[2] A charter supplement on March 13, 1866, allowed the Berks and Chester to connect to and merge with the Delaware and Pennsylvania State Line.
[2] The directors of the consolidated company were Edward and George Brooke, Hiester Clymer, L. Heber Smith, Hugh E. Steele, Charles E. Pennock, Charles Huston, Joseph Tatnall, Edward Betts, Joshua T. Heald, Francis Barry, James Bradford, and William S.
[5] The first seven were ironmasters in Berks and northern Chester County, owning works along or near the proposed railroad, while the latter six were Wilmington businessmen.
The first route ran from Wilmington over the hills to the northwest, dropping into the valley of the Brandywine at Twaddell's Ford, ten miles above the city.
The second route was surveyed up the Red Clay Creek via Marshallton, Delaware, Kennett Square and Unioniville, and the third even further west by way of Avondale.
[9] The company also obtained a charter supplement on February 25, 1867, allowing them to extend their rail line from the Christina to the Delaware River and build wharves and piers.
[12] In the following year, construction continued north along the West Branch to Hibernia, site of an iron furnace, and on to Birdsboro and the Reading connection.
Franklin B. Gowen, the aggressive president of the Reading, fiercely resisted the construction of the Berks County Railroad, and was rumored to have threatened to embargo the Lehigh Valley's coal trade if it cooperated with the venture.
The Panic of 1873 ushered in a long depression that badly eroded the financial position of the railroads and of the Wilmington and Reading's directors.
Anticipating that the satisfaction of the bondholders' claims would leave nothing for the stockholders, the directors entered into negotiations with W. O. Leslie, a Philadelphia railroad promoter.
The two companies agreed to merge on May 31, 1875, but no particular change occurred in the running of the railroad, which defaulted on its mortgage later in the year and was placed in the hands of commissioners to operate.
Robert Frazer, Matthew Baird, Edward S. Buckley, Lammot du Pont, Charles Baber, George Brooke, and Daniel R. Bennett were chosen as directors.
[17] Frazer was elected president, while Peter S. Ermold was appointed secretary and treasurer and J. M. Thompson engineer and general superintendent.
Frazer was succeeded as president by Bennett and as a director by L. Taylor Dickson, while Lammot was replaced by his first cousin Henry A. du Pont.
Bennett resigned as president and director and was succeeded by du Pont, who would hold that office for the remainder of the railroad's independent operation.
Buckley also resigned from the board; they were replaced by L. Waln Smith and Charles Huston, the latter an original Wilmington and Reading director.
It was sold at foreclosure on September 23, 1879, terminating the Wilmington and Northern's agreement with it for trackage rights from High's Junction to Reading.
The railroad also prepared to extend its line in Wilmington to the Delaware River and began selling mortgage bonds for the extension.
Rails were laid 0.75 miles (1.21 km) from the junction with the main line to the Christiana River, where an iron drawbridge was to be constructed; grading continued on the other side.
The Wilmington and Northern also made a 999-year lease of right-of-way to the Pennsylvania Schuylkill Valley Railroad, allowing the latter to construct a parallel line along the Reading Branch from Birdsboro to Naomi, near High's Junction.