Round Top Branch#Hancock Station

After completion of a {{Convert|22|mi|km|abbr=on}} initial survey of Gettysburg along Rock Creek on January 12, 1882, the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Rail Road{{cite news |date=July 29, 1884 |title=Camp Gettysburg |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CFQmAAAAIBAJ&pg=2882,1199890&dq=round-top+railroad&hl=en |format=Google News Archives |newspaper=Gettysburg Compiler |access-date=2010-05-06}} main line was instead completed into the borough along Oak Ridge with nine stations from Hunter's Run. By July 14, 1882, Ambrose E. Lehman of the State Geological Survey completed the G&HRR survey for the branch to Round Top, and the HJ,H&GRR (successor to the G&HRR){{cite news |last=Stewart |first=Dr. Henry |date=May 2, 1946 |title=Reminiscences of 70 Years in Gettysburg |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=iFJUAAAAIBAJ&pg=4439,5547564&dq=gettysburg+round-top-extension&hl=en |format=Google News Archives |newspaper=Gettysburg Times |access-date=2011-05-06}} survey was begun by engineer Joseph S. Gitt{{cite news |date=June 14, 1882 |title=Railroad Surveys |series=Town and County |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hHcmAAAAIBAJ&pg=1643%2C4648967 |format=Google News Archive |newspaper=Gettysburg Compiler |access-date=2011-05-07}} ([https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CdtcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=P1gNAAAAIBAJ&pg=6691,4673154&dq=prof-lehman+gettysburg&hl=en 1982 Out of the Past commemoration)]{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=908mAAAAIBAJ&pg=2412,996535&dq=saw-mill+round-top+gettysburg&hl=en|title=Out of the Past: Seventy-five Years Ago|format=Google News archive|newspaper=Gettysburg Times|date=June 17, 1957|access-date=December 20, 2012}} for a competing Round-Top Railroad Company{{cite news |last=Gitt |first=Joseph S |date=February 9, 1884 |publication-date=February 19, 1884 |title=Baltimore and Harrisburg Railroad |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8lMmAAAAIBAJ&pg=4488,255825&dq=fuller+round-top+gettysburg&hl=en |format=Google News Archive |newspaper=Gettysburg Compiler; Adams County Railroads: Concluded |access-date=2011-05-06 |quote=In August, 1882, I made surveys and a location for the purpose of extending the Gettysburg Railroad to Round-Top for excursion purposes. A charter was granted at this time, under the general railroad law, by the State Department, to the "Round-Top Railroad Company," to build a line from Gettysburg to Round-Top. The capital stock, $25,000, and A. W. Eichelberger President. The directors are Wm. Grumbine, Reuben Young, Peter Flickinger, B. M. Wirt, R. A. Eichelberger, H. A. Young, David Wills, H. D. Scott.}} route to Round Top; the latter was never built.

