9-09-2023 12:05am

September 9, 1869: Arrival of Train Service from Philadelphia to Boyertown--a Cause for Celebration

Lesley Misko Editor

September 9, 1869: This morning the Colebrookdale Railroad Company, incorporated in 1865, has begun service from the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad line at Pottstown through Pine Forge, Colebrookdale, and Boyertown to Barto.

Railroad travel propelled Boyertown into its greatest era of growth in commerce and industry, and its rejuvenation in 2015 is really exciting and a great boon to Boyertown.

Boyertown historian W. Edmunds Claussen wrote of the arrival of the first passenger train from Pottstown into Boyertown: a thousand people waited at the Boyertown station for the steam locomotive and its two passenger cars and baggage car to arrive. It had made repeated stops at the stations along the way; the 94 passengers got out of the cars at Pine Forge, at Ironstone and again at Colebrookdale to receive the cheers from the waving crowds standing at trackside and crowding every barn roof around.

When the 10:15 special finally chugged into sight, the Boyertown Band began to play “Hail to the Chief.” A shout of excited welcome went up from the townspeople who crowded around the platform and greeted the arriving passengers with fervor. Some of the more enthusiastic of the crowd carried off the newly-landed passengers on their shoulders.

The festivities marked the arrival of the first train into Boyertown. The fare had cost thirty cents!