Cumberland Valley Railroad - Growth

Growth

In 1839 the CVRR bought three locomotives for $21,250, and two passenger cars for $4,175; and ran two passenger trains and one freight train each day between Chambersburg and Harrisburg. They boasted that no passenger had been injured in the 2½ years that the road had been operated.

Frederick Watts was elected the third President of the CVRR in 1841 and served in the post for 32 years. He reported that total annual earnings were $70,116.82 for 1842. By 1849, annual earnings were $101,084.77, and tonnage hauled was reported for the first time, totaling 37,439 tons, including 7,818 tons of flour, 5,126 of iron ore, 4,247 of coal, 2,123 of grain, and 2,237 of lumber. In that year plans were made to reconstruct the track with heavy iron rails.

In March, 1832, the Franklin Railroad was chartered by the Pennsylvania Legislature, and on January 16, 1837 by the Legislature of Maryland. The road was built from Chambersburg to Greencastle, Pennsylvania in 1837, and to Hagerstown, Maryland in 1841. It owned its own steam locomotives, but these were sold about 1841, when the CVRR began operating the road. Horse power, rather than steam power, was used during the 1840s and 1850s. Ownership and operating rights changed hands several times, until 1860 when the track was rebuilt with heavy rails and the CVRR contracted to operate the track. In 1865 the two railroads were merged.

Daniel Tyler was hired in 1850 to supervise the line's rebuilding. He hired Alba Smith as Superintendent of the machinery shop in 1850. Smith served as Superintendent of the railway from 1851-1856, and helped introduced lighter weight "single-wheel" locomotives on the line. These locomotives included the Pioneer and the Jenny Lind, bought in 1851, and the Boston and Enterprise bought in 1853-54. In 1999, the Pioneer was moved from its display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. to the as yet unopened National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. (The locomotive was later moved to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.)

In October, 1862, the Confederate forces destroyed railway buildings in Chambersburg, and on June 15, 1863, during the Gettysburg campaign, they destroyed all company property in the town, and tore up five miles (8 km) of Franklin Railroad. In July, 1864 Confederate raiders led by Jubal Early returned and burned the greater part of Chambersburg including most railroad property.

During the 1870s feeder lines such as the Mont Alto Railroad were added in the Cumberland Valley to gain access to iron ore deposits. In 1873 the railroad extended south from Hagerstown to the Potomac River. The Mechanicsburg Pennsylvania Railroad Station was built about 1875. In 1889, it reached Martinsburg, West Virginia and Winchester, Virginia, at the head of the Shenandoah Valley. The Cumberland Valley was to have a junction with the South Pennsylvania Railroad in Newville, but the ambitious South Penn ran into financial difficulties during its construction and was never completed.

In June, 1882, the Shenandoah Valley Railroad was opened from Hagerstown to Roanoke, Virginia. In conjunction with the Norfolk and Western Railway the CVRR operated the middle link of the New York-Harrisburg-Hagerstown-Roanoke, Va. passenger trains. Trains reportedly traveled at over 90 mph on parts of this route.