Overview | |
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Locale | Adams County, Pennsylvania Powerhouse: Gettysburg Terminus: Round Top |
Operators | |
Dates of operation | 1894 (circa July) – 1916 November 16 |
External images | |
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c. 1908 summer ("Howard") & winter cars | |
cars near the cemetery entrance & The Loop[ specify ] |
The Gettysburg Electric Railway was a borough trolley that provided summer access [8] [9] to Gettysburg Battlefield visitor attractions such as military engagement areas, monuments, postbellum camps, and recreation areas (e.g., Wheat-field Park [10] and the Pfeffer baseball diamond [11] ). Despite the 1896 Supreme Court ruling under the Takings Clause against the railway, battlefield operations continued until 1916. The trolley generating plant was leased [12] by the Electric Light, Heat, and Power Company of Gettysburg [13] to supply streetlights and homes until electricity was imported from Hanover.
The 94-passenger, [14] 14-bench "Brill double-truck summer cars" used the main line of 5.7 mi (9.2 km) [15] on 10-minute intervals and were powered by a 150 ft × 100 ft (46 m × 30 m) electric plant [16] with 150 hp (110 kW) Corliss steam engine(s) [17] driving 500 volt Westinghouse railway generator(s). [6] Employees included superintendent Hal J. Gintling, [18] [19] managers Thomas P. Turner [8] & Harry Cunningham; crewmen Charles W Culp Jr, Mr. Grinder, William Shields, George Hughes, Norman Murray, Reuben Rupp, [9] Walter Plank, [20] Harry Robinson; [21] conductors John Thomas, [22] William G. Weaver, [14] & Edward Weikert; and motormen Warfield Collins, [23] Mr. Emmons, [24] Gervus W. Myers, [22] Arthur "Ott" Shields, [20] [25] & S. A. Troxell. [26]
The Gettysburg Electric Railway Company was chartered August 4, 1891, [2] and incorporated July 28, 1892. [27] In January 1893 [13] the borough of Gettysburg granted trolley right-of-way for all principal streets, [28] and the $150,000 bond was for street operations planned for July 1, 1893. [29] [ failed verification ] The railway eventually secured rights-of-way for a route west and north of the borough to the area of the Battle of Gettysburg, First Day; but which were never built. [10] [15]
Railbed construction began in April 1893, [30] and the electric power company was chartered on June 15. [13] Tracks were planned along The Angle's stone wall, [31] but instead the trolley used 8,400 ft (2,600 m) [31] of the Emmitsburg Road [1] on which trolleys crossed the Round Top Branch (the trolley was denied right-of-way on the steam train line in both 1893 [13] and 1913.) [32] Beginning April 1, 1894, the trolley was extended from Wible's Woods [33] through Tipton Station to Round Top Station [34] (the line had 7 stops). [35] [ where? ] A new trolley powerhouse of Hummelstown brownstone replaced [36] the original which had burned down by January 22, 1895; [10] and by October 1895 total trackage was 8.5 mi (13.7 km). [37] The 1896 Supreme Court ruled in US v. Gett. Elec. Ry. Co. that the use of eminent domain for historic preservation "seems" to be "a public use". [38]
Accident descriptions in the following paragraph need to be included in the Lists of rail accidents. |
In 1900, the trolley overhead power line broke at Wible's Woods, [39] and a car derailed in 1901 [40] (trolley machinery was improved in 1902 before Camp Lawton). [19] Events in 1903 included an attempted derailment by sabotage, [41] a moterman struck his head against "an electric pole that was close to the track", [26] and the "Slocum" trolley car jumped the tracks on April 27. [21] A 1904 trolley struck Joseph Keagy, [42] and during both 1904 [43] and the 1908 Camp Hays, lightning storms disabled trolley operations (a Major was struck getting on a car). [44] In 1909 the "Reynolds" car collided with an automobile, [24] and on August 12, 1910, a car struck a mounted Camp Gobin lieutenant. Three days later the "Slocum" and 1909 closed "Sedgwick" [45] cars collided (1 fatality) near Devil's Den [20] where there was a siding. [46] A heated winter car with a closed vestibule was acquired in December 1910. [47] During the July 1913 Gettysburg reunion, 2 trolley cars collided near Devil's Den, [48] and in September a trolley in the borough was rear-ended when a "drunken passenger" pulled the brake cable. [49]
The last trolley car ran in November 1916 when the railway had become obsolete both with disrepair [50] and with increased tourists' use of automobiles [9] on Army-improved battlefield avenues. [30] After 1917 Army appropriations, the tracks were removed by summer crews under foreman Hugh McIlhenny; [14] and plans for trolley extensions from Gettysburg were never completed to several cities: [51]
The trolley barn ("track car house") at the SE corner of Washington St and the steamtrain tracks was taken over by the Surefoot Heel and Rubber Co. in 1920. [63] A pedestrian bridge was later constructed[ when? ] across Rose Run on the trolley rail trail between Brooke and De Trobriand avenues. Remnants of the trolley system were registered as historic district contributing structures of the Gettysburg Battlefield Historic District on January 23, 2004; [62] and sections of the railbed remain discernable in modern overhead images.
