The story
The need for a railroad
Farmers and producers in central and southern Pennsylvania were eager to sell their grain, coal, lumber, and other products, and the cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia both wanted access to this potentially rich trade. But the ridges and valleys of the Piedmont and Appalachians blocked any easy trade routes from central Pennsylvania to markets on the coast. The upper Susquehanna River provided an important, navigable route throughout central Pennsylvania, but the Conewago Falls and other hazards below and southeast of Middletown made travel to Chesapeake Bay difficult; upstream traffic from the bay was impossible. Shippers tried to move cargoes using rafts, flatboats, or disposable “arks” that were flimsily built and loaded upstream, then dismantled at the river’s mouth in Havre de Grace, Maryland. But many craft were damaged or wrecked on the trip downstream.
Traffic that did successfully maneuver through the rapids typically went to Baltimore, the closest city to the river’s outlet on Chesapeake Bay. This was not appreciated by merchants in Philadelphia: although in 1802 Pennsylvania and Maryland had agreed on building a canal from the Delaware River to Chesapeake Bay, that project had foundered, so Philadelphia had no direct water access to the Susquehanna. Beginning in 1826, Pennsylvania committed to building a network of canals to ease navigation, the "Main Line," specifically opening up routes for trade to Philadelphia. But mountainous terrain made it difficult to build and operate canals, and slow travel times, inconvenient locations, and winter closures made the canals difficult to use.
The Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad
In 1827, a group of toll-road owners in York County, Pennsylvania, requested help from businessmen in Baltimore to explore building what eventually became the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad Company (B&S). The turnpike owners and farmers were frustrated by the difficulties of getting products to Philadelphia, where some felt exploited, forced to accept what merchants in Philadelphia were willing to pay. When surveys showed that building a railroad would be feasible, the York County group asked the General Assembly of Maryland to grant a railroad charter. This was approved on February 13, 1828, with an initial stock outlay of $800,000. The B&S was the second designated rail system in the state, given authority to construct a railroad from Baltimore northeast to York Haven, Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna River.
George Winchester, president of the new railroad company, made repeated requests to the Pennsylvania General Assembly to give their approval to the charter as set up by Maryland, with permission to operate in Pennsylvania. However, the legislators—especially those from Philadelphia—did not want trade from Pennsylvania going to Baltimore. Others wanted any railroad company operating in Pennsylvania to be owned and operated by Pennsylvanians, with profits staying in Pennsylvania. For these reasons, a charter for the B&S company was initially rejected.
Nevertheless, construction of the Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad began in 1829, following the Jones Falls valley, and in 1831 reached Roland Run, at what today is Lake Roland. Construction had not been easy—the terrain north and west of Baltimore and Philadelphia presented significant challenges for building railroads. The only routes open to them were along fast-moving streams (called “Falls” because the whole stream was rapid) twisting through narrow valleys. Jones Falls provided a more open valley than some, but to create a workable grade the track still had to cross the stream frequently, with many curves and climbing stretches in between—Robert Gunnarsson reports that the B&S route eventually averaged about two bridges for every mile of track.
On July 4, 1831, the railroad company celebrated the opening of its train service, carrying passengers pulled by horses to the Roland Run area and back to Belvedere Station in Baltimore (at or near the intersection of Guilford Avenue and Eager St today). The following year, they built a relay station near Roland Run, where fatigued horses could be exchanged for fresh ones; they called the station “Relay” (though this was sometimes confused with the Baltimore and Ohio’s station of the same name, around which the town of Relay, Maryland developed).
The Green Spring Branch
Concerned that the Pennsylvania legislature might never approve their route to the Susquehanna River, in 1830 the B&S obtained an amendment to its charter from the Maryland legislature. The charter’s wording was somewhat ambiguous, stating that the end point of the new line would be “the headwaters of the Monocacy River in the vicinity of Westminster”: Westminster, in Carroll County, is on the very eastern edge of the Monocacy’s drainage area, while the river’s headwaters are actually farther north, in the area of Gettysburg and across the state line into Pennsylvania.
