The Danville & Pottsville Railroad

On April 8, 1826, the Pennsylvania legislature passed an act which incorporated the Danville & Pottsville Railroad (D&P) and also granted it the right to own 1,000 acres of coal lands.  One purpose of the proposed D&P was to open the Shenandoah and Mahanoy valleys (also known as the second, or middle, coalfield), extract the coal from the lands, and then connect to existing transportation infrastructure (the Schuylkill Canal) via a tunnel at Wadesville. The project was the idea of several Pennsylvania businessmen including Stephen Girard of Philadelphia also a banker, Burd Patterson of Pottsville (both with interests in the second coalfield) and Daniel Montgomery Jr. of Danville. Secondarily, the railroad was also to link the Susquehanna and Schuylkill rivers allowing anthracite coal, iron, and timber to be transported in large quantities to established and growing markets along the Susquehanna River as well as the existing transportation infrastructure to Philadelphia via the Schuylkill River.This latter purpose was also an idea shared by Christian Brobst of Cattawissa who was planning a separate route from Catawissa to Port Carbon on the Schuylkill River, later to become the Little Schuylkill & Susquehanna Railroad (LSSR).

Route map for the D&P from 1827, showing tunnels and planes required (by Moncure Robinson)

Moncure Robinson who was employed by the Pennsylvania Canal surveyed both routes. He found merit in each project but was hired by the D&P to implement its project.  The project suffered a setback when both Montgomery and Girard died in 1831. Notwithstanding this, the work began in December 1831.

The construction plan envisioned the railroad being built in sections. Commercially, in the interest of producing immediate revenue, work on the eastern end of the railroad at Wadesville where there was to be a connection with the Mt. Carbon Railroad, which already had extended north to Wadesville, was to begin first.

The tunnel near Wadesville was apparently the second railroad tunnel constructed in America when it opened in 1833. On September 24, 1834, the opening of this eastern section took place with six self acting planes including the 345-foot-high original Mahanoy Plane. Both Robinson and his wife rode over these planes to demonstrate the reliability of the design and construction. However, no coal was being mined until a coal seam was opened on the northern side of Bear Ridge. But by 1837 the original coal seam ran out and another mine tunnel was planned to be extended to what was believed to be the Mammoth Vein.  This became known as the Girard Tunnel.  However, funds to develop the tunnel became scarce (and a subsequent business depression - The Panic of 1837 - occurred) and work was completely stopped. It would not be until 1857 that work on the Girard tunnel resumed and the Mammoth Vein would be discovered more or less where it was believed to have been in 1837.

During 1837, work proceeded on the remaining western section of the road, and on August 15, 1837, this section was opened. The western section extended from the Susquehanna River at Sunbury (not Danville as originally planned) and ended to the Shamokin coalfields, also part of the Second Coal Field. Several years later this line was extended to Mt. Carmel.

The Banking Panic of 1837 created financial difficulties and the project never completed the gap of about 20 miles that would have connected the two ends.  Moreover, the Girard trustees deferred opening up the coal lands in Girardville (the eastern end of the railroad) and that entire portion of the project was abandoned, despite having already been built.  In this regard the D&P was similarly situated as the LSSR (i.e. the original Catawissa Railroad). That railroad also abandoned its partially built line between Catawissa and Tamanend. However, the western portion of the D&P line was able to recover and operated marginally for over a decade. 

The railroad’s precarious finances - including bankruptcies in 1849 and 1857 - prevented profitable operations. On April 12, 1851 the D&P reorganized  as Philadelphia & Sunbury Railroad and then in 1858 as the Shamokin Valley and Pottsville Railroad Company.

Bibliography

Baer, Christopher T., A GENERAL CHRONOLOGY OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY ITS PREDECESSORS AND SUCCESSORS AND ITS HISTORICAL CONTEXT 1831, May 2015 Edition

Baer, Christopher T., A GENERAL CHRONOLOGY OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY ITS PREDECESSORS AND SUCCESSORS AND ITS HISTORICAL CONTEXT 1834, May 2015 Edition

Baer, Christopher T., A GENERAL CHRONOLOGY OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY ITS PREDECESSORS AND SUCCESSORS AND ITS HISTORICAL CONTEXT , 1851, March 2005 Edition

Bell's History of Northumberland Co PA, Local History, Brown Runk & Co., Chicago, 1891

Hard Coal Times, CoalHole.com Bloomsburg, PA., 2005

Heydinger, Earl J., The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin, No. 107 (OCTOBER 1962), Railway & Locomotive Historical Society

Heydinger, Earl J., GROUP VIII. Railroads of the Lehigh Valley - Pennsylvania Railroad Groups,   The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin No. 109 (OCTOBER 1963)

Hoffman, John N., Girard Estate Coal Lands In Pennsylvanis 1801-1834, Smithsonian Institution Press:Washington DC (1972)

Pottsville Republican, Pottsville Pennsylvania, Stephen Girard, the Pioneer Anthracite Operator, 07 Oct 1914

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