A History of the Bingen Railroad Station, Part One

The that were once in Hellertown, Bingen, Center Valley and Coopersburg. This inspired me to find out what I could about the Bingen station in Lower Saucon Township. The two facts I most wanted to discover, I failed to retrieve. I sought to find out when the station was built and when it was demolished. However, I will share the tidbits that I did learn about this former landmark, such as the fact that it was once the scene of a station telegrapher's heinous murder [1], as well as the unfortunate death of a young mother and her four-year-old daughter.[2]

The rail line along which the Bingen station was located was built because a group of Philadelphia businessmen were concerned that railroad tracks were being laid between New York City and the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania. They did not want Philadelphia to lose out on this valuable resource. The investors received authorization in 1852 to build a railroad line between Philadelphia and Bethlehem and called their company the Philadelphia, Easton, Water Gap Railroad Company. Before they even began construction, however, they changed its name to the North Pennsylvania Railroad Company[3]. Hang in there readers, as it gets worse. In those days railroad companies changed their names as often as Zsa Zsa Gabor (married nine times). 

It took until 1857 for the track to be laid between Philadelphia and Freemansburg. That year marked the beginning of railroad traffic through Bingen. The first passenger train was run between Philadelphia and Freemansburg on Jan. 1, 1857.

In his 1972 classic, "Lehigh Valley: The Unsuspected," noted local historian Richmond E. Myers writes about the multiple delays in constructing the rail bed. Solomon W. Roberts, engineer, noted that the rocks were much harder to cut through than expected, there were never enough men to do the job, and that the horses were eating the company out of house and home.[4]

The president of the North Pennsylvania Railroad Company, F. A. Comly, named the village after Bingen on the Rhine, in tribute to the German population of the area. The railroad company created the North Pennsylvania Iron Company in Bingen, under the direction of William R. Yeager, Esq., in 1869. Superintendent Joseph Hunt oversaw the furnace blown in on June 1, 1871. In 1874, the company's most productive year, 10,777 tons of pig metal were manufactured. Meanwhile, the village of Bingen grew to contain two stores, one hotel, one gristmill, the Saucon lime works and about 20 houses. The railroad station housed a post office in 1871, so we can assume that North Penn built the station around that time.

Railroad company owners were practical men. They often chose to join their tracks to those of competing railroad companies because everyone would benefit from the increase in commerce. The North Penn joined the railroad of the Saucon Iron Co. in 1870, about one mile west of Bingen (near Saucon station). A few years later the line connected to the Friedensville Zinc Co. North Penn relied upon the Lehigh Valley Railroad for connections north.

In 1879, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad leased the North Penn for 990 years. That lease ends in the year 2869. I guess the company thought railroads would be around forever. The North Penn was then referred to as the Bethlehem branch of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad became the Reading Railroad in 1924 (want to play some Monopoly anyone?). The company was then sold to Conrail (Consolidated Railroad Corporation) in 1976. Conrail ended its passenger service on the Bethlehem branch in 1978, and passenger trains stopped serving Bingen several years before this date.

I'm guessing that the station was about 100 years old when it was demolished. I'll write about the terrible murder that took place in the station in my next blog. Please check out the maps and photos that accompany this blog.

[1] Ambler Gazette, March 23, 1899, p. 8.

[2] Detroit Free Press - Detroit, Mich., Oct 2, 1886

[3] History of the Lehigh Valley Region, W. Ross Yates, November 1963.

[4] Lehigh Valley: The Unsuspected, Richard E. Myers, 1972.