Gettysburg National Cemetery is a United States national cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania created for Union casualties from the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg, which was fought between July 1 to 3, 1863, resulted in the largest number of casualties of any Civil War battle but also was considered the war's turning point, leading ultimately to the Union victory.
The Gettysburg Battlefield is the area of the July 1–3, 1863, military engagements of the Battle of Gettysburg within and around the borough of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Locations of military engagements extend from the 4-acre (1.6 ha) site of the first shot at Knoxlyn Ridge on the west of the borough, to East Cavalry Field on the east. A military engagement prior to the battle was conducted at the Gettysburg Railroad trestle over Rock Creek, which was burned on June 27.
The 1913 Gettysburg reunion was a Gettysburg Battlefield encampment of American Civil War veterans for the Battle of Gettysburg's 50th anniversary. The June 29–July 4 gathering of 53,407 veterans was the largest ever Civil War veteran reunion. All honorably discharged veterans in the Grand Army of the Republic and the United Confederate Veterans were invited, and veterans from 46 of the 48 states attended, all but Nevada and Wyoming.
Round Top is a populated place in Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, near Little Round Top. It is notable for two Battle of Gettysburg hospitals, the 1884 Round Top Station, and several battlefield commemorative era attractions such as Round Top Park and the Round Top Museum. The unincorporated community lies on an elevated area of the north-south Taneytown Road with three intersections: at Blacksmith Shop Road to the northeast, Wheatfield Road, and Sachs Road.
The Round Top Branch was an extension of the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad from the Gettysburg borough across the Gettysburg Battlefield to Round Top, Pennsylvania. The branch ran southward from the terminus of the railroad's main line, west of the school and St. Francis Xavier Cemetery, across the field of Pickett's Charge, south of Cemetery Ridge, east of Weikert Hill and Munshower Knoll, and through Round Top to a point between Little Round Top's east base and Taneytown Road. In addition to battlefield tourists, the line carried stone monoliths and statues for monuments during the battlefield's memorial association and commemorative eras and equipment, supplies and participants for Gettysburg Battlefield camps after the American Civil War.
The Angle is a Gettysburg Battlefield area which includes the 1863 Copse of Trees used as the target landmark for Pickett's Charge, the 1892 monument that marks the high-water mark of the Confederacy, a rock wall, and several other Battle of Gettysburg monuments.
United States v. Gettysburg Electric Ry. Co., 160 U.S. 668 (1896), was a case to prevent trolley operations on the Gettysburg Battlefield. The dispute began in August 1891 when the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association's board approved attorney Samuel Swope's motion to deny trolley right-of-way along GBMA roads. Despite the 1896 US Supreme Court ruling that the railway could be seized for historic preservation, as well as earlier legislative efforts to appropriate federal acquisition funds, create a War Department commission, and form the Gettysburg National Military Park; the trolley continued operations until obsolete in 1916.
