A landslide that closed Conrail’s Blandon Low Grade between Blandon and Belt Line Junction, Pennsylvania caused a hasty reactivation of the “Hill Track”, more formally known as the Laureldale Secondary. The Hill Track was the original portion of the East Penn line between Reading and Blandon via Laureldale. With its 1.1% grades and slow-order trackage, the Hill Track was a bottleneck that caused the rerouting of much of Conrail’s traffic between New York and Harrisburg. Here empty hoppers arrive at Reading Yard after negotiating the hill.
