Trip Report - Southeast Pennsylvania

Work took me to Maryland and southeastern Pennsylvania last weekend, so of course I took the opportunity to get in some railfanning. I was able to make a few stops between Washington, DC and York, PA, starting with Thurmont, MD, where Hagerstown & Frederick box motor 5 is displayed next to a former H&F substation. The last time I saw H&F 5 was in 1998, when it was still at the Rockhill Trolley Museum. It's been nicely fixed up.

Next came a stop in Gettysburg, PA, where I took the opportunity to pay my respects to the memory of the 160,000 or so Americans who fought there in 1863. I stopped at the "High Water Mark," the famous copse of trees on Cemetery Ridge, which is a veritable forest of monuments; at left a 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry soldier, with Brig. Gen. Alexander Webb in the left background and Maj. Gen. George Meade in the distance, is memorialized in bronze. I also did a bit of railfanning while I was at it, snapping a photo of the unidentified bobber caboose below left, now attached to a battlefield tour company office in between the Cemetery Ridge and Seminary Ridge lines. Below right is the 1859 depot in Gettysburg, used as a hospital during the battle and site of Abraham Lincoln's arrival in town for the famous Gettysburg Address.








Between Gettysburg and York is the small, mid-19th century town of New Oxford, home to a small railroad museum in the center of town. Out front is a Pennsylvania Railroad bobber, and next to the station is a heavyweight RPO lettered for the Western Maryland.








Across the street was a pair of coaches that had apparently been gutted and converted into office space, now available for lease; anyone know the histories of these cars?

My final destination was York, where I stopped at the Industrial & Agricultural Museum, which I highly recommend to anyone in the area. The primary reason for my visit was York Railways 123, a 1916 Brill single-trucker that has recently undergone some cosmetic restoration work (note the access ramp under construction). The museum has an interesting assortment of displays - note the airplane buzzing the streetcar - including various cars, trucks, agricultural tractors and implements, a working grist mill, a large machine shop, fire engines, a huge mechanical refrigeration plant from the late 1800's, and more. The EMD Model 40 at below left was displayed in front of the streetcar - it was built for the US Navy and later worked at the Harley-Davidson plant in York - while the stationary steam engine at below right was in amongst the machine tools.








Finally, before I left town I made a quick stop at the Maryland Avenue carbarn of York Railways; the outlines of the original arched barn doors at the front of the building are still evident.