The York Railway is a

shortline railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

operating of track in and near

York, Pennsylvania York (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populatio ...

. The company was created in 1999 through a consolidation of Yorkrail, Inc. and the

Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad , familiarly known as the "Ma and Pa", was an American short-line railroad between York and Hanover, Pennsylvania, formerly operating passenger and freight trains on its original line between York and Balt ...

(M&P), both owned by the Emons Railroad Group, and it immediately sold the property thus acquired to

limited liability Limited liability is a legal status in which a person's financial liability is limited to a fixed sum, most commonly the value of a person's investment in a corporation, company or partnership. If a company that provides limited liability to it ...

lessor subsidiaries with the same names (Yorkrail, LLC and Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad Company, LLC).

Railroad Retirement Board The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) is an independent agency in the executive branch of the United States government created in 1935 to administer a social insurance program providing retirement benefits to the country's railroad workers. T ...

Employer Status Determination: York Railway Company et al.
September 19, 2000 Genesee & Wyoming Inc. gained control of the company, and the other Emons properties, in 2002. The York Railway operates two parallel main lines, extending southwest from York to

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

interchanges. Most of the M&P's original line from York to

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

has been abandoned, but a short piece in York is still operated. The M&P's current main line is an ex-

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), 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, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

line it acquired from the

Penn Central Transportation Company The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and th ...

in 1976, beginning at a connection with the

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...

in York and running to a CSX connection at

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

. The Yorkrail line, running from a junction with the M&P in York to a CSX connection at Porters Sideling, PA, was opened in 1893 by the Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway (Eastern Extension), a predecessor of the

Western Maryland Railway 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 WM beca ...

, and sold by

to Yorkrail in 1989.Edward A. Lewis, American Shortline Railway Guide, 5th Edition,

Kalmbach Publishing Kalmbach Media (formerly Kalmbach Publishing Co.) is an American publisher of books and magazines, many of them railroad-related, located in Waukesha, Wisconsin. History The company's first publication was ''The Model Railroader'', which be ...

, 1996, pp. 188-189, 345 The York Railway owns three ex- Santa Fe

CF7 The Santa Fe CF7 is an EMD F-unit railroad locomotive that has had its streamlined carbody removed and replaced with a custom-made, "general purpose" body in order to adapt the unit for switcher, switching duty. All of the conversions were perform ...

diesels: #1500 (the last such locomotive built), 1502 and 1504 that were usually operated as a pair, and alternated to equalize operating hours. The railroad also operates ex-CSX EMD GP16 diesels #1600, 1602, 1604 and 1606 as well as a pair of LTEX GP15-1s numbered 1414 and 1444. The 1502 and 1504 were parked for several years in a deadline between Hokes Mill Road (Route 182) and South Sumner Street in York, PA, along with GP9 1754. In early February 2018, the railway removed a traction motor from No. 1504 and put it in No. 1606. On January 30, 2021, scrapping began on No.s 1502, 1504 and 1754, the three inoperative locomotives.

References

External links

York Railway
Pennsylvania railroads York, Pennsylvania Genesee & Wyoming Railway companies established in 1999 American companies established in 1999 {{US-rail-company-stub