Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad

The Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad was a railroad from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Trenton, New Jersey that became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. The majority of it is now part of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.

History

The P&T was chartered on February 23, 1832 by the Pennsylvania General Assembly and organized on June 9, 1832. It opened in 1834 from Philadelphia to Trenton. In 1836, the Camden and Amboy Railroad began to operate the P&T, after obtaining a controlling stock interest.

The original terminus was at Kensington station. On March 23, 1839, the railroad was authorized to build a southern extension along Frankford Avenue, Laurel Street and Front Street, and then run west along the Northern Liberties and Penn Township Railroad on Willow Street to its station at the Third Street Hall, at the northwest corner of Third and Willow Streets. This was never built. The part of the planned extension on Front Street would later be used by the North Pennsylvania Railroad.

The Pennsylvania Railroad leased the P&T on June 30, 1871, and began operating it on December 1, 1871. A branch in Philadelphia, known as the Tioga Street Branch, was built in 1878, and later sold to the Kensington and Tacony Railroad (which was consolidated into The Connecting Railway in 1902).

Until the P&T-leased Connecting Railway (which was consolidated into The Connecting Railway in 1902) opened in June 1867, taking trains to 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, most traffic to Philadelphia used the Camden and Amboy Railroad to Camden due to the distance from Kensington to downtown.

Realignments

Several realignments have been made. In Bristol, the original alignment lies southeast of the current one. Over the Delaware River, the current alignment is southeast of the original one, which used the Trenton Free Bridge.

Finally, the last bit in Trenton originally ran along West Canal Street, Merchant Street, Stockton Street and Hanover Street, ending at the original station at Broad Street and Hanover Street. It was joined to the Camden and Amboy Railroad's Trenton Branch by a bridge across the Delaware and Raritan Canal by 1836; it then used the station on the east side of the canal, just south of State Street, until the C&A Trenton Branch was realigned around 1865 and the current station was built.

The line today

North of Frankford Junction in Philadelphia, where the Connecting Railway joined, the line is part of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. The northernmost part south of Frankford Junction is still in place for freight, but the rest has been removed.

References

* [http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/Rail/Prr/Corphist/p_t.html Corporate Genealogy - Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad]
* [http://www.earlpleasants.com/search_1.asp Railroad History Database]
* [http://www.ushistory.org/philadelphia/special/railroad.htm Early Railroad Transportation]