The Wilmington and Northern Railroad connected Wilmington, Coatsville, Birdsboro, and Reading Pennsylvania. In 1883, the railroad transferred its offices and service operations from Coatsville to Wilmington, and constructed this repair shop. The modest size of the facility typifies the maintenance facilities built by small railroads in the last quarter of the 19th Century.
In 1898 the Philadelphia and Reading railroad took over the facility and later it became part of the Reading Railroad system. The shop continued to operate with a crew of 30 to 45 men until the Reading Railroad began replace steam locomotives with diesels in the 1940s. By 1952 only light daily maintenance was performed on locomotives there. By 1960 almost all the tooling had been removed from the machine shop, and by 1976, when this survey was completed, the facility stood dilapidated and virtually empty.
This survey was done as part of the Historic American Engineering Record, a project of the National Park Service, with assistance from the State of Delaware division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, the Eleutherian Mills – Hagey Foundation. Field work, measured drawings, historical data and photographs were prepared under the direction of Douglas L. Griffin, chief of HAER and T. Allan Comp, HAER senior historian. The survey team consisted of Dennis L. Davis, David A. Packard, Nancy R. Leckerman, Allan L. Nelson, Christopher S. Derganc, and Bruce Seeley. Photography was created by Charles A. Foote and George W. Rineer. More information is available in the Library of Congress, HAER survey number DE-13.