Barlow is a populated place between the Gettysburg Battlefield and the Mason–Dixon line in Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States, situated at the intersection of Rock Creek and Pennsylvania Route 134. North of the creek on the road summit is the principal facility of the rural community: the 1939 community hall at the Barlow Volunteer Fire Company fire station. The hall is a Cumberland Township polling place and was used by Mamie and Dwight D. Eisenhower after purchasing their nearby farm. Horner's Mill was the site of an 1861 Union Civil War encampment, and the covered bridge was used by the II Corps and General George G. Meade en route to the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg.
The 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Monument is an 1891 statuary memorial on the Gettysburg Battlefield. It is located on Cemetery Ridge, by The Angle and the copse of trees, where Union forces – including the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry – beat back Confederate forces engaged in Pickett's Charge.
Emmor Cope (1834-1927) was an American Civil War officer of the Union Army noted for the "Map of the Battlefield of Gettysburg from the original survey made August to October, 1863", which he researched by horseback as a sergeant after being ordered back to Gettysburg by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade. Cope is also noted for commemorative era battlefield administration and designs, including the layout of the 1913 Gettysburg reunion. Cope had enlisted as a Private of Company A,, temporarily detached to Battery C, 5th U.S. Artillery, and mustered out as a V Corps aide-de-camp of Maj Gen Gouverneur K. Warren.
The Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad 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, 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 to the company's Little Round Top Park.
The Wheatfield Road is a Gettysburg Battlefield crossroad from the Peach Orchard east-southeastward along the north side of The Wheatfield, north of the Valley of Death, and over the north foot of Little Round Top. In addition to modern tourist use, the road is notable for Battle of Gettysburg use and postbellum trolley use associated with the 1892-1896 US v. Gettysburg Electric Ry. case of the US Supreme Court.
Tipton Station was a Gettysburg Battlefield trolley stop of the Gettysburg Electric Railway for passenger access to Crawford's Glen to the north, Devil's Den (west), and Tipton Park (east). The station was established during the 1894 construction of the end of the trolley line and was near the Devil's Den trolley siding, south of the trolley's Warren Avenue crossing, and northeast of the Plum Run trolley bridge. An uphill trail led southwest to Big Round Top with its 1895 Observation Tower, and the "Slaughter Pen Path and Steps" were built to Devil's Den.
The Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railway was a Pennsylvania line from near Carlisle southward to Gettysburg operated by a subsidiary of the Reading Company. The line also included the Round Top Branch over the Gettysburg Battlefield to Round Top, Pennsylvania until c. 1942.
The Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association (GBMA) was an historic preservation membership organization and is the eponym for the battlefield's memorial association era. The association was chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on April 13, 1864, after attorney David McConaughy recommended on August 14, 1863, a preservation association to sell membership stock for battlefield fundraising. McConaughy transferred his land acquired in 1863 to the GBMA, and the association's boardmembers were initially local officials. The GBMA sold stock to raise money, hired a superintendent at $1000/yr, added to McConaughy's land holdings, and operated a wooden observation tower on East Cemetery Hill from 1878–95.
Round Top Station was the southernmost station of the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad and was located west of a blacksmith shop along the Taneytown Road that was in operation in 1880.
Hancock was a Gettysburg Battlefield station of the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad near the Tammany and Vermont monuments. The station was used at the end of the memorial association era and through the commemorative era for delivering tourists and materials such as for the 1910 Pennsylvania State Memorial and 1913 Gettysburg reunion. Before the G & H denied use of the steamtrain line, the Gettysburg Electric Railway considered placing a generator plant at the station for the electric trolley, but the trolley plant and its coal yard were instead built diagonal from the borough's G & H RR station.
Camp George G. Meade was one of the Gettysburg Battlefield camps after the American Civil War for Pennsylvania National Guard training of the Keystone Division. The military installation's structures on the Gettysburg Battlefield were subsequently used in the battlefield's commemorative and development eras, e.g., for a WWI recruiting and Tank Corps camp, the 1913 Gettysburg reunion, and the Third Corps camp during the 1938 Gettysburg reunion.
