During the American Civil War the line had strategic importance in supplying Union troops in the Shenandoah Valley. It also ran the first passenger sleeping car in the U.S. on the Chambersburg-Harrisburg route in 1839.[4][5] The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) gained control of the CVRR as early as 1859, and officially purchased it on June 2, 1919. The PRR's successor, the Penn Central, closed all railway facilities in Chambersburg in 1972 and its successor, Conrail, abandoned major pieces of the line in 1981.
Early history
The Cumberland Valley Railroad Company was chartered by the Pennsylvania Legislature on April 2, 1831, to construct a railroad from Carlisle to a point on the Susquehanna River at or near Harrisburg. This charter expired, but it was renewed on April 15, 1835, allowing the road to be built from the Susquehanna River to Chambersburg. On June 27, 1835, Thomas Grubb McCullough was elected as the first President of the road, and in August, William Milner Roberts was selected as Chief Engineer.
The initial cost of building the road, including a bridge across the Susquehanna, was estimated before construction at $564,064, and the average annual receipts of the road at $284,617.50, calculated at 100passengers each way per day at 3cents per mile, and 35,000tons of through freight and 51,950tons of local freight, at 4½cents per ton per mile. $642,000 was raised by local stock subscription and construction began in the Spring of 1836.[2][pageneeded]
The railroad opened for travel from White Hill, near Harrisburg to Carlisle in August, 1837, and through to Chambersburg in November, 1837. The first locomotive, built by William Norris in Philadelphia, had two driving wheels, wooden spokes, and was named "Cumberland Valley,"
The passenger cars carried 14 passengers each and were bought used from the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, according to the 1887 "History of Franklin County Pennsylvania." The railroad track was constructed of cross ties laid 4.5 feet (1.4m)apart without ballast, with 5in ×9in (130mm ×230mm) oak stringers serving as rails. Iron bar, 0.625 inches (15.9mm) thick by 2.25 inches (57mm) wide, was spiked to the top of the stringers. When service began to Chambersburg, the iron was not laid for the last 3 miles (4.8km) and the cars were run in on the wooden stringers.[2][pageneeded]
Leave Chambersburg at 4 o'clock in the morning; Arrive at Harrisburg at 8, at Lancaster at 12, at Philadelphia before 6 P.M. Returning it will leave Harrisburg as soon as the cars from Philadelphia arrived, about 5 o'clock in the evening and arrive at Chambersburg at 10 P.M.[2][pageneeded]
Innovation
The first American sleeping car, the "Chambersburg" started service on the CVRR in 1839
The Cumberland Valley Railroad pioneered the use of sleeping cars in the spring of 1839, a first on any American railroad, with a car named "Chambersburg." The berths were upholstered boards, in three rows, one above the other, held by leather straps, and in the daytime were folded back against the walls. A couple of years later a second car, the "Carlisle," was introduced into service.[4]
Passengers traveling from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia traveled by horse drawn stage for 36 hours to get to Chambersburg, arriving about midnight, then left by rail about 1 am, arriving at Harrisburg about 5 am, in time to catch a HPMt.J&L train to Philadelphia.
"The History of Franklin County Pennsylvania" also claims that the first locomotive cab was constructed in the CVRR shops in Chambersburg in 1841 for a Franklin Railroad locomotive, named "Washington."
Growth
In 1839 the CVRR bought three locomotives for $21,250 and two passenger cars for $4,175, and ran two passenger trains and one freight train each day between Chambersburg and Harrisburg. They boasted that no passenger had been injured in the 2½years that the road had been operated.
Frederick Watts was elected the third president of the CVRR in 1841 and served in the post for 32 years. He reported that total annual earnings were $70,116.82 for 1842. By 1849, annual earnings were $101,084.77, and tonnage hauled was reported for the first time, totaling 37,439tons, including 7,818tons of flour, 5,126 of iron ore, 4,247 of coal, 2,123 of grain, and 2,237 of lumber. In that year plans were made to reconstruct the track with heavy iron rails.[2][pageneeded]
In March 1832, the Franklin Railroad was chartered by the Pennsylvania Legislature, and on January 16, 1837, by the Legislature of Maryland. The road was built from Chambersburg to Greencastle, Pennsylvania, in 1837, and to Hagerstown, Maryland in 1841. It owned its own steam locomotives, but these were sold about 1841, when the CVRR began operating the road. Horse power, rather than steam power, was used during the 1840s and 1850s. Ownership and operating rights changed hands several times, until 1860 when the track was rebuilt with heavy rails and the CVRR contracted to operate the track. In 1865 the two railroads were merged.
