FREIGHT USES

Perkasie became a shipping center for surrounding farms and villages. Dairy farmers drove their wagons full of milk cans to the station before 6:00 a.m. to have their milk shipped to Philadelphia. Freight fees on the freight train were paid to the conductor in 1871.

Signal Maintainer

Merchants, dealers, and farmers within 15 miles made Perkasie a trade center. Year after year the railroad business increased until the business at Perkasie was the third largest of the stations along the North Penn line.

A train from the city of Philadelphia arrived at 3 a.m. and brought the morning papers and any late night travelers. The freight yards shipped much of the area's business and were used around the clock. For more than 100 years the railroad was the only carrier of the mail to and from locations outside the city.

PASSENGER TRAINS

Many people traveled to the city of Philadelphia on a daily basis. Several express trains passed through town with Pullman (sleeping) and diner cars. Families could board a train in Perkasie and go to Atlantic City (via Philadelphia), Willow Grove and other amusement parks, and return the same day.

About 1912 with the development of seashore resorts, the popularity of Menlo Park declined; the Reading Company refused to run excursion trains to Menlo Park on Saturdays and Sunday, but weekday trains to Menlo still brought picnickers to Perkasie up to about 1915.

By 1978 there were 6 north and southbound passenger trains daily along the Philadelphia - Bethlehem line. The Conrail train seen at right ran past the Shelly & Fenstermacher train barn (burnt down in the Great Perkasie Fire in 1988).

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DECLINE OF RAILROADS

Following WWII (1945), rail service began to decline as automobiles and truck freight became more popular. By 1970 many East coast railroads were bankrupt. On July 1, 1963 rail delivery of the mail was discontinued. By 1979 Conrail (Federal Agency) took over the freight division of the lines) with one local freight train running daily. In the year 2000 only an occasional freight train uses the line in the middle of the night.

The Perkasie Tunnel as it appears today - in need of work,		Tunnel blocks have fallen near the tunnel entrance.		Vegetation has grown over the Perkasie entrance to the tunnel.

In recent years there is periodically discussion of opening passenger service on the line between Lansdale and Bethlehem. Maintenance of the line would be a major cost in starting up such service in the 2000's.

A rig in the freight yard was removed in 2000 to place a parking lot at this spot.		Signal at Market Street railroad crossing.		View of the railroad tracks in Perkasie at Market Street looking toward Arch Street.