In fact, the company set their sights at first only as far as Owings Mills, where several grist mills and other businesses were eager to pay for better transportation to markets. The new line started from Relay House and ran west through the Green Spring Valley, reaching the Reisterstown Road at Owings Mills in August, 1832. Connecting to the turnpike allowed the railroad to collaborate with stage companies to carry U.S. mail north from Baltimore. In the meantime, the B&S Company also built the Green Spring Hotel just east of Garrison, so that when the railroad reached that point, they could begin to carry tourists from Baltimore to the fresh air and beautiful scenery of Green Spring Valley.
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While construction was ongoing, the B&S purchased its first steam locomotive, which they named the Herald. Made in England by Robert Stephenson, it arrived in autumn of 1832, but with a 0-4-0 configuration that couldn’t handle the tight curves of the Jones Falls route. The configuration was successfully adapted by using a leading 4-wheel truck that swiveled, and using just two driving wheels, for a 4-2-0 pattern. The Herald began twice-daily round trips to Green Spring Valley and Owings Mills beginning in October, 1832. This section of the line became known as the Green Spring Branch, and would later take on a life of its own.
The York and Maryland Line Rail Road
The B&S had continued to seek permission to enter Pennsylvania, and in 1831 Pennsylvania’s Governor George Wolf stepped in to broker a deal. He wanted to see trade with Baltimore rather than isolated rivalry, so with his influence the railroad and the state legislature reached an agreement. If Maryland wanted railroad access to the Susquehanna River, the Maryland legislature would have to approve completion of a canal from Chesapeake Bay to the navigable portion of the river. Maryland had wanted just such a canal for over 20 years, and they readily agreed. However, Pennsylvania lawmakers still wanted any railroad operating in the state to be a Pennsylvania-based firm. The result was the incorporation of a new company, the York & Maryland Line Railroad Company (Y&ML), on March 14, 1832.
The Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad was given “’limited’ authority in Pennsylvania,” and with that authority, they started once again to extend their initial line northwards, reaching Timonium in 1832. That same year, in addition to constructing the branch line to Owings Mills, building the Green Spring Hotel and the relay station mentioned earlier, as well as purchasing its first locomotive, the B&S also began setting up the Bolton Station and Yard, which would become its main terminal, repair shop, and switching yards. Built on land donated by George Winchester, the first B&S president, it later became the site of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Mt. Royal Station, and eventually the Maryland Institute College of Art. The company also gained rail access to Baltimore Harbor by cooperating with the Baltimore and Ohio to construct a jointly owned track connecting Bolton Yard to the B&O line at Pratt Street, with permission to use the B&O's harbor freight terminals. Because much of the harbor line ran on city streets, however, a city ordinance allowed only the use of horses to pull freight cars to the harbor.
But after all those expenditures, the B&S could not cover the costs of further northward construction. Although the railroad had some income from the Green Spring Branch, it was also hampered financially by a provision in its original charter that allowed customers to use their own freight cars, which the B&S would then have to move at a rate lower than its own freight costs. Early investors had been disappointed by minimal returns on their investments, so people were reluctant to spend money on further railroad stock. But the State of Maryland and the City of Baltimore both gave their support, purchasing close to half of the $450,000 in shares that the B&S did sell over the next few years, and loaning the railroad a combined total of $2.7 million.
Further, the benefit of building next to swift moving streams was that their waterpower could run mills, and each mile of track laid brought the B&S to new mills and closer to new mines, quarries, and farms. Sometimes, in fact, the railroad allowed these businesses to open by giving them ways to sell their products. Although construction was intermittent because of funding issues, as the Baltimore and Susquehanna extended their track they were gradually able to reach more customers, which in turn provided money to build further north. It took three years to cover the fairly short distance to Cockeysville, arriving in 1835, but by 1837 they had laid track to the state border, north of Freeland.
