The Chambersburg, Greencastle & Waynesboro Street Railway, now defunct, was an American

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

of south central

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

built in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Origins

Tracks were first laid in Greencastle in 1903, with operations beginning in December along Baltimore Street and Carlisle Street. The line was extended to Shady Grove by 1906 and Chambersburg in 1908. A line from Waynesboro met the Greencastle line at Shady Grove. The Waynesboro line was extended to

Pen Mar Pen Mar is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Maryland, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is one of the border towns in the United States with a portmanteau name. Pen Mar came to prominence as a resort in the 2 ...

and Blue Ridge Summit. The Pen Mar line was noted for its steep grades and sharp curves. The CG&W met the Hagerstown Railway, later the Hagerstown & Frederick Railway (H&F) at Shady Grove next to the current post office. Since the H&F was , there could be no exchange of equipment. "Union Station" was the junction of the Greencastle and Waynesboro trolley lines and the Hagerstown line in Shady Grove. The Hagerstown line approached Shady Grove from the south and ended along the east side of the building which is now the Shady Grove post office where it met the Greencastle and Waynesboro lines. The "Union Station" ticket office and building was a small white building right beside and on the east side of the Hagerstown tracks. Because of the broad gauge, it could not carry rail freight, so it was denied a revenue source available to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

systems. Service on most of the system ended on July 31, 1928. The Rouzerville-Chambersburg section finally ended service on January 13, 1932, a victim of the Depression and the

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

Gauge

The CG&W used a

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

, similar to other Pennsylvania

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...

lines.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chambersburg Greencastle Waynesboro Street Railway Defunct Pennsylvania railroads Interurban railways in Pennsylvania Transportation in Franklin County, Pennsylvania Railway companies established in 1903 Railway companies disestablished in 1932 5 ft 2½ in gauge railways in the United States 1903 establishments in Pennsylvania 1932 disestablishments in Pennsylvania

Origins

Gauge

See also

References