The Cornwall Railroad, formerly the North Lebanon Railroad, was a railway company in the state of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. It was incorporated in 1850 and opened its initial line between

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

and

Cornwall, Pennsylvania Cornwall is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Lebanon, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 4,604 at the 2020 census. History Cornwa ...

, in 1855. The

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

bought the Cornwall Railroad in 1968. The line passed to

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busine ...

on the Reading's bankruptcy in 1976 and has since been abandoned. The line ran parallel to that of the Cornwall and Lebanon Railroad, later part of the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

system.

History

The company was incorporated as the North Lebanon Railroad on May 25, 1850. The backers of the new railroad planned to ship iron ore from mines around

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, where a connection was available with the Union Canal. The line opened in 1854. At the same time, the

Lebanon Valley Railroad The Lebanon Valley Railroad was a railway company in the United States. Its company leaders oversaw the construction of the Lebanon Valley Branch between the cities of Harrisburg and Reading, Pennsylvania, which opened on January 18, 1858. Histor ...

was building what would become the

Lebanon Valley Branch The Lebanon Valley Branch was a railway line in Pennsylvania. Built between 1857–1858, it linked the cities of Harrisburg and Reading. It was part of the Reading Company system from its completion until 1976, when it was conveyed to Conrail. Un ...

of the

between

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

and

Harrisburg Harrisburg ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat, seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50, ...

. The line opened between Reading and Lebanon in 1857 and between Lebanon and Harrisburg in 1858. The company's name changed to the Cornwall Railroad on April 5, 1870. The Cornwall and Lebanon Railroad, whose line between the two namesake cities ran parallel (to the east) to that of the Cornwall Railroad, opened in 1883. The Cornwall Railroad acquired the Cornwall and Mount Hope Railroad in 1886, extending its line another to

Mount Hope, Pennsylvania Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

, where it interchanged with the Reading and Columbia Railroad. Cornwall Railroad passenger trains used the Reading station in Lebanon until the end of passenger service on January 29, 1929.

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Until its closure in 2003, it was one of the world's largest steel-producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its success ...

bought the railroad on December 1, 1923. The

leased the line from Bethlehem Steel in 1964. At the same time, the line between Cornwall and Mount Hope was abandoned. The Reading bought the company outright in 1968. The Reading designated the line the Cornwall Branch, and it was conveyed to

in 1976. R.J. Corman Railroad Group acquired the remaining portion of the branch in 1997. R. J. Corman abandoned the line in the 2000s. Much of the right-of-way is now the north end of the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail.

Notes

References

* * * {{cite book , title=Final system plan for restructuring railroads in the Northeast and Midwest region pursuant to the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 , year=1975 , author=United States Railway Association , author-link=United States Railway Association , location=Washington, DC , url=http://multimodalways.org/docs/govts/federal/executive/Agencies/DOT/USRA/FSP/FSP%20VII.pdf , oclc=2889148 , volume=2 , ref={{Harvid, USRA, 1975 Predecessors of the Reading Company Defunct Pennsylvania railroads Railway companies established in 1850 Railway companies disestablished in 1968 American companies established in 1850