Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad

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For the 20th century companies that used this railroad for excursion trains, see Gettysburg Railroad (1976-1996) and Gettysburg Railway (1996-2001).
Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad
Overview
LocaleAdams & Cumberland Pennsylvania
History
Commenced1882 (1882)
Completed1884 (1884)
Technical
Line length21.5 mi (34.6 km)[1]
Track gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

The Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad (G. & H. R. R.)[2] was a railway line of Pennsylvania from Hunter's Run southward to Gettysburg in the 19th century. The north junction was with the South Mountain RR,[3] and a crossing with the Hanover Junction, Hanover and Gettysburg Railroad's westward extension was at Gettysburg. The crossing also served as a junction for westbound trains to transfer southward across the Gettysburg Battlefield via the G. & H. R. R.'s Round Top Branch[4] to the company's Little Round Top Park.

The G. & H. R. R. was the Gettysburg connection to the Cumberland Valley Railroad at the Hunter's Run junction.
External images
image icon 1886 relief map @ Gettysburg
image icon station with engine on south spur
Map all coordinates using OpenStreetMap

Download coordinates as:

History[edit]

The company charter was granted on October 6, 1882, to "J. C. Fuller, Jay Cooke, John M. Butler, Jay Cooke, jr., [sic] R. J. Woodward, Spencer Ervin, Charles D. Barney, Wm. H. Woodward, and Daniel King."[5] The 22 mi (35 km) initial route by Professor Ambrose E. Lehman had been surveyed into Gettysburg along Rock Creek on January 12, 1882,[6] but the mainline was instead completed into the west side of the borough along Oak Ridge.[4] The passenger schedules expanded from three to seven stations between Hunter's Run and Gettysburg from April 21 to July 3, 1884; with the former identifying the Pine Grove station off the mainline and the latter similarly adding "Laurel" ("Table Rock" was added by May 25, 1885).[7]

Route
This list is incomplete; you can help by editing it.
Coordinates
junction: Hunter's Run
county line
station: Starner's
station: Peach Glen by 1916 [5]
1928 partial derailment [6]
station: Idaville near trestle site of 1907 wreck
station: Gardner's Station
station: Bendersville
“Aspers Station” by 1888[8]
land of Fred A. Asper[8]
station: Sunnyside 39°56′50″N 77°13′58″W / 39.947255°N 77.232736°W / 39.947255; -77.232736
station: Biglerville
"Arendtsville Road"[7] pick-up point[9]
bridge: Conewago Creek curve washed out in 1912 [7]
station: Goldenville Reuben Golden's warehouse[10]
landform: Keckler's Hill [8] Susquehanna/Potomac divide
Mummasburg Rd
c. 1995 reroute point 39°50′34″N 77°14′27″W / 39.84283°N 77.240748°W / 39.84283; -77.240748
1938 reunion station end of W Lincoln Av
switch for siding toward college
switch for siding adjacent to station switch
switch for station siding
crossing with east-west line 39°49′57″N 77°14′16″W / 39.832606°N 77.237733°W / 39.832606; -77.237733
road [specify]
switch (curve from east-west line) behind 1896 Meade School[4]
Fairfield Rd siding[11] commissary siding[12]
Hancock Station
Round Top Station
Wheatfield Road
terminus E of Little Round Top[4] between ends of 2 rock walls

Groundbreaking was on April 18, 1883,[6] and grading had been started by June 20 [9] and completed in October,[6] except for December grading of the Gettysburg roundhouse lot on the north side of the "Tapeworm" right-of-way.[10] Tracklaying had begun on August 20, 1883;[6] the 1st train arrived February 26, 1884 [10] (two "golden" spikes driven); the station was completed by Joseph J Smith on March 4 [11] ("cellar and foundations" by George W. Lady);[10] and scheduled passenger service began April 21, 1884.[13] Conewago Creek (west) flood damage on June 24 was repaired,[12] and the first fatality was on July 22, 1884, when the "Jay Cooke" locomotive decapitated a man who stopped his wagon on the tracks (additional locomotives included Engine No. 7, the "J. C. Fuller".)[13] On May 12, 1884, the company laid east-west Gettysburg tracks along Railroad St across Washington St,[9] and the competing east-west railroad to Gettysburg added track on Carlisle St the next morning to prevent the Gettysburg and Harrisburg from continuing eastward.[9] (By 1904, the east-west railroad had allowed the G. & H. R. R. to connect for a southern junction[4] near the lane now named Gilliland Alley.)

The first Gettysburg excursion train to Pine Grove Park was on May 28, 1884.[9] Two additional G. & H. R. R. stations were south of Gettysburg for excursions on the Round Top Branch; which had been surveyed by July 14, 1882;[14] had begun construction by May 1884;[15] and had started operations in June 1884.[16] Beginning with the 1884 Camp Gettysburg, the Round Top Branch supported various Gettysburg Battlefield camps after the American Civil War such as the 1918 Camp Colt.

