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North Pennsylvania Railroad
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North Pennsylvania Railroad (NPR) was a railroad company formed in 1855, and served Montgomery, Bucks, and Northampton Counties. Construction of the line started in 1852 and became operational three years later. In 1856 the company suffered its first accident in the Town of Wissahickon (which is now Ambler) in the The Great Train Wreck of 1856. The following year, a branch was built from Lansdale to Doylestown and during the 1860s another extension was built to Sellersville, running parallel to Bethlehem Pike. This railroad was eventually completed to Bethlehem, and later became the Reading Company's Bethlehem Branch, a two-track main line, with one portion near Telford being three-tracked. A single-track tunnel is in Perkasie.The Reading Company leased North Pennsylvania Railroad on May 14, 1879, which later led to the eventual demise of NPR due to the bankruptcy of the Reading Company and subsequent merger into Conrail.As of 2008, the line is owned by SEPTA, which only operates its electric commuter trains as far north as Lansdale, where the R5 line continues on a branch line to Doylestown. Freight trains are operated on the portion from Lansdale to Quakertown by CSX and East Penn Railroad.
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