Reading & Northern Railroad, the largest privately owned railroad in Pennsylvania, finalized an agreement last week to purchase 124 covered hopper railcars from Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railroad. This $4 million acquisition, which is the largest single railcar purchase in R&N history, is another step R&N has taken to support its surging Anthracite business.

Mining of Pennsylvania anthracite, which is the largest known anthracite deposit in the world, has been increasing in recent years. And as American steelmaking has been thriving the last few years there has been growing demand for Pennsylvania anthracite shipments going to electric-arc furnace steel mills across the United States and Canada. Most of the anthracite moving to EAF’s move in a dried form and requires covered hopper equipment.

To meet this growing business segment R&N keeps purchasing covered hopper cars. In addition to the 124 cars from CPKC, R&N just agreed to purchase an additional 30 covered hoppers from a different car owner. With these purchases R&N will own 2,000 freight cars for its customers to use.

The new cars will quickly go into freight service as R&N expects the EAF business to increase 10% this year and total nearly 375,000 net tons.

This acquisition will not only allow R&N to keep up with current demand, but it will also position it for future growth. Andy Muller Jr., owner/CEO of the Reading and Northern Railroad, stated, “We’re extremely excited with the purchase of these railcars and pleased that CPKC chose our bid package over many other options. We’re regularly exploring the railcar market looking for opportunities to not only increase but upgrade our fleet. These covered hoppers are in fantastic condition and will ensure we can provide our online customers with the equipment they need to ship Pennsylvania-sourced anthracite to markets across the U.S. and abroad.”

Reading & Northern Railroad, with its corporate headquarters in Port Clinton, is a privately held railroad company serving over 80 customers in nine eastern Pennsylvania counties (Berks, Bradford, Carbon, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Northumberland, Schuylkill, and Wyoming). It has expanded its operations over the last 40 years; and projects 40,000 carloads of freight in 2026 (which removes over 400,000 trucks from the highway) while its Passenger Department, which has the ability to serve more than 130 communities in Eastern Pennsylvania, welcomed over 410,000 customers in 2025.