumford Collection of photographs and postcards taken and collected by him of Lackawanna locomotives, rolling stock and support facilities in the eastern Pennsylvania area, 1890-1974. [Holdings]
MG-199 Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Collection (at the State Archives) - Walter A. Lucas Collection of stereographs relating to railroads and scenic views in America, ca. 1875-1927, includes views of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. [Holdings]
Additional Resources at Other Institutions:
Extensive DL&W photographs and historical research material may be found in MG-199 the Thomas T. Taber Collection {RR75.30} at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Library/Archives, Strasburg, Lancaster, County.
Steamtown National Historic Site has some DL&W records (1849-1961), including an extensive file for the Chief Engineer, with nearly 100,000 drawings and maps and nearly 3,000 engineering field books.
Hagley Museum & Library has DL&W minute books to the EL merger in 1960 plus materials on the original construction of the DL&W in the Scranton Family papers collection.
About 300 cubic feet of Erie Lackawanna corporate records reside at the University of Akron. It consists of materials used and produced throughout the Railroad's final reorganization and liquidation process which began in 1972 and ended in 1991.
The State Archives does not have any records from this railroad.
Additional Resources at Other Institutions:
The bulk of the business records of the Lehigh & Hudson River Railroad {RR99.57} consisting of approximately 80 cubic feet, may be found in MG-199 at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Library/Archives in Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pa.
MG-311 Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company Records have extensive information on the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad and other LC&N properties leased to the CNJ (includes maps and structural drawings for the Lehigh & New England Railroad tracings).
MG-2 Business Records Collection: Transportation and Industry
Lehigh Valley Railroad
MG-286 Penn Central Railroad Collection also contains records from numerous LVRR companies
MG-199 Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Collection (at the State Archives) - Walter A. Lucas Collection of stereographs relating to railroads and scenic views in America, ca. 1875-1927, includes views of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
MG-199 Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Collection (at the State Archives) - Philips Collection.
The State Archives does not have any records from this railroad. The only item in MG-199 is (1) ledger of an NYO&W Agent's Record of Milk, Cream and Potcheese forwarded from Hamilton to Weehauken, NJ, 1899. Currently this item is unprocessed.
New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway/Wilkes Barre & Eastern Railroad
The State Archives does not have any records from either of these railroads.
WB&E business records are not known to have survived.
Additional Resources at Other Institutions:
NYS&W/WB&E research notes are contained as part of the Walter A. Lucas Collection in the Curatorial and Reference series, as well as track diagrams of the WB&E in the Robert Mohowski Collection at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Library/Archives.
MG-286 Penn Central Railroad Collection (Relevant series include: PRR General Office Library Photograph File; Penn Central Auction Photographs; Conrail Public Affairs Photographs; Thomas Hollyman Photographs, Microfilm of track and property atlases (incomplete). Also contains the surviving minutes and other minutes of PRR's anthracite mining companies).
MG-199 Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Collection (at the State Archives) - Walter A. Lucas Collection of stereographs relating to railroads and scenic views in America, ca. 1875-1927, includes views of the PRR. [Holdings]
MG-199 Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Collection (at the State Archives) - DuBarry Photo Albums (RR72.1{#199m.41})
Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Library/Archives in Strasburg, Pa., has the PRR Library Collection, Annual Reports, Ephemera and Original and Secondary sources in the Curatorial and Reference File Series.
MG-199 Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Collections:
Walter Fister Collection - Reading Co. Photographs (Fister was the Reading Company Superintendent of Motive Power & Rolling Equipment {#199m.57}.)
Robert Phillips draft of unpublished RDG Co. history with rare photographs. (Includes some Reading Railroad tracings) [Holdings]
Luther Cummings Collection (Includes photographs and negatives of Reading trains {#199m.30}.)
Elwin Mumford Collection (Comprises of a collection of photographs and postcards taken and collected by him of Reading Railroad locomotives, rolling stock and support facilities in the eastern Pennsylvania area, 1890-1974 {#199m.82}.)
