The Hanover Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Maryland and Pennsylvania. The line runs from Baltimore, Maryland, west to Hagerstown, Maryland, [1] along several former Western Maryland Railway (WM) lines. It meets the Baltimore Terminal Subdivision at its east end, and the Lurgan Subdivision heads both north and west from its west end. [2] [3]
The first section of the Hanover Branch was built between Porters, Pennsylvania, and Hanover, Pennsylvania, opened in 1852 as part of the Hanover Branch Railroad. [4] The Gettysburg Railroad opened a section between Hanover and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1858. [5]
The WM initially built from the end of the Northern Central Railway's Green Spring Branch at Owings Mills, Maryland to Hagerstown. Construction began in 1857. [6] The line reached Westminster in 1861 and Hagerstown in 1872. In 1873 the WM built its own line from Owings Mills to Fulton Junction in Baltimore. The WM designated the Baltimore-Hagerstown line as its East Subdivision.
The Bachman Valley Railroad built a line from Valley Junction (1.25 mi east of Porters) south to the Maryland state line in 1872, and the Baltimore and Hanover Railroad continued the line south to Emory Grove, MD, connecting with the WM in 1879. In 1886 the WM acquired control of the line from Emory Grove to Hanover. It also took control of the Gettysburg Railroad. [7] : 27 The Hanover Junction, Hanover and Gettysburg Railroad had extended the line from Gettysburg west to Orrtanna, Pennsylvania, in 1885, and the Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway opened the rest of the line from Orrtanna west to Highfield in 1889, where it connected with the existing East Subdivision. [6] : 42 The Emory Grove-Gettysburg-Highfield route became the WM's Hanover Subdivision. In addition to servicing industries and cities in Pennsylvania, the Hanover Sub provided an alternate route between Baltimore and Hagerstown, although it was 23 miles (37 km) longer than the East Sub.
The WM built a marine terminal at Port Covington in Baltimore in 1904, and built a new connecting line from the East Sub to the terminal. The 5.3 mile (8.5 km) line ran from Walbrook Junction, west of Fulton, to Port Covington, and was designed as the WM's Tide Subdivision. [7] : 10
In 1968 the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) received government approval to jointly control the Western Maryland Railway. In 1973, as part of the Chessie System, Western Maryland ownership went to C&O and it was operated by the B&O. The B&O itself merged with the C&O in 1987, which itself became part of CSX Transportation in that year. [8]
Port Covington declined in the 1970s as traffic was shifted to nearby Chessie (formerly B&O) facilities, and the terminal was completely closed by 1988. [6] : 310–312 CSX consolidated operations across the old WM subdivisions. The present CSX Hanover Subdivision consists of the old WM Hanover Sub (Highfield-Emory Grove), and portions of the East Sub (Hagerstown-Highfield and Emory Grove-Walbrook) and Tide Sub (Walbrook-Mt. Winans Yard in Baltimore). (CSX sold the remainder of the East Sub, from Emory Grove to Highfield, to the Maryland Midland Railway in the 1980s.)
Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT). Trains operated under the Chessie name from 1973 to 1987.
The Western Maryland Railway was an American Class I railroad (1852–1983) which operated in Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It was primarily a coal hauling and freight railroad, with a small passenger train operation.
The Capital Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. state of Maryland and the District of Columbia. The line runs from near Baltimore, Maryland, southwest to Washington, D.C., along the former Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road (B&O) Washington Branch. The subdivision's Alexandria Extension provides a connection to Virginia and points south.
The Alphabet Route was a coalition of railroads connecting the Midwest United States with the Northeast, as a freight alternate to the four major systems: the Pennsylvania Railroad, New York Central Railroad, Erie Railroad and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
The Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway was a railroad in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Wheeling, West Virginia, areas. Originally built as the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway, a Pittsburgh extension of George J. Gould's Wabash Railroad, the venture entered receivership in 1908 and the line was cut loose. An extension completed in 1931 connected it to the Western Maryland Railway at Connellsville, Pennsylvania, forming part of the Alphabet Route, a coalition of independent lines between the Northeastern United States and the Midwest. It was leased by the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1964 in conjunction with the N&W acquiring several other sections of the former Alphabet Route, but was leased to the new spinoff Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway in 1990, just months before the N&W was merged into the Norfolk Southern Railway.
The Frederick Branch is a railroad line in Frederick County, Maryland. It was built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1831, and is now owned by the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT). The 3.4 mi (5.5 km) branch extends between Frederick Junction – a wye with the Old Main Line Subdivision of CSX Transportation on the west side of the Monocacy River – and its terminus at East Street in downtown Frederick, Maryland. The wye at Frederick Junction was the first example of its kind in the United States and is still in use today.
