Reading and Columbia Railroad stock certificate c1857 (Pennsylvania)

Rare PA short line railroad. Multiple vignettes on this beautiful certificate -  at the top is a factory scene with a river in the background; at the lower left is a classical female figure representing Lady Liberty; at the lower right are two female figures including a Native American Indian with a another seated woman. Unissued and not cancelled. Circa 1857 from issued examples. Measures approximately 10.5 by 6.5 inches.

The Reading and Columbia Railroad was chartered in 1857 to build from Reading southwest to Columbia on the Susquehanna River. It opened in 1864, using the Lebanon Valley Railroad from Sinking Spring east to Reading. The Reading leased it in 1870.

A group of influential citizens from Lancaster and Berks Counties secured passage of a charter creating the Reading & Columbia Rail Road Company which was signed by Governor James Pollock on May 19, 1857. By December 1860, the survey and location of the R&C route was completed. It was decided that Sinking Spring, where a connection could be made with the Lebanon Valley Railroad, would be the starting point and the line would run via Reinholds, Stevens, Ephrata, Akron, Millway, Rothsville, Lititz, Manheim, Landisville, and onto Columbia—a distance of 39.8 miles.

Although the major construction was started at the Columbia end of the line, the actual ground breaking for the R&C was completed March 28, 1861 at a gap in the South Mountains about 4 miles south of Sinking Spring.

The Reading & Columbia Railroad was built to connect the City of Reading to the Chesapeake Bay Region via the Susquehanna Tide Water Canal, and ran its first train along newly-laid rails in 1863. It transported mainly coal, iron ore, and general merchandise. During its heyday, the railroad expanded into Marietta and Lancaster, and carried as many as ten passenger trains a day.

The first Lititz passenger depot and express station was located on the north side of the tracks along Broad Street, which is the present site of Wilbur Chocolate Company. The depot was dedicated December 26, 1863, with the arrival of the first passenger train.

he Philadelphia & Reading Company, which operated the R&C, was merged with the Reading Company in 1923. The Reading Company assumed the operation of the Reading & Columbia Rail Road, but the R&C still retained its corporate existence. It was not until December 31, 1945 that the Reading & Columbia Rail Road Company was merged with the Reading Company after which the R&C as a corporate identity ceased to exist.

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