Reading & Northern took delivery of its first unit train of frac sand around 10:30 a.m. on May 15.

Norfolk Southern Railroad delivered the 75-car train to Reading & Northern’s North Reading Yard where R&N crews were on hand to receive the train and take it to R&N’s Sand Storage facility in Pittston.

Last year R&N identified a regional need for a transload terminal and began the process of building a facility in Tunkhannock.

The Tunkhannock Transload Terminal opened earlier this year for Marcellus and Non-Marcellus transload business.

Frac sand is an anchor commodity of the terminal and R&N expects to move significant tonnage through Tunkhannock.

Reading & Northern Railroad, with its corporate headquarters in Port Clinton, is a privately held railroad company serving over 70 customers in nine eastern Pennsylvania counties (Berks, Bradford, Carbon, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Northumberland, Schuylkill and Wyoming).

It has expanded its operations over the last 30-plus years and now handles over 34,000 carloads of freight and 200,000 excursion train riders over 400 miles of track.

Reading & Northern operates both freight services and steam and diesel-powered excursion passenger services, owns almost 1,400 freight cars, and employs nearly 300 dedicated employees.

Reading & Northern has repeatedly been honored as one of the premier railroads in the nation including being named Regional Railroad of the year in 2020 by Railway Age Magazine.