Lurgan Subdivision

The Lurgan Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia. The line runs from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, south to Hagerstown, Maryland, and west to Cherry Run, West Virginia, [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20011231004901/www.trainweb.org/csxtimetables/Site/Baltimore/Hanover.html CSX Timetables: Hanover Subdivision] ] along a former Western Maryland Railway line. It meets the Hanover Subdivision at Hagerstown and the Cumberland Subdivision at Cherry Run. The line is named after its former northern end at Lurgan, Pennsylvania, where the Western Maryland once connected to the Reading Company along the Alphabet Route.

History

The Western Maryland Railway, which had a main line from Baltimore to Williamsport, Maryland, made its first expansion into Pennsylvania in 1881. The WM leased a line from the Baltimore and Cumberland Valley Rail Road and the Baltimore & Cumberland Valley Rail Road Extension Company, connecting Edgemont, Maryland to Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. In 1886 the line was connected in Shippensburg to the Harrisburg and Potomac Railroad, which was absorbed into the Reading system in 1891. [Citation
last = Cook
first = Roger
author-link =
last2 = Zimmermann
first2 = Karl
author2-link =
title = The Western Maryland Railway: Fireballs and Black Diamonds
place = Laurys Station, PA
publisher = Garrigues House, Publishers
year = 1992
page = 41
volume =
edition = 2nd
doi =
isbn = 0-9620844-4-1]

In 1899 the WM shortened the route between Chambersburg and Hagerstown with the construction of the Altenwald Cutoff. This shortcut between Hagerstown and Quinsonia, Pennsylvania, reduced the steep grade for heavy coal trains, as well as the overall distance on the branch. A portion of the cutoff was double tracked, which also improved the line's efficiency. The remaining line between Quinsonia and Edgemont continued to operate with a lower level of traffic. The section between Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and Edgemont was removed in the late 1950s.Citation
last = Salamon
first = Stephen J.
author-link =
last2 = Hopkins
first2 = William E.
author2-link =
title = The Western Maryland Railway in the Diesel Era
place = Silver Spring, MD
publisher = Old Line Graphics
year = 1991
page = 38
volume =
edition =
doi =
isbn = 1-879314-07-X]

In the late 1920s the Reading built a new connection to the WM at Lurgan.

ee also

*Lurgan Branch (Norfolk Southern Railway)

References