In October 1884, Chief Engineer Lehman commenced an Idaville-to-York Springs survey for an eastward branch.[17] A new Baldwin locomotive had been purchased by April 10, 1889, when Lehman began the survey for the southward extension from Round Top to the Washington, DC, Pennsylvania Railroad terminal at the National Mall via Westminster, Maryland and that was never built[18] (Lehman & Col Fuller had visited Littlestown, Pennsylvania, in 1884 regarding the Westminster route.)[19] In February 1899, an engine derailed while a hostler moved it from the Gettysburg roundhouse.[14]

The "Reading Railroad" took control of the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad on May 22, 1891, and retained the G & H's superintendent (W. H. Woodward) as the head of their Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railway subsidiary.[20]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Diblasi, Nancy. "Excursion Puffs Its Way To Mount Holly Springs" (Google News Archive). Gettysburg Times. Retrieved 2011-05-11.
  2. ^ "Camp Gettysburg" (Google News Archives). Gettysburg Compiler. July 29, 1884. Retrieved 2010-05-06.
  3. ^ "The New Railroad: Completion of the Track—Interesting Ceremonies—Dinner at the Eagle" (Google News Archive). Star & Sentinel. March 4, 1884. Retrieved 2011-05-11.
  4. ^ a b c d e Map of the Battle Field of Gettysburg (Map). Cartography by Gettysburg National Park Commission (Nicholson, John P; Cope, Emmor; Hammond, Schuyler A). New York: Julius Bien & Co. Lith. 1904.
  5. ^ "Railroad Charter" (Google News Archive). Gettysburg Compiler. Retrieved 2011-05-11. NOTE: Col Jackson C. Fuller was the president of both the Gettysburg & Harrisburg and the South Mountain [1] railroads, the latter which provided shipping for Pine Grove Furnace which Fuller purchased in 1877 [2] and where he had a farm.[3] The "Fuller Cornet Band" of Pine Grove Furnace played at Little Round Top Park in July 1884.[4]
  6. ^ a b c d Gitt, Joseph S (February 19, 1884). "Baltimore and Harrisburg Railroad" (Google News Archive). Gettysburg Compiler; Adams County Railroads: Concluded. Retrieved 2013-11-05.
  7. ^ a b "Gettysburg & Harrisburg R. R.". Gettysburg Compiler.
  8. ^ a b "Large Assignee Sale" (Google News Archive). Gettysburg Compiler. October 9, 1888. Retrieved 2011-05-13.
  9. ^ a b c d "First Gettysburg Excursion to Pine Grove Park" (Google News Archives). Gettysburg Compiler. May 13, 1884. Retrieved 2011-05-11. "South Mountain Junction" at Carlisle will hereafter be known as "Gettysburg Junction." … Train will stop for passengers at Arendtsville road.
  10. ^ a b c "Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad" (Google News Archive). Gettysburg Compiler. December 19, 1883. Retrieved 2011-05-12. The round-house lot is being graded and the surplus earth hauled across the "Tapeworm" on[to] the Mumper lot, thus making a commencement for the Round-Top branch.
  11. ^ "Railroad Notes" (Google News Archive). Gettysburg Compiler. July 22, 1884. Retrieved 2011-05-07. The long siding south of the Fairfield road is down; also a long one at Goldenville. … The H. J., H. & G. Railroad is completing the track connecting that road with the Round-Top branch of the G. & H. The two tracks have also been joined just beyond the Cashman lime kilns, to allow the new road a more convenient route to Round-Top. … over 500 … colored Odd Fellows of Carlisle.
  12. ^ "Railroad Notes" (Google News Archive). Gettysburg Compiler. July 22, 1884. Retrieved 2011-05-07. The H. J., H. & G. Railroad is completing the track connecting that road with the Round-Top branch of the G. & H. The two tracks have also been joined just beyond the Cashman lime kilns, to allow the new road a more convenient route to Round-Top. … over 500 … colored Odd Fellows of Carlisle.
  13. ^ "Railroaders Tell About "Early Days":] [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8WYmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ev8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=848,13116&dq=round-top-branch&hl=en Railroaders" (Google News Archives). Gettysburg Times. April 30, 1958. Retrieved 2011-05-12. The G and H had a three-engine round house in the yards
  14. ^ "Railroad Surveys" (Google News Archive). Gettysburg Compiler. Town and County. June 14, 1882. Retrieved 2011-05-07. (1982 Out of the Past commemoration)
  15. ^ "Out Of The Past: Fifty Years Ago" (Google News Archives). Gettysburg Times. May 12, 1958. Retrieved 2011-05-07. Track Foreman Coulson and his force of hands are laying heavy iron rails--80 pound to the yard--on the Round Top branch.
  16. ^ "Town and Country: Local Flashes & Excursions" (Google News Archive). Gettysburg Compiler. June 24, 1884. p. 3. Retrieved 2011-02-25. Mr. Lewis A. Bushman's warehouse at Round-Top was raised on Saturday. … The two new wells at Round-Top are both successes … Saturday, Beneficial Society of Bailey's Nail Works, Harrisburg, over 550 on a train of ten new coaches. This was the heaviest passenger train yet over the road, and hundreds of persons in the evening watched the powerful No. 7 engine pull the long train over the steep grade just beyond town … The "dummy" Baldwin made frequent trips … taking town folks to the hill
  17. ^ "Local Items" (Google News Archives). Star & Sentinel. October 21, 1884. Retrieved 2011-05-12.
  18. ^ "Local Flashes: From Gettysburg to Washington" (Google News Archives). Gettysburg Compiler. April 16, 1889. Retrieved 2011-05-12.
  19. ^ "Littlestown Items" (Google News Archive). Gettysburg Compiler. November 18, 1884. Retrieved 2011-05-11.
  20. ^ "Reading Acquires A Road". The New York Times. 23 May 1891. Retrieved 2011-05-12. (larger article in The Philadelphia Record)
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