At that point the York and Maryland Line officially took over construction—but the B&S crews were still laying the track, theoretically financed by the Y&ML. This surprised no one in authority; in fact, Robert Gunnarsson calls the York and Maryland Line Railroad “a paper company.” While its charge stated that the Y&ML would construct a railroad from York to the border with Maryland, it made no further stipulations, which meant anyone could use the tracks. The company had initially been capitalized at just $200,000, far less than would realistically be needed, and they also had trouble raising money. The Y&ML didn’t have enough funds to start construction until 1837—i.e., when the Baltimore and Susquehanna itself reached the state line, and then continued into Pennsylvania.
Ironically, the Y&ML used its own stock shares and bonds to pay the B&S close to $350,000 for covering construction debts. In just a few years, then, with an outright purchase of $200,000 of Y&ML stock, the B&S had control of the York and Maryland Line Railroad. It was under this corporate structure that in 1838 the York to Baltimore line was completed, including the 300-foot-long Howard Tunnel near Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania, the earliest railroad tunnel in the U.S. still in use today.
The Wrightsville, York, & Gettysburg Railroad
Although the original plan for the B&S railroad was to reach the Susquehanna River at York Haven, while they were still laying track from the Maryland state line to York the B&S directors decided to build from York to Wrightsville instead. The Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal, which had been part of the bargaining for access to Pennsylvania to begin with, was expected to link Chesapeake Bay with the upper Susquehanna at Wrightsville. The Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, already in place, provided a way across the river to Columbia, which was an important junction between Pennsylvania’s canal system to the west and the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad to the east. This new plan led to the incorporation of the Wrightsville, York, & Gettysburg Railroad (WY&G) by the Pennsylvania legislature in 1837.
Right from the beginning, the WY&G corporate charter stipulated that the York and Maryland Line Railroad would have permission to use the new company’s tracks, as long as the Y&ML gave reciprocal permission to the Wrightsville, York, and Gettysburg. As with the Y&ML railroad, the Baltimore and Susquehanna company loaned money to build the new line, starting from York in 1838 and reaching Wrightsville in 1840. Similarly, the WY&G used its own stock to cover its debt to the B&S, with a similar result: beginning in 1839, the Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad controlled the Wrightsville, York, & Gettysburg. The new line from York to Wrightsville completed the original plan to create easy transportation of goods from the Susquehanna River to Baltimore—a plan which greatly succeeded, to the dismay of many officials in Pennsylvania, but to the profit of Wrightsville and all the other towns along the B&S route, including Baltimore itself. However, expenses continued for the B&S, with the purchase of eleven locomotives from 1837-1839, moving from the single Herald to creating a full fleet of engines as their total amount of trackage increased significantly.
The York and Cumberland Railroad
When the Wrightsville, York, and Gettysburg was completed, the United States was in the midst of a major economic depression, so no further construction happened for a few years. But the Baltimore and Susquehanna Company still wanted to connect to York Haven – the source of the original request that led to the railroad’s creation – and they also had their eyes set on Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania state capitol. At Harrisburg they would have important links to two different railroads: the Lancaster and Philadelphia Railroad going east, and the Cumberland Valley Railroad reaching southwest to Chambersburg. Ambitious plans were also underway to build a railroad west from Harrisburg to connect Philadelphia to Pittsburgh; the Pennsylvania Railroad’s incorporation in April 1846, then, made Harrisburg an even more strategic terminus than Wrightsville.
The Pennsylvania legislature chartered the York and Cumberland Railroad Company (Y&C) on April 21, 1846, to connect the York & Maryland Line with the Cumberland Valley Railroad somewhere north of Mechanicsburg. The Y&C had trouble raising enough money within the state of Pennsylvania to begin construction, so its stock was made available on the open market. Investors in Baltimore purchased over $700,000 in Y&C stocks and bonds, most of which were then sold to the Baltimore & Susquehanna Company. Once again, the B&S had financial control of a separate but extending railroad company; “Articles of Agreement” drawn up and signed on January 21, 1850, gave the Baltimore & Susquehanna outright operational control of the York and Cumberland Railroad. Beginning that year, track was laid north from York to the Susquehanna River at York Haven, and then along the river to meet the Cumberland Valley Railroad at Lemoyne (then called “Bridgeport”). Service on the new line began in 1851. One significant difference, however, was that the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad had to lease the York and Cumberland tracks in order to use them—a cost added to many others.
