Gift Shop
The WK&S gift shop, formally know as the "Rigelweg Gift Shop", is yet another original Reading station that was relocated here in 1963. The station came from West Catasauqua, PA along the Reading Company's Catasauqua and Fogelsville Branch. WK&S crews cut the building into several pieces and trucked it to its present location. I believe "rigelweg" is the Pennsylvania Dutch word for railway. The picture above and the one below show the gift shop around 2004. The brick walkway was added beginning in 2000. The bricks were slowly extended from the station toward the refreshment stand and around to the restrooms. The shed next to the gift shop is the pump house and contains plumbing equipment for the railroad's well. The original pump house was a small Reading watchman's shanty. The current pump house shown here was built around 1981. In addition to well equipment it also includes a small water heater and a sink and shower for volunteer use.
Below is how the building looked in its original capacity as the Reading Company's Catasauqua freight station in West Catasauqua, PA. This view looks north across the Lehigh Valley Railroad's four-track main. The crossing track is the Lehigh & New England. Later the Reading station would be moved around the bend to the left, closer to the Reading yard tracks.