Track workers under foreman Coulson were laying rails of {{Convert|80|lbs|kg|abbr=on}} per yard for the branch in May 1884,{{cite news |date=May 12, 1958 |title=Out Of The Past: Fifty Years Ago |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4lYmAAAAIBAJ&pg=2485,3076929&dq=gilbert+round-top+gettysburg&hl=en |format=Google News Archives |newspaper=Gettysburg Times |access-date=2011-05-07 |quote=Track Foreman Coulson and his force of hands are laying heavy iron rails--80 pound to the yard--on the Round Top branch.}} and laborer "Blind Davy" Weikert was blinded by a premature dynamite blast.{{cite news |date=May 8, 1920 |title=David Weikert Is Dead |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=cqFcAAAAIBAJ&pg=2476,789746&dq=david-weikert+round-top&hl=en |format=Google News Archives |newspaper=Gettysburg Times |access-date=2011-05-07}} The Round Top Station's warehouse was completed June 21, 1884.{{cite news |date=June 24, 1884 |title=Local Flashes & Excursions |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=A1QmAAAAIBAJ&pg=6326%2C986789 |format=Google News Archive |newspaper=Gettysburg Compiler |page=3 |access-date=2011-02-25 |quote=Mr. Lewis A. Bushman's warehouse at Round-Top was raised on Saturday. ... The two new wells at Round-Top are both successes ... The "dummy" Baldwin made frequent trips ... taking town folks to the hill ... D. S. Fuhrman … on the Gilbert property … will sell tickets covering fifteen baths for one dollar.}} After being surveyed in May, the branch's connection to the HJ, H&GRR was being completed on July 22, 1884 "just beyond the Cashman limestone kilns" and a siding along Fairfield Road had been completed along with a switch at the PA National Guard commissary{{cite news |date=July 22, 1884 |title=Railroad Notes |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=B1QmAAAAIBAJ&pg=1460,1160966&dq=gettysburg-and-harrisburg-railroad+round-top&hl=en |format=Google News Archive |newspaper=Gettysburg Compiler |access-date=2011-05-07 |quote=The H. J., H. & G. Railroad is completing the track connecting that road with the Round-Top branch of the G. & H. The two tracks have also been joined just beyond the Cashman lime kilns, to allow the new road a more convenient route to Round-Top. … over 500 … colored Odd Fellows of Carlisle.}} (the 1913 siding held eight carloads of ice). The "dummy" Baldwin steam engine had begun excursions "to the hill" in June 1884 and could carry about 40 passengers{{cite news |date=April 30, 1958 |title=Railroaders |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8WYmAAAAIBAJ&pg=848,13116&dq=round-top-branch&hl=en |format=Google News Archives |newspaper=Gettysburg Times |access-date=2011-05-06}} (the branch's "dinky" could carry about 10).{{cite news |last=Stewart |first=Dr. Henry |date=May 22, 1946 |title=The Tourist Trade |series=Reminiscences of 70 Years in Gettysburg |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mVJUAAAAIBAJ&pg=4357,6453529&dq=round-top-park&hl=en |format=Google News Archives |newspaper=Gettysburg Times |access-date=2011-05-07}} The G&HRR published a Gettysburg Battlefield guidebook with 1884 images by "the great landscape photographer, Mr. Bell, of Philadelphia".{{cite book |last1=Weeks |first1=Jim|title=Gettysburg: Memory, Market, and an American Shrine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcjCWVJWMpYC&pg=PA78|year=2003|publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, New Jersey|isbn=9780691102719 |page=78}}

By 1888 the branch's Hancock Station on the battlefield was south of The Angle near the Vermont and Tammany monuments,{{cite news |date=September 25, 1891 |title=In The Bloody Angle |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=cZ0mAAAAIBAJ&pg=6834,2355801&dq=hancock-station+gettysburg&hl=en |format=Google News Archive |newspaper=Bridgeport Morning News |access-date=2011-05-07 |quote=…Reading railroad station, boarded their cars and were drawn rapidly out to Hancock station on the Second corps line, a short distance from the big [Tammany] monument.}} ([https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Hancock+Station%22+gettysburg&tbs=nws:1,ar:1&source=newspapers other "Hancock Station" results at Google News Archive.)] and on a {{circa|1900}} map, a wye with crossing double spurs was depicted at Round Top Station with a benchmark at {{Convert|545|ft|m|abbr=on}} elevation; by 1904, the wye was no longer depicted. In 1902, Camp Lawton was headquartered at The Angle with its telegraph and telephone office at the Emmitsburg Rd "junction of the steam and electric roads near the Codori buildings".{{cite news |date=July 2, 1927 |title=Camp Lawton |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9qglAAAAIBAJ&pg=4341%2C326709 |format=Google News Archives |newspaper=The Star and Sentinel |page=3. col. 4 |access-date=2011-02-06 |quote=The five switches for use during the National Guard encampment by the Reading road are about completed.}}^{[p 3 col 5]} Through October 1914, a combination arsenal and commissary along the Round Top Branch was used for Pennsylvania National Guard camps at Gettysburg.{{cite news |date=October 24, 1914 |title=Sending Away All Guard Equipment |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GsBcAAAAIBAJ&pg=1547,3526460&dq=round-top-branch&hl=en |format=Google News Archives |newspaper=Adams County News |access-date=2011-01-22}} A special platform on the branch was built for 1913 Gettysburg reunion veterans to disembark directly into their camp{{cite news |date=June 28, 1913 |title=First Boys In Gray Here |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9jdUAAAAIBAJ&dq=president-wilson%20gettysburg&pg=6339%2C1898698 |format=Google News Archives |newspaper=Adams County News |access-date=2011-02-07}} on the west side of Emmitsburg Road;{{citation needed|reason=This was probably in the June 28 Adams County News, but I can't find it now. There is a distinct broad image showing the big tent and smaller tents on the west side, but whether no veteran's tents were on the east side is TBD.|date=May 2011}} after addressing the veterans, President Woodrow Wilson departed the Great Camp in his private rail car via the branch.{{cite report |last=Beitler |first=Lewis Eugene (editor and compiler) |date=December 31, 1913 |title=Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg: Report of the Pennsylvania Commission |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=swkTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA168 |format=Google Books |location=Harrisburg, Pennsylvania |publisher=Wm. Stanley Bay (state printer) |page=173 |access-date=2011-02-06 }}

