jadebullet
might be back?
I don't get where you got this information, but Reading, PA was not a gambling town in the early 1900s, it was an industrial town based off of the Reading shops, and the mills in the area. Also, during the early 1900s, it produced a few cars as well.
It also focused on the hotel industry, such as the failed Pagota hotel, as well as the hotels on Mount Penn and at Klapperthall curve, both of which burned to the ground. It was the home of the Mount Penn Gravity Railroad, a tourist attraction where shays shoved passenger cars up the mountain, that would coast back down under their own braking.
It was also home to the most powerful corporation in the world during the 1800s, the Reading Railroad. This was the first railroad to employ standardization in their steam locos.(They beat the Pennsy by several years.) It built the worlds largest coal classification yard, and the largest rail yard in the US at the time in Saint Clair, PA. Though it had less route miles, it made a larger profit than the Plague of RailRoading, or PRR. The Reading actually annoyed the PRR so much, that they built a parallel line from Philly to Pottsville in order to try and put the Philadelphia and Reading out of business. They failed. There was so much opposition to the PRR going through the town of Reading that it almost didn't go through, and that is actually where the Plague of RailRoading name came from. Also, in order to stop the P&R from controling the entire anthracite market after they bought out all of the other lines, JP Morgan, who was pretty much the owner of the PRR at the time, actually had to crash the US economy and cause the panic of 1893.
But nowhere in this history, have I ever heard that it was a gambling town.
But I digress.
If you want a REALLY cool line to try and model and bring into the modern day, I suggest that you look into the Beech Creek Railroad. This railroad was actually being secretly constructed during the 1800s, as a parallel line to the PRR's line. It was a small company being funded by industrial juggernauts, the Vanderbuilts of the NYC, Gowen of the RDG, and the B&O railroad. All of these railroads stood to gain from the PRR being weakened as the Pennsy really didn't play nice with other railroads. Unfortunately it was eventually found out and was subsequently stopped after 1893.
Also, obligatory grammar nazi time. Your spelling needs work. I understand that you have a learning disability, but that is no excuse in my mind. My brother has an issue with bad dyslexia where spelling and reading can be difficult for him, but he works harder than anyone I know to make sure his spelling and grammar are all correct, and thankfully he has gotten much better at it. (I just hope he does okay in college, as he is going there next winter.)