Reading & Northern Railroad buys Towanda Monroeton Shippers Lifeline

BY JAMES LOEWENSTEIN (STAFF WRITER)
Published: January 6, 2010

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Review Photo/JAMES LOEWENSTEIN Tyler Glass, vice president of operations for the Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad, stands next to one of the company's diesel locomotives in Towanda.

T0WANDA - The Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad has purchased the company that provides rail service on the six-mile line between Towanda Borough and Monroeton, and plans to aggressively market the local rail line for use by companies involved in the natural gas industry, the Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad announced Tuesday.

Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad completed the purchase of the Towanda Monroeton Shippers Lifeline Railroad on Dec. 30, said Reading president Wayne A. Michel.

The Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad is the largest privately-owned, Pennsylvania-based railroad in the Commonwealth, Michel said.

Reading owns and operates a network of over 300 miles of rail line that extends from Reading to Mehoopany and serves the Scranton area, according to Michel and Reading's Web site.

"We intend to move aggressively to market the Towanda segment of our railroad," Michel said in an e-mail that he sent on Tuesday to The Daily Review. "We know there are many railroad opportunities related to the Marcellus Shale and we will be pursuing them diligently in the weeks and months ahead. Already on our railroad we recently opened the largest frac sand terminal in the region at our Pittston Yard near Scranton and we will be moving brine water this month out of Mehoopany."

Joe Zadrusky of Scranton, who has owned and operated the Towanda Monroeton Shippers Lifeline Railroad since 1979, said he expects rail traffic on the Monroeton-Towanda rail line to get busy, starting in 2010, due to the needs of the natural gas industry. He said he expects there to be shipments of pipe and sand used in hydraulic fracturing along the line in the future.

"I couldn't handle it," he said, referring to the increased rail traffic, which he said was one of his motivations for selling the company. "I've been here long enough."

Zadrusky said he has operated the Towanda Monroeton Shippers Lifeline Railroad with two part-time employees.

Zadrusky said he sold to Reading the northernmost 1 1/2-mile section of the Towanda Monroeton Shippers Lifeline rail line, which is the six-mile rail line that begins at Packer Avenue in Towanda Borough and ends in Monroeton.

The rest of the Towanda Monroeton Shippers Lifeline rail line, which is owned by Shaffer's Feed Service Inc., has not been sold to Reading, said Angela Cook, a co-owner of Shaffer's Feed Service.

However, Reading will operate on the entire Towanda Monroeton Shippers Lifeline rail line, including the section of the track owned by Shaffer's Feed Service, Cook said.

Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad "has taken over the operation" of the entire Towanda Monroeton Shippers rail line, "and we intend to serve all companies and customers" along the line as well as any future companies and customers along the rail line, Michel said.

At Packer Avenue, the Towanda Monroeton Shippers Lifeline rail line connects to the Norfolk-Southern Railway line, which is being leased by Lehigh Railway LLC.

Compared to the Towanda Monroeton Shippers Lifeline Railroad, "we bring a great many more resources to the table to help develop the railroad" between Towanda and Monroeton, he said.

He said Reading hopes to develop a facility for transferring frac sand to trucks in the Towanda area, although it would probably be a smaller operation than the one in the Pittston yard, he said.

Reading will be in a much better position to market the rail line than Zadrusky, he said.

Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad has its headquarters in Port Clinton, Pa.

James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633: or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.

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4 posted comments

I knew this was in the works for the past few weeks and it's good to see. R&N is a good solid company which did extremely well last year in spite of the deplorable economy. Between them and the Lehigh Railway, I have confidence that more rail will be utilized. Shortlines and regionals tend to be much more customer oriented and responsive. Also from what I have gathered, the new green switcher in town is an ex-Lehigh Valley unit. Kinda nice to see Lehigh Valley back on Towanda trackage.
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Setaf,  01/07/10 6:48
Reading and Northern should buy the line from NS/Lehigh Railway between Mehoopany and Sayre as well to link this line with the rest of their system. And to provide a new area for occasional excursion rides. Then they will have a main line stretching from Reading to Sayre. I wonder how long Lehigh Railway will last and if RBMN will eventually gobble them up to connect Towanda with Mehoopany to connect the Monroeton Shippers Lifeline with Mehoopany with track they own? Then, the 425 can steam up to Towanda or Sayre for excursions if the RBMN owns the track. They used to run excursions on Conrail in Sept 1985 (sponsored by Reading Co. Tech Society), fall 1987, and all year 1988 but after 1988 they stopped running excursions on track they do not own or have rights to and in 1990 they acquired the ex-Reading lines from Conrail north of Reading into Schuylkill County, and 1996 the Lehigh Line between Lehighton and Mehoopany and branch to Scranton. NS is also against friction bearing equipment on their tracks which is basically all the RBMN's coaches except the dome car, and the #425 4-6-2, and the dormant since Nov 1991 Reading T-1 #2102 4-8-4 so RBMN won't go to Philly or Harrisburg anymore with a steam excursion. Most of their excursions now go to or from Jim Thorpe.
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Robert,  01/07/10 4:34
Great job! Just what we need to see more of! This will relieve the traffic on the roads and utilize an underutilized asset. I hope this effort gets the support of residents, politicians, and other groups in the area.
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Grateful for the railroad,  01/06/10 7:58
I'd like to see the line extended south to Dushore again. If they are going to strike gas big, then this could benefit many. Especially since the feed mill is still at the end of the old line that ended in 1978.
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Harry Henderson,  01/06/10 5:45