The northern portion of the Lebanon & Tremont came from the Good Spring Railroad, which was incorporated in 1861 or 1863, but was not organized until March 26, 1869.
It was controlled by the Reading Company (RDG) which transferred to it the property of the Swatara Railroad in 1863, giving it a line from Lorberry Junction to Donaldson via Tremont.
[1] At Lorberry Junction, the Good Spring connected with the former Union Canal and the Lorberry Creek railroads, the former of which ran south to the Union Canal and the Schuylkill & Susquehanna Railroad at Pine Grove.
While coal originating on these railroads could be hauled laterally east and west over the Schuylkill and Susquehanna from Pine Grove, or west on the Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven Railroad from Tremont, there was no direct route southward.
The new line was built in 1870, and the first train ran between Lebanon and Pine Grove on March 7, 1870.
After RDG purchased the West End collieries in the 1870s, it began offering service to its workers in the form of two miners' trains running north from Pine Grove.
[1] The Tremont-Good Spring segment was sold by Conrail in 1990 to current owner Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad.