The story
History
Frederick & Middletown Railway
The Frederick & Middletown Railway was developed by George William Smith. The technology was seen as a "technological marvel". Construction began in 1896, service began between Frederick and Braddock Heights with a trip time of half an hour. The line was complete to Middletown by October.
Two years later an extension was built to Myersville, nominally called the Myersville and Catoctin Railway, but leased to the F&M and operated as an integral part of the F&M.
The Jefferson branch was added in 1906, running down the east side of Jefferson Boulevard. This extension served the H&F investors, who were largely the same as the Braddock Heights investors, by opening up more mountaintop resort land for development. An extension of this branch planned in 1907 would have taken the line to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad yard facilities in Brunswick; the town even paid for a section of track installed in the center of the town's main street, however, a connecting link between wasn't completed.
Hagerstown Railway
The leading investors for the Hagerstown Railway were Christian W. Lynch, William Jennings, and John A. Herman, who took a different approach to development by creating inner-city trolley service within Hagerstown, which included an urban loop and crossing lines on Washington Street and South Potomac Street. This costed between $175,000 and $200,000. On March 12, 1896, a charter was granted to the Hagerstown Railway. In May, the contract was given to construct the railway. On August 8, operations began. The next month, the line to Williamsport opened.
The extension of the Potomac Street line to Funkstown was completed by 1897. This extension (as well as to Leitersburg) used six second-hand trolley cars (three motor, three trailers) from the Martinsburg Street Railway in nearby Martinsburg, West Virginia, as well as rails and other items from its plant, which were bought for $10,000 by the Harrisburg Construction Co. on December 19, 1895. These cars were bought for $900 by the Hagerstown Railway the next year on April 2 and were delivered two days later along the Cumberland Valley Railroad, the motor cars were pulled and the trail cars rode on gondolas.
The railroad from Hagerstown to Myersville was completed by 1904, reducing travel between Frederick and Hagerstown from two days to two hours. The line made interurban through service between Frederick and Hagerstown possible, however, transfers were made at Myersville to the F&M for the time being.
In 1901, work began on an extension east to Wagner's Crossroads (later Boonsboro Junction) and from there south to Boonsboro itself. This section was completed in 1902. Work began immediately on the connection from Wagner's Crossroads to Myersville.
In 1905, a new line was started, running north from Hagerstown to Shady Grove, Pennsylvania. This permitted a connection to the Chambersburg, Greencastle and Waynesboro Street Railway. Passengers could then take the CG&W on to the mountaintop resorts of Pen Mar and Blue Ridge Summit. Incompatible rail gauges prevented direct transfer.
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Growth and consolidation
Emory L. Coblentz, a Middletown lawyer and stockholder in the F&M, took over the management of the F&M in 1908. In the same year, the Hagerstown Railway bought all capitol stocks from the Hagerstown & Boonsboro Railway, the Hagerstown & Northern Railway, and the Hagerstown & Myersville Railway. At a later period of time, the railway also bought most stock from the Myersville and Catoctin Railway Company (which was leased to the Frederick Railway at the time.) Coblentz bought the Washington, Frederick & Gettysburg Railroad, which ran from Frederick to Thurmont, and incorporated it into the F&M in 1909, renaming the F&M as the Frederick Railroad. He also bought the Chambersburg, Greencastle and Waynesboro Street Railway (an over 30 mile railway) for $1,300,000. During the next two years, the network in Frederick expanded and its facilities were improved and electrified; lines were laid on Fifth Street, South Street and Market Street with connections to the Washington, Frederick & Gettysburg Railroad. The Hagerstown Railway and the Frederick Railway merged on March 22, 1913, and were organized by April 17, becoming the Hagerstown & Frederick Railway.
In 1915, a seven-mile extension from the H&F's Thurmont line was proposed, bringing the line to Emmitsburg. Further proposals brought the line to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Trolley parks
In common with many more urban trolley systems, the H&F owned and operated two amusement parks, both as business ventures in their own right, and as traffic generators for the trolley business. In pre-air conditioning days, mountaintop parks like Braddock Heights Park (which was racially-segregated) were popular summer getaways where city dwellers could entertain themselves and breathe cool mountain air. The Electric Park in Funkstown had to rely on Antietam Creek for coolness, but served much the same function.
Electricity
The Hagerstown & Frederick had always run what originally amounted to a side business, selling electricity to customers in the vicinity of its operations. As time went on, it became apparent to Emory Coblentz that the real business opportunity was in the electric utility business.In the 1890's, the Hagerstown and Frederick Railway brought power to rural communities; serving residential, commercial, and agricultural use. In 1896, the H&F built the Williamsport Power Station. In 1898, the company built the Hagerstown Power Station. On March 1, the Hagerstown railway bought the Hagerstown Electric Light and Power Company which was responsible for electric lighting in the city of Hagerstown. In 1913, the railway built the Security Power Plant. Electricity was expanded after the railway's merger that year. In September 1914, the H&F signed a contract to power the town of Thurmont after power shortages from an inadequate power station. In 1922, the railway constructed the R. Paul Smith Power Plant.
Potomac Light and Power Company
The Potomac Light and Power Company operated power plants and was affiliated with the Hagerstown & Frederick Railway and Northern Virginia Power. The company sold electricity and used water power, distributing it to Jefferson and Berkeley County in West Virginia and nearby counties in Maryland and Virginia. The company was incorporated under West Virginia, abiding by their laws. The Potomac Light and Power Co. took over the plant from the Martinsburg Electric Company on August 1, 1916. In 1917, the H&F acquired the Chambersburg, Greencastle and Waynesboro Street Railway, which came with its own utility service. In 1922, the entire system, including the Hagerstown & Frederick Railway, became the Potomac Public Service Company. The next year, the PPS absorbed the Cumberland utility known as the Potomac Edison company (which included the Cumberland and Westernport Electric Railway), and applied its name to the entire operation.
Immediately thereafter, in another consolidation, Potomac Edison became a subsidiary of a holding company, the American Water Works & Electric Company, which operated a group of companies in Maryland and Pennsylvania under the West Penn Electric Company brand. For a period of time, the Potomac Light and Power company went by "Potomac Edison," which was carried on until the 1990s when the Allegheny Power brand was applied.
Competition and decline
By the 1920s the H&F faced competition from two sources: the automobile and the Blue Ridge Transportation Company, a bus company owned by Potomac Edison. According to Reuben Moss, president of the Hagerstown & Frederick Railway Historical Society, the H&F bought its final brand-new trolley car in 1921. A gradual decline set in starting with the closure of the Washington Street line in Hagerstown and the end of Electric Park, both in 1927. In 1929 the loop line on Mulberry Street closed, and in the same year the Braddock Hotel burned and was not replaced.
The Great Depression made things worse. The Chambersburg, Greencastle and Waynesboro was shut down in 1932, and the Shady Grove line followed suit. Emory Coblentz was caught in the financial collapse of his bank, and was indicted (and later acquitted) on fraud charges. Having resigned from Potomac Edison and dealing with his other struggling businesses; he was effectively destitute. He died in 1941
The reconstruction of U.S. Route 40 to better suit the automobile took another toll. Trips between Hagerstown and Frederick by streetcar were slower than by car; which took 90 minutes.
End of the line
Passenger decline during the 1930s left the H&F's business dependent on freight service, primarily between Frederick and Thurmont. The network in Frederick was kept busy switching freight between industrial sidings and connections between the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) and Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) lines.
The last day for trolley service between Frederick and Hagerstown was October 8, 1938. Track between Myersville and Hagerstown was abandoned, leaving Myersville as the terminus of the line.
Passenger service to Jefferson halted in 1940, and tracks were removed in 1943, although the line along Jefferson Boulevard to Dean's was kept in operation to cater to the resort trade in Braddock Heights at the Vindobona Hotel. The Middletown-Myersville section was closed and the track was lifted in 1945.
In 1947, preliminary work was completed to dismantle the Frederick and Hagerstown line between Frederick and Middletown, including the spur to Braddock heights. Later that year, service was discontinued on the Middletown and Braddock Heights lines. On August 4, the Hagerstown-Williamsport line closed, the last service in Washington County.
Trolley service in Frederick terminated on February 20, 1954. According to Reuben Moss, the closure was caused by a reroute of streets in downtown Frederick to be one way for traffic in 1947, which limited the trolley's purpose.
In 1947, most freight on the Thurmont line was gone, with only service to Fort Detrick a significant contributor. Many utilities, including Potomac Edison, were ordered by the Securities and Exchange Commission to leave non-utility-related businesses, such as transportation. In 1954, the line terminated passenger service. Freight carried on, but the electric lines were removed on the Thurmont line in 1955 and diesel equipment was substituted. Nevertheless in 1958 the track between Thurmont and Fort Detrick was taken up. Potomac Edison stopped all service on April 26, 1961.
Hagerstown & Frederick Railway Historical Society
A Historical Society was formed in 1999 to preserve artifacts and documents from and educate the public about the history of the Hagerstown & Frederick Railway.
From Wikipedia’s article on Hagerstown and Frederick Railway, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3