The Quakertown and Eastern Railroad

The Quakertown and Eastern Railroad (also called the "Quick and Easy" by the locals) was a single-track line that ran from Quakertown to Riegelsville.  Construction began on the line a month after it was chartered in July of 1896.  Exactly a year after construction commenced, passengers and cargo began being transported from where it branched off the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company's Bethlehem line in Quakertown to Richlandtown.  It was another year until service was available to Springtown.  Then another year until it reached the Durham Iron Works.  Records then show it took exactly two years to make it the remaining short distance to Riegelsville.  The original plan was to extend the line to Easton and connect with the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway, creating a shorter route from Philadelphia to New York State.


Q & E's original engine Engine No.1 in 1903.


The first locomotives to pull cars on this line were from the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company.  In 1903, the Quakertown and Eastern Railroad purchased their own locomotive on installments.  10 months later, they had to trade it in for a smaller model.  It frequently derailed because it was too long for some of the tight curves. 



After leaving the Quakertown station and shortly after crossing Broad Street to the north, the Q&E, branches off the Bethlehem line and heads northeast.  Across the tracks from the rear of the Borough building, you can see a short section of the abandoned rails, but the interchange switch is long gone. 

Between Quakertown and Richlandtown, the Right of Way (ROW) isn't very clear today, due to commercial buildings, a couple housing developments and woods. 

In Richlandtown, it looks like the tracks used to pass behind the Post Office at Pumping Station Road and crossed Richlandtown Pike at about the 7-11 parking lot.  I can't find any sources indicating where the Richlandtown station would have been.  I'm thinking it may have been where the line crossed Union Street right by where the propane company tore down the neat, weathered old wooden building to build a big ugly steel box. 



View from Bridge Street in Pleasant Valley, showing the
ROW curve sloping down to the crossing of Old Bethlehem Road.

 The next station was Pullen, just north of where the line crossed Pullen Station Road at the S-curve.  The long driveway to the northeast is the old ROW.  Less then a mile from Pullen Station, where Cooks Creek turns to the northeast, the line begins following the creek.  It crossed Old Bethlehem Road just after Bridge Street in Pleasant Valley, before the Three Arch Bridge over the creek.  There was also a Pleasant Valley station, but I don't know that location either.

The next station to the northeast was named Gehman and was probably near where the line and Cook's Creek cross Slifer Valley Road.  near where the creek and the line crossed Rt 412/212, east of Springtown, is probably the Location of the Springtown Station.

Cooks Creek and the rail line then turn more Easterly and somewhere, about halfway between Springtown and Durham Village, is Witte Station.  It was likely near where the Haupt's Mill covered bridge once spanned the creek.  It was sometimes called Witte's Bridge.  There was likely a station at the old Durham Village, as well. 

Between Durham Village and Durham Iron Works, the line crossed the creek twice and some of the stone bridge piers still stand in the creek.  After Durham furnace, the line turns North and continues to Riegelsville station.

1900 Bucks County map, showing the entire Q & E line and stations.


The Quakertown and Eastern Railroad operated until 1906.  This end date corresponds with, and is likely related to, the demise of the Durham Iron Works.  Pennsylvania Eastern Railroad took over operations but ceased in early 1907.  The locomotive was repossessed by the manufacturer.  The cars were collected by the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company, who also removed the switches to the line in Quakertown. 

This wasn't the end of this railroad though.  It was revived for service to Upper Bucks County a few more times and that will be the subject of my next post.