Nesquehoning, Carbon County, PA -
About 20 yards from the Reading & Northern Railroad main line, track was being laid to a large warehouse Tuesday on the former Kovatch Enterprises property.
The Port Clinton-based railroad purchased the property from REV Group in 2022, and is retrofitting it as a hub for operations in Carbon County.
The Nesquehoning Campus, as it is called, includes eight buildings where Kovatch and, later, REV Group manufactured KME brand firetrucks.
Matt Fisher, general manager of Reading & Northern passenger department, oversees the project.
“Situated in the middle of our busy main line between Reading and Scranton, the property is ideal,” he said. “Some of the buildings are tailor-made for servicing our ever-expanding fleet of 63 diesel locomotives.”
When it opens in June, Fisher said, the facility will mark the first time in 75 years that locomotives will be maintained and repaired in Carbon County.
To commemorate the opening, Reading & Northern will reintroduce the Iron Horse Rambles, steam-powered locomotive excursions originally run by the Reading Railroad from 1959 to 1964.
Reading & Northern’s historic No. 2102 locomotive, a large T-1 class steam engine, will embark on a ramble from Reading to Jim Thorpe on May 25; Nesquehoning to Tunkhannock on June 22; and Nesquehoning to Pittston on Aug. 17.
The Nesquehoning to Tunkhannock trip will be the first to run out of a new Nesquehoning Regional Railroad Station to be constructed just off the main line on the Nesquehoning Campus.
Riders will be able to board excursion trains from a platform, replicating an era of passenger train travel from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries.
Economic engine
Reading & Northern officials have discussed the project with local and regional tourism and economic development groups.
Officials of the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau and Carbon Chamber & Economic Development Inc. have toured the campus.
Christopher Barrett, Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau president and CEO, said the project will have significant economic impact on the region.
“It’s repurposing manufacturing buildings and creating new jobs,” Barrett said. “And it’s pretty significant to overall tourism in the Poconos.”
Marlyn Kissner, the bureau’s vice president for community relations, said it is gratifying to see Reading & Northern make a significant investment in Carbon County.
“The new railroad station will draw more people to our region,” she said. “We know there are large numbers of people who are excited by trains.”
After a decades-long hiatus, the railroad is relaunching its Black Diamond Co. Store on the Nesquehoning Campus.
Already online, the store will stock T-shirts and hats emblazoned with the line’s diamond-shaped logo. It also stocks photos of the line’s classic locomotives.
Other buildings on the campus will house the railroad’s maintenance, real estate and passenger departments.
Kathy Henderson, Carbon Chamber & Economic Development executive director, believes the campus can be an engine of economic growth.
“We hope it will kick-start new growth in Nesquehoning,” she said.
The Narrow Valley Sportsplex recently opened on another section of the sprawling former Kovatch property. Among other things, it includes indoor soccer, batting cages and pickleball courts.
Henderson said the railroad’s new Nesquehoning passenger station, which is patterned after one opened last year in Pittston, reflects the railroad’s commitment to the region.
“It’s a good thing,” she said. “It should alleviate congestion and traffic in neighboring Jim Thorpe and spread some wealth to a neighboring community.”
Record growth
Andy Muller Jr., founder and CEO of the Reading & Northern Railroad, was nominated for Railway Age magazine’s railroader of the year in 2022.
Over more than 30 years, Muller turned 400 miles of abandoned tracks over which anthracite coal was transported into a modern regional railroad serving customers in Schuylkill, Carbon, Luzerne, Lackawanna counties and other parts of the Northeast.
In February, Reading & Northern reported double-digit growth in both freight and passenger service, making it the largest privately-owned line in Pennsylvania.
In 2023, it handled 37,000 freight cars and 320,000 passengers, the railroad reported.
The growth in passenger service, the railroad reported, was primarily due to the opening of the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Regional Railroad Station in Pittston.
