Pennsylvania Railroad - Frederick to Hanover (Mostly Abandoned)

abandonedrailroads.homestead.com/md_frederick_hanover_p...

This branch of the Pennsylvania RR was initially built from York and Hanover, PA through Taneytown and Walkersville to Frederick, MD in 1869. The line served local farming communities and remained in business after the Penn Central merger in 1968.

South of Walkersville the line remained dormant for 20 years, until the Walkersville Southern was formed and started running excursions on the short segment of line. The bridge over the Monocacy River was rebuilt in 1995-1996, and excursions now extend south from "downtown" Walkersville to just north of MD route 26, near a place called 'Harmony Grove' in the SPV atlas. (See Links page for information on this resource).


The southern abandoned section of line is about 2 miles long in and around Frederick. The tracks are removed from the MD route 26 crossing (the entire road has been re-graded), but south of there they are still place. All grade crossing signals are gone and the flangeways are filled in but the tracks are there, parallel to East St for some distance, with a portion of street running in the city of Frederick. There are some old freight spurs along there too.

The northern section of the abandonment runs from Taneytown to Kingsdale, then into Pennsylvania and Littlestown, Sell and into Hanover. The section of this former PRR line from Hanover to York was later operated by the Maryland & Pennsylvania (aka the "Ma & Pa"). In Hanover, a short segment of track remains to serve some warehouses. Between Hanover and Littlestown some track segments remain, but none remain in Littlestown.

Categories: railroad, abandoned / shut down, historical layer / disappeared object