The Susquehanna Railroad and financial difficulties
While the B&S had effectively gained control of three other railroads, it had also financed the construction of their lines. The state of Maryland and city of Baltimore had provided support, but much of it was in the form of loans which, of course, had to be repaid. In fact, the interest alone that the B&S owed the state of Maryland was $113,000, but the railroad could only pay $40,000 annually. In addition, the B&S was continually hampered by having to pull customers’ privately owned freight cars at rates below cost. So they looked farther north, to the rich coal fields of central Pennsylvania, hoping to increase revenues by extending their lines north of the York and Cumberland Railroad.
To accomplish this, the Susquehanna Railroad (SRR) was chartered on April 14, 1851, and authorized to build upstream along the Susquehanna to Halifax, Millersburg, and Sunbury, eventually reaching Williamsport. Like the other new railroads, its initial stock did not sell well, so the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad and the York and Cumberland loaned significant amounts to the SRR in exchange for stock in the new company. In 1852 and 1853 the Pennsylvania legislature authorized the York & Cumberland Railroad, the Wrightsville, York, and Gettysburg line, and/or the York and Maryland Line, separately or together, to subscribe or loan up to $500,000 to the capital-starved Susquehanna Railroad, and to permit the counties and boroughs along the way to contribute funds. The cap on loans and investments was lifted later that same year, and Baltimore committed to supporting the railroad, so initial construction got underway.
However, the railroad line wasn't built. Beginning in November 1853, the route north was graded to Millersburg, and partially graded to Sunbury, at a cost of $800,000, but track was only laid as far as Maryville--construction came to a halt in 1854.
The Baltimore and Susquehanna had been dealing with several issues resulting in major expenses. Their success was part of the problem: the volume and weight of the traffic they were carrying had gone beyond what the original wooden rails could handle, causing several derailments. When first constructing their lines, the company’s strategy was to build lightly and quickly in order to begin generating income as soon as possible—the directors had seen the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad slowed down by expensive stone trackbed and bridges and wanted to avoid those problems. But as their business grew they purchased and hauled increasingly heavy equipment; in 1851, for example, they bought the first of nineteen 0-8-0 “Camel” locomotives, which were powerful but quite large and heavy. Almost every bridge had to be rebuilt, tight curves had to be straightened out, and miles of original wooden rails covered with strap iron had to be replaced with “T”-shaped rails of rolled iron made in England. Rail replacement began in 1852, and by 1854 a good portion of the tracks on the main route between Baltimore and Lemoyne had been upgraded, with yet more financial support from the Maryland legislature. Work on replacing the bridges would go on for several more years.
Belvedere Station in Baltimore was also being overrun by the increased number of trains and passengers, so in 1848 the company began building a new station for passenger service. The Calvert Street Station, located on North Calvert Street at East Franklin Street, was designed by architects Niernsee and Neilson and completed in 1850. Its Italianate-style structure of stucco-covered brick, with many arched windows and doorways, and two distinctive towers, quickly became an iconic image for the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad and also for its successor, the Northern Central Railway.
Beginning back in 1840, the B&S had also started to build its own line to Baltimore Harbor, a process that turned out to be quite messy and expensive with little return. Part of this line was rebuilt in 1847 on private property, to try to get rails off of city streets so that locomotives could pull the cars rather than using horses. Beginning in 1850 the B&S had purchased parcels of land in the Canton area, on the northeast side of the harbor, and began extending their track to that area. However, several lawsuits and then an injunction requested by the Baltimore and Ohio put a stop to that line—the Canton harbor project had to be abandoned, and the B&S had to continue using horses to move freight to the City Dock.
Another major blow to the company involved a rail collision that occurred on July 4, 1854. 30 passengers would lose their lives and over 100 others were injured.
From Wikipedia’s article on Northern Central Railway, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3