Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad


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.
at the Hunter's Run junction.

History

The company charter was granted on October 6, 1882, to "J. C. Fuller, Jay Cooke, John M. Butler, Jay Cooke, R. J. Woodward, Spencer Ervin, Charles D. Barney, Wm. H. Woodward, and Daniel King." The initial route by Professor had been surveyed into Gettysburg along Rock Creek on January 12, 1882, but the mainline was instead completed into the west side of the borough along Oak Ridge. 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 ".
Coordinates
junction: Hunter's Run
county line
station:
station: Peach Glen by 1916
1928 partial derailment
station: Idaville
station: Gardner's Station
station: Bendersville
“Aspers Station” by 1888
land of Fred A. Asper
station: Sunnyside
station: Biglerville
"Arendtsville Road"pick-up point
bridge: Conewago Creekcurve washed out in 1912
station: GoldenvilleReuben Golden's warehouse
landform: Keckler's Hill Susquehanna/Potomac divide
Mummasburg Rd
reroute point
1938 reunion stationend of W Lincoln Av
switch for sidingtoward college
switch for sidingadjacent to station switch
switch for station siding
crossing with east-west line
road
switch behind 1896 Meade School
Fairfield Rd sidingcommissary siding
Hancock Station
Round Top Station
Wheatfield Road
terminus E of Little Round Topbetween ends of 2 rock walls

Groundbreaking was on April 18, 1883, and grading had been started by June 20 and completed in October, except for December grading of the Gettysburg roundhouse lot on the north side of the "Tapeworm" right-of-way. Tracklaying had begun on August 20, 1883; the 1st train arrived February 26, 1884 ; the station was completed by Joseph J Smith on March 4 ; and scheduled passenger service began April 21, 1884. Conewago Creek flood damage on June 24 was repaired, and the first fatality was on July 22, 1884, when the "Jay Cooke" locomotive decapitated a man who stopped his wagon on the tracks On May 12, 1884, the company laid east-west Gettysburg tracks along Railroad St across Washington St, 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. ]
The first Gettysburg excursion train to Pine Grove Park was on May 28, 1884. 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; had begun construction by May 1884; and had started operations in June 1884. 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. 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 In February 1899, an engine derailed while a hostler moved it from the Gettysburg roundhouse.
The "Reading Railroad" took control of the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad on May 22, 1891, and retained the G & H's superintendent as the head of their Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railway