Reading steam locomotive tracings. In particular, {series #199.88} contains mechanical engineering drawings of Reading steam/diesel locomotives and freight/passenger rolling stock. {Mechanical Drawing Index}. A limited volume of track and right of way drawings [Holdings] are also part of the collection.
MG-286 Although the Reading never became a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the State Archives does hold some materials relating to the Reading Railroad in our Manuscript Group 286. We received from the Penn Central a subset of architectural drawings of stations originally built along the Reading Line ({series #286m.254})[Partial Holdings Part1][Partial Holdings Part 2].
MG-289 George M. Hart Collection (Mostly comprises of 47 photographic prints, 1910-1921, and 1940, of eastern Pennsylvania coal region views along the Philadelphia & Reading printed from original 8 x 10 glass negatives, taken system-wide showing steam locomotives, rolling stock, yards, coal breakers, inclined planes, engine houses, signals, and trackside.)
Additional Resources at Other Institutions:
The Hagley Museum and Library in Delaware houses the largest collection of Reading documents and photographs held by any research institution, including Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines records.
The Athenaeum in Philadelphia holds drawings of Reading RR structures designed by the Wilson Brothers.
Some Reading ephemera, negatives, photographs and right-of-way half-mile and quarter-section mile maps are in the MG-199 collections of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Library/Archives, Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pa.. Of note, at Strasburg, is the Reading Co. Public Relations Department file, 10 cu. ft., which includes Reading photographs of locomotives, rolling stock, trains, depots, yards, employees and events. Also, the Robert J. Linden collection, collected by a former Conductor, contains extensive Reading Company material.
Other General Sources of Anthracite Railroad Information
RG-12 Department of Highways (Photographs in the series that show railroad details for roads in the anthracite region featuring crossings, towers, various buildings, etc., [ca.1910-1977].)
RG-17 Records of the Land Office: Board of Canal Commissioners.
MG-199 Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Collection, housed at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Library/Archives, Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pa., contains annual reports for most of the anthracite railroad companies, reference and curatorial files containing ephemera, documents and notes, and audio-visual and graphic materials.
MG-393 Pullman Standard Manufacturing Company of Butler Records (May contain information on rolling stock built for the anthracite railroads.)
MG-218 General Photograph Collections: Transportation Section.
MG-219 Philadelphia Commercial Museum Collection (photographs).
Aerial Photographs and Index of the 1940 Aerial Survey of Pennsylvania, 1937-1942. {#31.18} * images for these and other years available online via the PennPilot project
MG-416 Aero Service Corporation Photographs, [ca. 1926-1948].
MG-425 Ebasco Environmental Company Aerial Photographs, [ca. 1980-1985]
RG-37 Records of the Public Utility Commission: Bureau of Transportation.
Annual Reports of Transportation Utilities for Large and Small Carriers.
RG-14 Records of the Dept. of Internal Affairs: Various Annual Report Series relating to railroads (some of which may be continued in RG-37).
Annual Census Reports of Motor Bus and Electric Transportation Carriers {#14.6}
Annual Census Reports of Railroads and Railroad Repair Establishments {#14.7}
Annual Reports of Passenger and Street Railway Companies {#14.15}
Annual Reports of Railroad and Street Railway Companies to the Auditor General and the Department of Internal Affairs {#14.18}
Registers of Steam Railroads, Street Railways, Canals, Telegraph and Telephone Companies {#14.26}
RG-52 Records of the Dept. of Transportation: Local and Area Transportation Files
Refer to the Interstate Commerce Commission Valuation Records at the National Archives, College Park, MD, which includes maps, photos and inventories of the physical plant of many anthracite railroads.
The New York Public Library is believed to have substantial records of the maritime operations of several anthracite railroads.
(Acknowledgements: Chris Baer-Hagley Museum & Library; Craig Orr-National Museum of American History Archives, Smithsonian Institution; Richard Jahn-Anthracite Railroads Historical Society; Rick Bates-Reading Company Technical & Historical Society; Michael Knies-University of Scranton Archives; Patrick McKnight-Steamtown National Historic Site)