Daniel Tyler was hired in 1850 to supervise the line's rebuilding. He hired Alba Smith as superintendent of the machinery shop in 1850. Smith served as superintendent of the railway from 1851 to 1856, and helped introduce lighter-weight "single-wheel" locomotives on the line. These locomotives included the Pioneer and the Jenny Lind, bought in 1851, and the Boston and Enterprise bought in 1853–54.[7] In 1999, the Pioneer was moved from its display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. to the as yet unopened National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. (The locomotive was later moved to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.)[8][9]
The 1916 CVRR Timetable
In October 1862, the Confederate forces destroyed railway buildings in Chambersburg, and on June 15, 1863, during the Gettysburg campaign, they destroyed all company property in the town, and tore up five miles (8.0km) of Franklin Railroad. In July, 1864 Confederate raiders led by Jubal Early returned and burned the greater part of Chambersburg including most railroad property.[3]
During the 1870s feeder lines such as the Mont Alto Railroad were added in the Cumberland Valley to gain access to iron ore deposits. In 1873 the railroad extended south from Hagerstown to the Potomac River, and reached Martinsburg, West Virginia via the Martinsburg and Potomac Railroad.[10] The Mechanicsburg Pennsylvania Railroad Station was built about 1875.[11] In 1889, the Martinsburg and Potomac's line was extended to Winchester, Virginia, at the head of the Shenandoah Valley, under the Cumberland Valley and Potomac Railway, to be operated by the CVRR. The Cumberland Valley was to have a junction with the South Pennsylvania Railroad in Newville, but the ambitious South Penn ran into financial difficulties during its construction and was never completed.
In June 1882, the Shenandoah Valley Railroad was opened from Hagerstown to Roanoke, Virginia. In conjunction with the Norfolk and Western Railway the CVRR operated the middle link of the New York-Harrisburg-Hagerstown-Roanoke, Va. passenger trains. Trains reportedly traveled at over 90mph on parts of this route.
South Penn Branch Line
The South Penn Branch was a line that connected the CVRR main line to an iron furnace near Cowans Gap. It left the line near Marion and went to Richmond Furnace, a distance of 26 miles (42km). This route was one possible route for a cross-Pennsylvania main line, rejected in favor of the route along the Juniata River.
Regular passenger train service on the CVRR ended in 1952, the last New York-Roanoke train ran in 1961. The PRR's successor, the Penn Central, closed all railway facilities in Chambersburg in 1972. Its successor, Conrail, first renamed what had been known as the Cumberland Valley Branch with three names: Shippensburg Secondary Track (Harrisburg to PENNROAD, south-east of Shippensburg); Hagerstown Secondary Track (from the Reading junction north-east of Shippensburg, through PENNROAD, to TOWN and HAGER towers in Hagerstown); and Winchester Secondary Track. Conrail later (1979–1980) abandoned the southern half of the Shippensburg Secondary (from the west side of Carlisle to Shippensburg, including street-running trackage on Earl St. in the latter town), opting instead to use the Reading connection for freight trains. Instrumental in this realignment was the placement of a wye track at CAPITOL interlocking in Harrisburg. Conrail also abandoned the trackage on the western portion of the CV bridge in Harrisburg, leaving a wye for Amtrak to turn power. The Winchester Secondary was sold to a short line. The Lurgan Branch name, originally used by Conrail for the ex-Reading trackage that passed through Shippensburg to a connection with the Western Maryland, was retained. Norfolk Southern Railway operates the trackage since the 1999 breakup of Conrail.
The Pennsylvania Railroad, legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia. It was named for the commonwealth in which it was established. At its peak in 1882, the Pennsylvania Railroad was the largest railroad, the largest transportation enterprise, and the largest corporation in the world.
The Reading Company was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and freight transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its acquisition by Conrail in 1976.
NJ Transit Rail Operations is the rail division of NJ Transit. It operates commuter rail service in New Jersey, with most service centered on transportation to and from New York City, Hoboken, and Newark. NJ Transit also operates rail service in Orange and Rockland counties in New York under contract to Metro-North Railroad. The commuter rail lines saw 45,838,200 riders in 2022, making it the third-busiest commuter railroad in North America and the longest commuter rail system in North America by route length.
The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central, Jersey Central Lines or New Jersey Central, was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of the Northeastern United States.
The Cumberland Valley is a northern constituent valley of the Great Appalachian Valley, within the Atlantic Seaboard watershed in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The Appalachian Trail crosses through the valley.
The Western Maryland Railway was an American Class I railroad (1852–1983) that operated in Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It was primarily a coal hauling and freight railroad, with a small passenger train operation.
The Northern Central Railway (NCRY) was a Class I Railroad in the United States connecting Baltimore, Maryland, with Sunbury, Pennsylvania, along the Susquehanna River. Completed in 1858, the line came under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in 1861, when the PRR acquired a controlling interest in the Northern Central's stock to compete with the rival Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O).
The Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Bridge carries Norfolk Southern rail lines across the Susquehanna River between Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Some of its concrete piers encase stone masonry piers from an earlier truss bridge on this site, completed in 1891 by the Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh Railroad, which was then acquired by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad to connect its Harrisburg and Lurgan lines. The current structure was constructed from 1920 to 1924 by replacing the trusses with concrete arches one track at a time. The bridge has fifty-one concrete arches, three more than the nearby Rockville Bridge.
Shenandoah Valley Railroad was a line completed on June 19, 1882, extending up the Shenandoah Valley from Hagerstown, Maryland through the West Virginia panhandle into Virginia to reach Roanoke, Virginia and to connect with the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W). The development of this railroad had considerable backing from the Pennsylvania Railroad. In September 1890 it went into bankruptcy and was reorganized as the Shenandoah Valley Railway. In December 1890, it became part of N&W. Today the tracks are a major artery of the Norfolk Southern system.
The Lurgan Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia. The line runs from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, south to Hagerstown, Maryland, and west to Cherry Run, West Virginia, along a former Western Maryland Railway line. It meets the Hanover Subdivision at Hagerstown and the Cumberland Subdivision at Cherry Run. The line is named after its former northern end in Lurgan Township, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, where the Western Maryland once connected to the Reading Company along the Alphabet Route.
The Lurgan Branch is a railroad line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania and Maryland. The line is part of the NS Harrisburg Division and runs from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania southwest to Hagerstown, Maryland along former Reading Company and Pennsylvania Railroad lines. Its northeast end is at a junction with the Harrisburg Line, Pittsburgh Line, Royalton Branch, and Amtrak's Keystone Corridor ; its southwest end is at the beginning of the Hagerstown District. At Lemoyne it intersects the Enola Branch.
The Central New York Railroad is a shortline railroad operating local freight service along ex-Southern Tier Line trackage in the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania. The line begins at Port Jervis, following the Delaware River to Deposit and the Susquehanna River from Lanesboro, where it passes over the Starrucca Viaduct, to Binghamton. It is a subsidiary of the Delaware Otsego Corporation, which also owns the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway, operator of through trains over the line.
The Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad is a tourist railroad that runs from Titusville to Rynd Farm north of Oil City in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Oil Creek and Titusville Lines is the designated operator of the railroad, as well as the freight carrier on the line.
The South Mountain Railroad was a southcentral Pennsylvania railway line for "connecting the Pine Grove works to the Cumberland Valley R. R." and which provided mining and passenger services via a southwest section from Hunter's Run, Pennsylvania, and a northern section from Hunter's Run to the CVRR junction northeast of Carlisle. The northern section merged with the Gettysburg & Harrisburg Railroad line south from Hunter's Run to the Gettysburg Battlefield in 1891 to create the Gettysburg & Harrisburg Railway line, while the branch southwest from Hunter's Run became the Hunter's Run and Slate Belt Railroad line.
The Pittsburgh Line is the Norfolk Southern Railway's primary east–west artery in its Pittsburgh Division and Harrisburg Division across the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and is part of the Keystone Corridor, Amtrak-Norfolk Southern's combined rail corridor.
The Lehigh Line is a railroad line in Central New Jersey, Northeastern Pennsylvania, and the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It is owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway. The line runs west from the vicinity of the Port of New York and New Jersey in Manville, New Jersey via Conrail's Lehigh Line to the southern end of Wyoming Valley's Coal Region in Lehigh Township, Pennsylvania.
The Allentown & Auburn Railroad is a short-line railroad located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that operates as both a freight and tourist railroad. The railroad runs between Kutztown and Topton in Berks County.
The Sunbury and Lewistown Railroad was a Class I Railroad connecting Lewistown, Pennsylvania with Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Completed in December 1871, the line was placed under an immediate lease by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), upon its completion. Although retaining its own board of directors and track maintenance, all locomotive traffic was owned by the PRR. For over eighty years, the line operated between Sunbury and Lewistown, serving as a relief line for both the Philadelphia Main Line and Bald Eagle Valley Railroad through Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The line was noteworthy as a proving ground for new railroad technology in the United States, such as the "X"-shaped railroad crossing signs in 1917 and Pulse Code Cab Signaling technology in 1925. It is now a fallen flag railway, the name "Sunbury and Lewistown" having been phased out in 1901 when the line became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Sunbury Division.
Westhaeffer, Paul J. (1979). History of the Cumberland Valley Railroad 1835-1919. Washington, D.C.: Washington Chapter, National Railway Historical Society.
Railroads in italics meet the revenue specifications for Class I status, but are not technically Class I railroads due to being passenger-only railroads with no freight component.
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