Reading Car Company

How it Began

My love of backyard railroading started in the 1980s in Honeybrook, PA. My parents were invited to a picnic at the home of Larry Freeman who had his own railroad, The C&O N Railroad, in his backyard. From the minute I saw his Chessie System locomotive going by pulling a crowd of happy people, I knew I wanted to be involved in the hobby. Things always seemed to conspire to keep me out of it though. I grew up in an area devoid of model railroaders except for my Dad who modeled HO scale. After college, I dabbled in G scale (1:29 scale) and that was some fun, but it didn’t scratch the itch. In 2016, I finally broke down and ordered a Precision Steel Car gondola and was off to the races, so to speak. Shortly thereafter, I had to stop operating Amtrak based private cars due to new regulations and increased costs, so I took the opportunity to shut down the old business and launch Reading Car Company. While getting started, I was contacted by Mr. Freeman, who was moving to Maryland, and the upshot of the call was I took home some of the very equipment that started me in the hobby.

Reading Car Company has come a long way in a very short time. From one or two projects for myself and friends, we now partner with Sprayberry hopper to assemble their line of hopper car kits as well as Quantum Coachworks, a provider of CAD services, to produce our own car with the first one coming out in 2022.

Our Philosophy

We have several points to our philosophy. We believe:

This should be fun. There’s a time and place for all the “less pleasant” things in life. This ain’t it.
Detail matters. Some people don’t need the bells and whistles, some people do. Neither are wrong.
Details matter. We want to get it right. Every time. Just the way you want it.
Service after the sale. We stand by what we build and we’re always happy to help you out if something goes wrong.
Communication. We believe communication is key to customer satisfaction. We keep you updated throughout your build.

Where we’re headed

The goal here at Reading Car Company is to provide the backyard railroad community with realistic railroad equipment and to balance cost and accuracy. To that end, we will soon be beginning production on several new freight car models, the first of which is already in the prototyping stage and is set to be released for pre-order mid summer 2022. We also have an accessory for existing models coming around the same time. Our next 2 pieces of equipment will be rolling out (pun intended) fall of 2022 and spring of 2023. These cars will be prototypically accurate and relatively easy to build by the consumer. We also offer finishing services including assembly, paint, and decals so your car arrives to you ready to run.