BEAVER MEADOW RAILROAD AND COAL COMPANY

Source based on: Thomas Taber’s Antebellum Railroad Compendium

Parryville to Beaver Meadow, 26 miles and Audenreid, 4 miles Gauge: 4’ 8 1/2"

Chartered: On 4-7-30 to run from the Beaver Meadow coal fields to Lehigh River or to the Little Schuylkill River to the canal. This was the longest of the coalfield railroads.

Built: Parryville (6 miles down river from Mauch Chunk) to Mauch Chunk, 6 miles; to Penn Haven Jct. to Beaver Meadows, 26 miles, 1836.

It acquired several tram roads of coalmines and built Beaver Meadows to later Audenreid, (Yorktown) 4 miles, 1860. At Parryville dumped the coal into canal boats. The coal company tram roads purchased included Hazleton Coal Co., Weatherly to Hazel Creek Bridge, 2 miles, bought 1853; New York and Lehigh Coal Co, Lewiston to Yorktown and Main Line to Frenchtown, 4 miles on 11-19-60; Audenreid, Tower & Co, Yorktown to Honeybrook mines, 2 miles on 2-20-1861. Had two inclined planes. Including equipment it cost $13,546 per mile. The railroad carries coal from lateral branch railroads and takes it to the canal boats at Penn Haven and pays a toll of 1-1/4 ¢ per mile per ton whereas B. M. RR coal goes down to Parryville and avoids that toll.

Abandoned: Parryville to Mauch Chunk after a bad washout in 1841, 6 miles. The coal was then transferred to canal boats at Mauch Chunk. Lehigh Valley R.R. built on B.M.R.R. a roadbed from Parryville to Mauch Chunk and made the B.M.R.R. line from Mauch Chunk to Penn Haven (7 miles) part of their main line. It was merged into the L.V.R.R. on 7-8-1864.

Item from the American R. R. Journal of 8-26-37: The 10 ton, eight wheel locomotive took a train of 52 cars of coal, 140 tons. On the return trip with 30 empty cars the total weight was about 60 tons up a grade as steep as 1.9%. This proves that a railroad can haul heavy tonnage, which canal people had previously said they could not do.

Item from the American R. R. Journal of 8-15-39: Strap iron rail 2-1/4 x 5/8" on stringers 5"x7" and 5"x8" with ties 3 to 4' apart. The sharpest curve was 300' radius. All locomotives on the railroad and the Hazelton RR burn anthracite coal.

Item from the American R. R. Journal of 12-15-49: Strap rail will be replaced by 60# T-rail.

Various Sources: In 1839 had 6 locomotives, five built by Garret and Eastwick of Philadelphia. Locomotives burn anthracite coal.

1 Samuel D. Ingham 4-2-0 Garrett & Eastwick 1835 60” drs.

2 Ellias Eley " " "

3 Quakake " " 1836

4 Beaver 0-4-0 " 1837

5 Hercules 4-4-0 " " 10 tons

6 Nonpareil 0-6-0 Beaver Meadow shop 1838

7 Susquehanna 4-4-0 Phila. & Rdg. RR 1848 Later L V. #6c

8 Defiance 0-8-0 Niles 1855 ex CoaL Run Improvement Co, acq. 1857. Later LV #19

9 Champion " " " Later L. V. RR #20. As built it had two outside and

two inside cylinders with power driven to the smooth

center rail. The railroad had a

plant with rack operation.

10 North Star 4-2-0 Eastwick & Harrison 1838/9 6 tons

11 Mountaineer " " *

12 Amazon 0-8-0 Baldwin 1855 42" drs. 22 tons Disposition unknown

13 James Porter " " " 20 tons

14 Orinoco " " "

15 La Plata " " 1856 22 tons

16 Colorado " " " "

17 Paraquay " " "

18 Alps " " 1857 25 tons LV 01?

19 Atlas " " " LV #16

20 Messenger 4-6-0 " 1862 28 Tons LV #34

21 Mercury " " " LV #35

22 Meteor " " 1863 LV #36

23 Vulcan " " 1864 LV #41

24 Neptune " " " LV #42

25 Tuscarora** " " 1865 LV #45

26 Algonquin** " " "' LV #46

*Questionable. #10 and 11 believed to have been Danville & Potsviile RR's "Mountaineer" and "North Star which went to Phila. & Columbia RR in 1842 and to B.M.R.R. in 1854.

**25 & 26 arrived after the railroad had been acquired by the LV. They retained their names, but may never have been painted as B.M.R.R. nor numbered 25 and 26. Two 4-2-0 were listed for sale in American R. R. Journal of May 1849 (#1,2,,3,10,11)

All Baldwin 0-8-0s were flexible beam truck.

The "Hercules" was one or the very earliest 4-4-0 engines built

Return to the Formation of the Beaver Meadow R. R. Page

About the Hopkin Thomas Project

November 2012