Gettysburg Lincoln Railroad Station from Carlisle Street 2013

The Hanover Subdivision is a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

line owned and operated by

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

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

s of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

and

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. The line runs from

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

, Maryland, west to

Hagerstown, Maryland Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States, and its county seat. The population was 43,527 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Hagerstown ranks as Maryland's List of municipalities in Maryland, sixth-most popu ...

, along several former

Western Maryland Railway The Western Maryland Railway was a small American Class I railroad (1852–1983) that operated in 3 Southern United States, Southern US States, Maryland (Western Maryland, Western Region), West Virginia (Potomac Highlands of West Virginia, Easte ...

(WM) lines. It meets the

Baltimore Terminal Subdivision The Baltimore Terminal Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. state of Maryland. The line runs from Baltimore to Halethorpe, Maryland, Halethorpe along the original Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O ...

at its east end, and the

Lurgan Subdivision 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 Che ...

heads both north and west from its west end.

History

Initial sections

The first section of the Hanover Branch was built between Porters, Pennsylvania, and

Hanover, Pennsylvania Hanover is a borough in York County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 16,429 at the 2020 census. Located southwest of York and north-northwest of Baltimore, Maryland, the town is situated in a productive agricultural region. It i ...

, opened in 1852 as part of the

Hanover Branch Railroad 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 ...

.Poor, Henry V. (1860)
"History of the Railroads and Canals of the United States."
(New York: John H. Schultz and Co., 1860.) p. 443. The Gettysburg Railroad opened a section between Hanover and

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Gettysburg (; ) is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the borough had a population of 7,106 people. Gettysburg was the site of ...

, in 1858. The WM initially built from the end of the

Northern Central Railway 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 R ...

's Green Spring Branch at

Owings Mills, Maryland Owings Mills is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Baltimore. Per the 2020 census, the population was 35,674. Owings Mills is home to the northern terminus o ...

, to Hagerstown. Construction began in 1857. The line reached

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

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.

Connections and acquisitions

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 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 connec ...

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. The

Hanover Junction, Hanover and Gettysburg Railroad The Hanover Junction, Hanover and Gettysburg Railroad was a List of defunct Pennsylvania railroads, railroad line in Pennsylvania in the 19th century. The 38 mile (61 km) main line ran from Orrtanna, Pennsylvania, Orrtanna to Hanover Junctio ...

had extended the line from Gettysburg west to

Orrtanna, Pennsylvania Orrtanna is a census-designated place (CDP) in Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 183 at the 2020 census. History Orrtanna was established in 1885 around Orr Station, a stop on the Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway. ...

, in 1885, and the

Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway 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 ...

opened the rest of the line from Orrtanna west to Highfield in 1889, where it connected with the existing East Subdivision. 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 Walbrook is a Ward of the City of London and a minor street in its vicinity. The ward is named after a River Walbrook, river of the same name. The ward of Walbrook contains two of the City's most notable landmarks: the Bank of England and the ...

Junction, west of Fulton, to Port Covington, and was designed as the WM's Tide Subdivision.

Consolidation

In 1968 the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis Potter Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Rich ...

(C&O) and the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...

(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. CSX Transportation
"Our Evolution and History."
Interactive timeline. Accessed 2012-12-02. 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. 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 The Maryland Midland Railway is a Class III short-line railroad operating approximately 63 miles of track in central Maryland. It was originally headquartered in the former Western Maryland Railway station in Union Bridge, Maryland: it has since ...

in the 1980s.)

References

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External links