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Richard N. Mansley manuscript, drawings, and research materials on Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad
Notifications
Held at: Newtown Historic Association [Contact Us]Centre Avenue and Court Street, Newtown, Pennsylvania
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Newtown Historic Association. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad Company was originally incorporated as the Philadelphia and Montgomery County Railroad in 1860. The charter was acquired by the businessmen of Newtown and Philadelphia in 1872, and the name changed to the Philadelphia and Newtown Railroad. The name was again changed in 1873 to the Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad.
The line was intended to extend from Philadelphia to Newtown. From Newtown, it was to cross the Delaware River to New Jersey's Mercer and Somerset Railroad which connected with the Millstone and New Brunswick Railroad, which stopped in Jersey City, located just across the Hudson River from New York City.
After the company failed, the railway was operated by the Reading Company and Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) until SEPTA terminated service in 1983.
This collection includes Richard N. Mansley's manuscript, The Newtown Railroad Reel, which focuses on the difficulties encountered in the construction of the Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad; its bankruptcy in 1876; and its completion to Newtown in 1878. Research materials, such as copies of photographs, newspaper and magazine articles, published works, and archival documents, which Mansley created and compiled while working on the manuscript are also included.
There are also over 200 scale drawings that Mansley created of the stations, shelters, structures, signs and signals of the Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad from Philadelphia to Newtown from 1876 to 1984. Also included are plans for the covered bridges that once served the railroad as well as a map and profile of the railroad along with an index.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2012-2014 as part of a project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
Detailed, computerized inventories of all of the items in this collection are available on site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Newtown Historic Association directly for more information.
Organization
- Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad Company
- Reading Company
- Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Newtown Historic Association
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by staff of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories using data provided by Newtown Historic Association
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact Newtown Historic Association for information about accessing this collection.