STEWARTSTOWN, Pa. — A rural, farm-to-market short line that struggled to survive through floods and legal challenges is getting ready to celebrate its 140th anniversary.
Chartered in September 1884 and opened a year later, the 7.4-mile-long Stewartstown Railroad tourist carrier in south-central Pennsylvania is marking one of the longest-lived U.S. rail operations under its original name.
Although no longer hauling freight, the line still functions as a for-profit company. Among its 80 shareholders are some who can trace family ownership to 1884. Volunteer assistance for equipment restoration, track maintenance, and operating train crews comes from the nonprofit Friends of the Stewartstown Railroad.
The railroad will hold a celebration on Saturday, Sept. 7, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a special fare of $1.40 (normally $17 for adults) to commemorate the 140 years. Four trips are scheduled.
“It’s a pretty good milestone,” said Dave Williamson, a full-time mining engineer who holds the title of railroad president on the side. “How many railroads make it that long under their original charter — Union Pacific, Baltimore & Ohio?”
For the occasion, the company’s 1914 station will be open, as will its modern museum and gift shop, housed in a former bank branch. Displays are scheduled, and birthday cake and ice cream will be served.
The equipment roster is an eclectic mix typical of many shoestring tourist railroads. It includes internal-combustion critters, open cars, three former Reading Co. coaches, and four cabooses, including a modern one from UP that glides on passenger trucks.
Motive power for the celebration, Williamson said, will be No. 9, a 1943 Plymouth 35-ton gas-mechanical four-wheel unit named “Mighty Mo” that the railroad bought secondhand in 1960.
Although the track extends 7.4 miles (and “7.4” is the title of the Friends newsletter), trains will run about 1½ miles to an 1870 iron bridge, Williamson said.
Crewmembers, he noted, are continually working to restore more usable Class 1-grade track. In all, he said, the Friends have a pool of some 50 volunteers, some of whom show up regularly, others once a year for a week’s worth of helping out on their vacation.
Their goal is to reopen the line to its connection at New Freedom, Pa., to the Northern Central Railway of York, another tourist carrier that trades heavily on its Civil War-era heritage.
Among the mixture of rolling stock, Williamson pointed out that the company or its friends own every known piece of surviving Stewartstown Railroad equipment.
Besides No. 9, other original pieces include:
— No. 6, a 25-ton Plymouth gas-mechanical unit bought new in 1939 and named “Little Mo.” Sold in 1972 to the Wolfeboro Railroad, it went through other owners until it was found in Maine by an individual who bought it and is restoring it near Columbia, Pa. It’s expected to return to the railroad next year, Williamson says.
— No. 10, a 1946 44-ton center-cab switcher acquired in 1972. General Electric built it for another Pennsylvania short line, the Coudersport & Port Allegany.
The railroad or the Friends also own a former U.S Navy GE 70-ton unit and two EMC/EMD switchers. The latter are stored off site and Williamson says there’s no rush to operate them in Stewartstown until the track is better prepared, as their weight would be hard on the 60- to 85-pound rail.
Besides the former Reading coaches, the road carries passengers in a Monongahela Railway caboose, donated by the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania; a former Lehigh Valley “Northeastern” caboose, owned by a Friends member, that is nearly restored; and a former Katy transfer caboose.
“We have plenty of equipment,” says Williamson. “I don‘t anticipate getting more — we’re out of siding space.”
Now as in 1884, the short line lies off the beaten path of both rails and roads, bypassed by the original 19th century Northern Central Railway’s Harrisburg, Pa.-to -Baltimore main line, which in 1914 became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Local farmers and industrialists built the short line to connect with NCR for passenger travel and to ship produce to markets in Baltimore.
Engineered cheaply and never realigned or straightened, the route is pocked with corkscrew curves, side-of-the-road running, and grades of as steep as 2.86%. “You have to watch your braking, going uphill or downhill,” says Williamson. The track winds randomly through front yards and back yards, at one point crossing under Interstate 83.
Freight service continued to 1972, when flooding from Tropical Storm Agnes hit the line’s only Class I connection, the former NCR, by then owned by the bankrupt Penn Central. PC had no money to restore its line, so Stewartstown was cut off from rail freight shipments. State grants eventually paid to rehabilitate the Pennsylvania segment of the former PC route.
As an outgrowth of his interest in history, short line and steam operator George M. Hart (1919-2008), who also served as the first director of the state’s Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, purchased a block of 195 shares of Stewartstown stock formerly owned by the PRR. Although he never owned a majority and never owned the railroad outright, he filled the role of vice president and then president. From time to time, he advanced funds to keep the line going, but always said the money was a gift.
Hart’s advancing age and other factors led to a suspension of service in 2004. When he died in 2008, his estate claimed the railroad owed it $352,415 and began adverse abandonment proceedings before the Surface Transportation Board to liquidate the assets.
Stockholders and Friends, Williamson said, raised or borrowed the entire sum and paid it off in 2013. The Friends cut back years’ worth of brush, slowly breathed life back into the equipment, and reopened the railroad by “hook and crook and a lot of determination,” he said.
The line faces a different foe today: competition for both volunteers and passengers.
“We did a study and found that there are 36 tourist railroads within a 3-hour drive,” Williamson said. In York County alone, two others are running – Northern Central and the Ma & Pa Preservation Society. Three neighboring counties are home to four more: the Strasburg; Harrisburg, Lincoln & Lancaster; Middletown & Hummelstown; and Williams Grove, with yet another one in a fourth adjacent county — Gettysburg & Northern — poised to start passenger service soon.
Despite the challenges, Williamson remains optimistic about the energy he sees. The Friends and the railroad offer a junior railroader program for kids 12-17 years old. Volunteers eagerly tackle skilled tasks such as restoring coach seats, tamping and lining track, or maintaining air brakes. Seven engineers and eight conductors are qualified for train & engine service.
And, Williamson adds, if anyone is interested, the stock subscription book is still open, with 150 of the 2,000 authorized shares still available, at $500 each.
“It’s the little railroad that wants to live,” he said.
