Schuylkill County company buys site in Carbon
Reading & Northern Railroad expands once again
Port Clinton-based Reading & Northern Railroad announced Thursday that it has acquired the former north campus of Kovatch Mobile Equipment Corp. The complex, which had been used to build firetrucks, consists of nine buildings spread over about 10 acres in Nesquehoning, Carbon County.
The Kovatch company was sold six years ago to KME, which last fall decided to cease operations in Nesquehoning, according to the railroad.
The facility sits in the middle of the Reading & Northern 400-mile rail system that runs from Reading to Hazleton, Scranton and Mehoopany. The Kovatch location is alongside the rail line that Reading & Northern purchased in 2021 from Carbon County. It connects the Reading & Northern’s Reading and Lehigh Divisions.
Reading & Northern has been making a number of investments in the region. In 2020 it finished the construction of the new Nesquehoning Bridge Phase 2 at a total cost of $14 million. After it purchased the Carbon rail line for $4.7 million, Reading & Northern spent more than $5 million to upgrade the track.
And now the company has acquired the Kovatch property for $2 million.
“We are investing in our future and the future of the communities we serve,” said Andy Muller Jr., founder and owner/CEO of Reading & Northern, in a press release announcing the purchase. “Our company is growing by leaps and bounds. In fact, we believe we will be enjoying double digit carload and revenue growth for years to come fueled in large part by the increasing worldwide demand for Pennsylvania anthracite coal.
“We have always been known as ‘the Road of Anthracite,’ and this year the world has decided to purchase its coal from reliable
Pennsylvania producers instead of Russia. We expect our coal business to grow substantially in 2022 and for years to come.”
Reading & Northern said it is purchasing a number of buildings with heavy cranes systems capable of lifting equipment of varying weights.
“We anticipate locating important parts of our freight and passenger operations in Nesquehoning, which sits in such a perfect location for our railroad and our employees,” Muller said. “We now will have the room to grow our equipment maintenance and repair facilities as well as providing much needed storage. With over 1600 freight cars and our evergrowing
passenger fleet, which now consists of 47 cars, plus over 70 motor vehicles and countless number of other equipment for our track department and other departments, we were running out of space
to keep our equipment well maintained.”
Reading & Northern is allowing KME to lease the buildings so it could finish building the last firetrucks to come out of the original Kovatch location.