Reading & Northern Railroad recently was named the American Shortline and Regional Railroad Association's highest award for marketing achievement.

This is the third time Reading & Northern has won the award in the last six years.Dennis Shaffer, vice president of business development, accepted the award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.The association recognized Reading & Northern for its rapid response and development of a railroad-operated warehouse in Old Forge.The need for this new warehouse facility came suddenly in April 2015 when a customer notified the railroad that it needed a new warehouse to handle and store their wood pulp. The critical part of the request is that this new warehouse needed to be available within a month.In a little over a month Reading & Northern was able to find a long unused building along its railroad in Old Forge, negotiate a lease, modify and rehabilitate the building, acquire the necessary handling equipment, train our employees and rehabilitate a long unused rail siding that was buried under several feet of dirt.Simultaneously, Reading & Northern moved to acquire and rehabilitate, in its Port Clinton car shop, additional boxcars to handle this wood pulp from Old Forge to final destination.This new facility was up and running by May 2015 and has seen continual business growth ever since.In addition to the ASLRRA Marketing Award, Reading & Northern was also recognized in 2015 when it was named Regional Railroad of the Year by Railway Age Magazine. This was the third time it won this award.Reading & Northern Railroad, with its corporate headquarters in Port Clinton, is a privately held railroad company serving over 60 customers in Berks, Bradford, Carbon, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Northumberland, Schuylkill and Wyoming counties.