The Mountain Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Maryland and West Virginia. The line runs from Cumberland, Maryland, west to Grafton, West Virginia, along the original Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) main line. It was known as the West End Subdivision until the B&O's absorption into the Chessie System, and included the B&O's original crossing of the Allegheny Mountains. Through CSX traffic to the west from Cumberland now uses the Keystone Subdivision over Sand Patch Grade.
The Keystone Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Maryland and Pennsylvania. The line runs from Cumberland, Maryland, west to McKeesport, Pennsylvania, along a former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) line. The line includes the well-known Sand Patch Grade over the Allegheny Mountains.
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 New Castle Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania and Ohio. The line runs from New Castle, Pennsylvania west through Youngstown and Akron to Greenwich, Ohio along a former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line. Its east end is near Mahoningtown, at the west end of the New Castle Terminal Subdivision. Its west end is at the Willard Terminal Subdivision, just east of the Greenwich Subdivision junction at Greenwich. It junctions with the Newton Falls Subdivision at Newton Falls, Ohio, and the CL&W Subdivision at Sterling, Ohio.
The Hagerstown and Frederick Railway, now defunct, was an American railroad of central Maryland built in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Hanover Branch Railroad Company was a railroad that operated in Pennsylvania in the mid-19th century. The company was incorporated on March 16, 1847, and began operating trains in 1852. It represents the oldest portion of the Western Maryland Railway. It extended from the connection with the Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad at Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania, to Hanover.
The Gettysburg Railroad was a railway line in Pennsylvania that operated from 1858 to 1870 over the 17-mile (27 km) main line from the terminus in Gettysburg to the 1849 Hanover Junction. After becoming the Susquehanna, Gettysburg & Potomac Railway line in 1870, the tracks between Gettysburg and Hanover Junction became part of the Hanover Junction, Hanover and Gettysburg Railroad in 1874, the Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway in 1886, and the Western Maryland Railway in 1917.
The Hanover Junction, Hanover and Gettysburg Railroad was a railroad line in Pennsylvania in the 19th century. The 38 mile (61 km) main line ran from Orrtanna to Hanover Junction, where it connected with the Northern Central Railway. Connections along the main line were to the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad, the Bachman Valley Railroad, and the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway was a railroad that operated in Maryland and Pennsylvania in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The 59 miles (95 km) main line ran from Emory Grove, Maryland to Orrtanna, Pennsylvania, with a 6 miles (9.7 km) branch from Valley Junction, Pennsylvania to Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania; and later extensions to Highfield, Maryland and York, Pennsylvania.
The Baltimore and Hanover Railroad (B&H) was a railroad that operated in Maryland in the 19th century. The 20 mile (32 km) main line ran from Emory Grove, Maryland north to the Pennsylvania state line near Black Rock Junction, where it connected with the Bachman Valley Railroad.
The Bachman Valley Railroad (BV) was a railroad that operated in Pennsylvania and Maryland, United States, in the 19th century. The 13 mile (21 km) line ran from Valley Junction, Pennsylvania to Ebbvale, Maryland. The railroad was built to transport iron ore to local blast furnaces; it also carried some passengers. The railroad became part of the Western Maryland Railway in 1917.
The Cumberland Terminal Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the Cumberland, Maryland area. The line centers on the Cumberland rail yard and is a junction with three other subdivisions.
Jacks Mountain Tunnel is a railroad tunnel located in Adams County, Pennsylvania about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) southwest of Fairfield. It was built in 1889 by the Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway, which was later acquired by the Western Maryland Railway. The tunnel is currently owned by CSX Transportation and operates as part of the Hanover Subdivision.
The Western Extension is a Western Maryland section of railway line between Highfield-Cascade, Maryland, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The extension of the Hanover Junction, Hanover and Gettysburg Railroad westward from the Gettysburg Battlefield to Marsh Creek was completed in 1884, crossing the north-south Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad and its 1884 Round Top Branch in the borough The line was completed to Orr Station by June 30, 1885, then after an 1886 merger formed the Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway, the 15 mi (24 km) to the mainline at Highland near the Mason–Dixon line was completed in 1888-1889. The B&H leased their line to the Western Maryland Railway until the WM purchased it in 1917. The Western Extension used portions of the 1830s Tapeworm Railroad bed and required construction of the Jacks Mountain Tunnel south of Maria Furnace.