Sentiment is not a paying business.  Those were the words from the Reading Railroad as the reason for discontinuing passenger service on the Perkiomen Line in

From 1903 to 1905 a special train called the "Pennypacker  Express" was provided on the Perkiomen branch of the Phil- adelphia and Reading Railroad so that people could come  out to the governor's private residence in Schwenksville to  visit him.  Here the train and it's crew are shown at the East Greenville station.

1955.  At the time, according to the Reading Railroad, income from the passenger and freight trains only brought in about $4,500 annually while costs to run them were about $20,000 annually.

            The Public Utilities Commission agreed, and the passenger service was halted on the line with the last train running on July 15, 1955.

            On that day crowds gathered around the local railroad stations to bid the passenger service a fond farewell.  The trains that had run for 90 years and were once hailed as the lifeblood of the community.

            With the approaching end of passenger service local people filled area stations for one last ride on something that was part of their childhood.  According to an account in the Town and Country, "They [passengers] crowded the train from cowcatcher to caboose."

            On July 13 and 14 the single coach trains were so crowded that many passengers stood in the aisles for their last trip through the Dillinger Tunnel to Emmaus.  Some riders opted to ride all the way to Allentown.  Unfortunately, those passengers needed to

Circa 1910 train passengers await the arrival of the train as it approaches the Red Hill station on the tracks of the Perkio- men branch of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad.

find their way home by car or another means of transportation. 

            For the final run on July 15 Reading added a second coach to accommodate the large number of people wanting to take that last ride.  Some folks with "connections" were able to ride in the baggage car and even up in the engine.   

            Some of the last riders lamented that they would have preferred a steam locomotive instead of diesel engine 616 for that last experience.

            The engineer for the last run was Carl Speigel and the conductor was W. Harry Johnson, who   had been employed by the railroad since 1909.

            One local resident, Robert Henry, of Pennsburg, took the passenger train the opposite way and spent the day in Philadelphia before heading home on the last train. 

A highlight of riding the Perkiomen branch north to Em- maus was passing through the 1,793-foot Dillinger tun- nel.  The tunnel was built between 1874 and 1875 by Irish laborers who dug the tunnel by hand through solid gran- ite.

He made it a point to buy two tickets; one for his fare and one to put into his safe deposit box as a souvenir of his many miles traveled on the Perkiomen Line.

            The railroad left the Upper Perkiomen Valley the same way it came, in stages.  Passenger service on the Perkiomen Railroad officially ended on July 15, 1955.  Freight service continued until the mid-1960s.  The line was abandoned between Collegeville and Green Lane in 1973.  A few years later the railroad line was abandoned to Eighth Street in Pennsburg, and eventually to Fourth Street.  A freight line still operates from Pennsburg to Emmaus.

            Gone are the local freight and passenger stations.  On a ride through the area, you can step back in time and treat yourself to a glimpse of our railroad past.  Some of those buildings remain, though now in private use.  From Station Road in Palm, down Fourth Street in East Greenville, over to Fourth Street in Pennsburg, then down Sixth Street in Red Hill. 

            There are still spots where the railroad tracks meet the macadam, where a little railroad architecture remains.