The Lorberry Creek Railroad was an early railroad in

Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania Schuylkill County (, ; Pennsylvania Dutch: Schulkill Kaundi) is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the heart of Pennsylvania's Coal Region and is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the popula ...

, United States intended to feed

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

shipments to the

Union Canal (Pennsylvania) The Union Canal was a towpath canal that existed in southeastern Pennsylvania in the United States during the 19th century. First proposed in 1690 to connect Philadelphia with the Susquehanna River, it ran approximately 82 mi from Middletown ...

. On March 30, 1831, Jacob Culp and Thomas Adams (

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

), Daniel D.B. Keim and Dr. George N. Eckert (

Berks County Berks County ( Pennsylvania German: ''Barricks Kaundi'') is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 428,849. The county seat is Reading. The Schuylkill River, a tributary of the Delaware River ...

), and Henry W. Conrad and William Hoch ( Pine Grove) were authorized to build "a single or double railroad, from the northern end of the Union canal company's railroad, up Lorberry Creek, on lands of Ley and Hawk, to points most suitable in the heart of the coal region, in the county of Schuylkill." The line, as constructed, ran west along the south side of Lorberry Creek from the junction, made a horseshoe curve to cross the creek and valley and turn east, and followed Lower Rausch Creek through its gap in

Sharp Mountain Sharp Mountain or Sharp Ridge (historically also spelled Sharpe) in eastern central Pennsylvania in the United States is a ridgeline (fold) of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians cut through on its east-side in the Tamaqua gap by the Little Schuylk ...

. A switchback was located near Lower Rausch Creek Colliery. Beyond the switchback, the line climbed into Lorberry, at the headwaters of Lorberry Creek. The railroad was originally laid with wooden strap rail and operated by horses. This was replaced by T-rail in the 1840s. The

Philadelphia and Reading Railroad The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail. Commonly called ...

obtained most of the company's stock in August 1862 and took over its operation. Under Reading control, the line became the Lorberry Branch, and an extension known as the Kalmia Branch would bring the rails west from Lorberry and down a switchback to Kalmia Colliery, on the north face of Broad Mountain. In addition, a switchback at Lorberry would lift the line to its terminus at the Lincoln Colliery (opened 1869). On March 25, 1871, it was consolidated into the Lebanon and Tremont Railroad, which was soon after merged into the Reading. The line beyond the Lincoln Colliery was abandoned in 1940, and the rest of the branch in 1966.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lorberry Creek Railroad Defunct Pennsylvania railroads Predecessors of the Reading Company Transportation in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania Railway companies established in 1843 Railway companies disestablished in 1871 1843 establishments in Pennsylvania