South Pennsylvania Railroad
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The South Pennsylvania Railroad is the name given to two proposed, but never completed, Pennsylvania railroads in the nineteenth century. Parts of the
Initial promotions
The first South Pennsylvania Railroad was originally chartered as the Duncannon, Landisburg, and Broad Top Railroad Company on May 5, 1854.[1] Its intended route began in Duncannon, passed through Landisburg and Burnt Cabins and ended on the Juniata River via the Broad Top Mountain coalfields. On May 5, 1855, it was renamed the Sherman's Valley and Broad Top Railroad Company, and the planned eastern terminus was changed from Duncannon to the mouth of Fishing Creek, in Perry County near Marysville, in order to connect with the Pennsylvania Railroad.[1] Another amendment to the charter on May 12, 1857, allowed it to connect with the Allegheny Portage Railroad and the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad.[1] Around this time, two miles of the proposed route were in fact graded. On March 31, 1859, it was given the grandiose name of Pennsylvania Pacific Railway Company, with the rights to extend into Maryland and Virginia.[1] On April 1, 1863, it was renamed as the South Pennsylvania Railroad Company.[1] Despite feverish promotion, including plans for 200 miles (322 km) of line from Marysville to West Newton (on the Youghiogheny River), no further work was completed. The two miles (3 km) of grading were sold off in 1872 and the charter became dormant on May 31, 1879.
Vanderbilt syndicate
New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad competition
The unused charter of the defunct South Pennsylvania Railroad was revived in the 1880s as a weapon in a growing war between the
To retaliate, Vanderbilt allied himself with Pittsburgh capitalists, including
The route
The new route for the railroad was surveyed beginning in 1881, and construction began soon after. The alignment, which had first been surveyed in the 1840s by Colonel Charles Schattler of the
The so-called "southern route" of the South Pennsylvania was a treacherous one, as it crossed six mountain ridges, required nine tunnels and involved numerous curves and steep grades. Construction continued into 1885, with considerable work done in drilling the tunnels and grading the portion of the route through the mountains. But, as expenses rose, Vanderbilt began to have second thoughts and began looking for a graceful way out that would protect the investments made by his syndicate partners. He proposed a truce and buyout by the Pennsylvania, but the Pennsylvania's president, George Roberts, refused to meet his price.
Cessation of work
Banker
In 1893, the Southern Pennsylvania Railway, a Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary which had charter rights along the route, initiated court proceedings to take ownership of part of the South Pennsylvania grade. In 1895, it obtained title to the grade east of Mount Dallas. A little surveying and repair work was done on the route that year, but it was never used, and the grade was sold to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission in 1938.
In 1904, the
Pittsburgh was originally a branch line until Carnegie and others intervened and persuaded Vanderbilt to discard the original alignment, which was to go to
Pennsylvania Turnpike
The route was revived during the Great Depression, when plans were made to build a superhighway across Pennsylvania. In 1937, the new Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission bought the old line from the two railroads and, in 1938, construction began between Carlisle and Irwin. Two of the workers from the South Pennsylvania Railroad project (one contractor and one laborer) also worked on the Turnpike despite the 54-year time difference in construction.
The turnpike's original route was opened in October 1940, using six of the railroad's nine tunnels (subsequent route re-alignments have caused some of these tunnels to be abandoned), while the original Allegheny Mountain Tunnel wasn't used due to structural concerns and the Quemahoning Tunnel and Negro Mountain Tunnel were bypassed because advances in engineering since the 1880s allowed for bypasses. The highway engineers did not use most of the railroad's other grading, however, since they could afford steeper grades and shorter alignments. Because of this, relics of the "ghost railroad" may still be found all across the Alleghenies.
References
- Binzen, P.; Daughen, J. (1971). The Wreck of the Penn Central. Boston, Little, Brown.
- Rainey, Lee; Frank Kyper (1996) [1982]. East Broad Top. ISBN 0-87095-078-9.
- Steinmetz, R.H. "Turnpike Railroad," Trains magazine, December 1946.
- Taber, Thomas T., III (1987). Railroads of Pennsylvania Encyclopedia and Atlas. Thomas T. Taber III. ISBN 0-9603398-5-X.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
- ^ a b c d e Report on the South Pennsylvania Railroad: Also, Its Charter and Supplements. Harrisburg, PA: Sieg. 1869. pp. 13–16. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
- ^ "The Road of the Century • Chapter 14".
- ^ "Engineering News and American Contract Journal". 1883.
- ^ "Atlantic Reporter". 1887.
- ^ "Welcome".
- ^ British Broadcasting Corporation "Vanderbilt's Folly"
External links
- Rick Dapp. "The End of the Line-Literally". www.harrisburgmagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
- "The Old South Penn: "Vanderbilt's Folly"". www.somersettownshippa.com. Archived from the original on 2015-11-23.
- "The South Pennsylvania Railroad". trainweb.org.
- Photos of the railroad right-of-way
- More photos of the railroad right-of-way
- Posts in a forum thread where the railroad right-of-way is traced