Round Top Park was a Gettysburg Battlefield excursion park of 15 acres (6.1 ha) east of Little Round Top near the end of the Round Top Branch and owned by the Gettysburg & Harrisburg Railroad. In addition to amusements, the park provided services during the memorial association era for steamtrain and trolley tourists visiting nearby military sites of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Workmen are now digging holes for poles along the track of the Round Top branch of the Reading railroad from Round Top to the Emmitsburg road, with a view to the use of its rail as part of the trolley railway. The use of that track as a steam railroad--the purpose for which it was built and for which it secured its right of way--is practically abandoned, and it is turned over to a different use. … rear of the warehouse at Round Top station.
owing to sundry misfortunes and the embarrassment brought about by litigation, the company has become insolvent and has a floating indebtedness of upward of $10,000, which it is wholly unable at present to pay.
General Manager Turner, of the Electric Railway Company, started the running of the trolley cars Saturday.(1991 Gettysburg Times)
Lease from year to year from the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad Company of "Little Round Top Park" at a rent of $25 a year.
The trolley people propose to build a station just where Hancock was wounded.
My motorman, myself, a colored man and a colored woman were the only people in the closed car while the open car was loaded. I was told at the time that the woman[ sic ] died at the R.R. station that evening and the body taken back to Baltimore that night.NOTE: Awful Trolley Collision (below) identifies the August 15, 1910, fatality was a man, "Nicholas Berkheimer", who lived on the Taneytown Rd.
The Electric Railway Company, under the superintendency of H. J. Gintling, is busily engaged preparing for encampment week, and the work of putting in new machinery is progressing rapidly.(p. 3. col. 1)
The Case of the United States against the Pfeffer Heirs in the matter of land sought to be condemned will be called for trial.
Miss Ida Jones and Mrs. Annie Martin, colored excursionists, sprained ankles and ugly bruises. The accident occurred on the sharp curve between Devil's Den and the Plum Run bridge. … Berkheiser, who was standing on the front platform of the summer car was thrown some distance against a rock and rendered unconscious.
the large touring car ... struck the "Reynolds" trolley car at the crossing near the Den.
S. A. Troxell, a moterman[ sic ] on the electric railway … head struck an electric pole that was close to the track. … extending the Hanover & McSherrystown Electric Railway to Conewago Chapel(column 2)
Gettysburg … Council has granted the right of way over all of the principal streets … to the Electric Railway Company which will build a line over the battlefield.
The Reading's Round Top Branch, taken with the power of eminent domain
Yesterday afternoon Major C. C. Wiley, surgeon general of the Second Brigade, was severely shocked when about to board a trolley car. The lightning struck near by and he was thrown to the ground unconscious.
Local Miscellany: ... One of the trolley cars jumped the track near the Rogers house during the heavy storm of Thursday night which delayed traffic at a critical time. ... proposition from the Mt. Holly Trolley Co. in regards to entering Gettysburg... Following composed the committee: Calvin Gilbert,... The construction of the road to begin on or before Oct. 1, 1908.NOTE The "1908" year indicates the events were Sixty years ago, as does the original 1908 Star and Sentinel article.
…the railroads siding which the Reading Railroad fixed up in good shape, better than any time heretofore… Opposite the Y of the trolly is located the Third Brigade … extending until they practically join the town in the Tawney field on Washington Street.
[rail] trail along Plum Run at Devils Den, runs N through Rose Farm & stops near The Loop. … Pair of cut stone block abutments over Rose Run, 5' high, 25' long & approx 10' apart.
approximately, 7"x7"x1'. Inscribed "T" on top of marker. … rough granite with a "T" inscribed on the top. … at a corner of Tipton land purchased in March 1892 as part of the Tipton Park and photographic studio.
used by [trolley] passengers … Path and steps are now used as a Park trail. … Path runs N/S from Plum Run to Sickles Avenue.