The branch's junction was visible on a June 25 aerial photo of the 1938 Gettysburg reunion camp;{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Stan B |year=1982 |title=Hands Across the Wall |location=Charleston, West Virginia |publisher=Pictorial Histories Pub. Co. |page=64 }} on May 7, 1939 a Reading Railroad train from Philadelphia carried 400 excursionists on the branch to Round Top.{{cite news|title=Excursions to Bring Visitors Here Sunday|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tCMmAAAAIBAJ&dq=deacon-dubbs%201939&pg=5128%2C3340232|newspaper=Gettysburg Times|date=May 6, 1939|access-date=December 20, 2012}} Except for special occasions (such as a trip by Bethlehem students in 1958),{{cite news|title=450 Bethlehem Hi Students On 'Field|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3VYmAAAAIBAJ&pg=5368,3736477&dq=reading-railroad+gettysburg+1940&hl=en|newspaper=Gettysburg Times|date=May 2, 1958|access-date=December 20, 2012}} Reading passenger service to Gettysburg ceased in 1941{{cite web|url=http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=32373|title=The Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad Depot|work=HMdb.org|access-date=December 20, 2012}} and an application to abandon the Round Top Branch was made in 1942{{cite news |date=February 2, 1942 |title=Seek To Abandon Round Top Branch |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=udclAAAAIBAJ&pg=6348%2C4558138 |quote=extending from a point 1,670 feet south of the point where it crosses the Lincoln Highway on Buford avenue to the end of the branch a distance of about 2.492 miles}} (the rails were removed and a few artifacts remain in place). The main-line junction is now located at Seminary Ridge west of the original 19th century junction, and was used by the Gettysburg Railroad (1976–1996) and the 1996-2001 Gettysburg Railway.

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|image1=[http://www.gettysburgdaily.com/?p=3437 crossing of gravel Hancock Av]

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• Round Top visitor attractions

{{Reflist|2}}

• [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CFQmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JgAGAAAAIBAJ&dq=round-top%20railroad&pg=2218%2C1182618 1884 G&HRR timetable]
• [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8lMmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JgAGAAAAIBAJ&pg=4488,255825&dq=fuller+round-top+gettysburg&hl=en "Adams County Railroads", Gettysburg Compiler, February 19, 1884]
• [http://rutlandtrail.org/mapview.cgi?lat=39.8073127306&long=-77.2327229927&scale=13&theme=Historic&width=7&height=8&dot=Yes&submit=E Gettysburg area topographical map]
• [http://www.flickriver.com/photos/mamluke/3826960306/ Gettysburg relief map]
• [http://www.keystoneregiment.com/sharpshooters.html Munshower Knoll (United States Sharpshooters)]
• [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-1MmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JgAGAAAAIBAJ&pg=1450%2C673522 "The New Railroad". Gettysburg Compiler, April 29, 1884]

Category:Defunct Pennsylvania railroads

Category:Railway lines opened in 1942

Category:Railway lines opened in 1884

Category:1884 establishments in Pennsylvania