Blue Mountain & Reading Railroad

he Blue Mountain & Reading Railroad is the original name of a regional railroad founded in 1983 to provide freight service on the former Pennsylvania Railroad Schuylkill Division between Hamburg and Temple, Pennsylvania. Beginning in 1985, the railroad began operating passenger excursions over the line with two steam locomotives: ex Gulf, Mobile & Northern Railroad #425 and ex Reading Company #2102. Additionally, the BM&R entered into a partnership with the Reading Company Technical and Historical Society, who leased track space in Leesport, Pa, and in return leased to the railroad two diesel locomotives and assorted passenger cars for use on the line. In 1990, the road took over 150 miles of trackage in the coal region north of Reading, Pa. Shortly thereafter, the company was renamed Reading Blue Mountain & Northern and relocated its headquarters from Hamburg to Port Clinton, Pa. In the mid 1990s, the RBMN discontinued the regularly scheduled passenger operations between Hamburg and Temple and instead focused on occasional excursions throughout the rest of its system. In 2005, regularly scheduled passenger excursions resumed with the introduction of the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway in Jim Thorpe, Pa.