Another factor in favor of the steam locomotive is that it seems more historic and old fashioned. Abraham Lincoln rode into Gettysburg behind a steam locomotive, not an F unit.

While we know that those two can be quite close in vintage, depending on the age of the steam loco, for the general public, especially the history fan that is going to visit Gettysburg, they're generations apart in spirit, if not in actual age of machinery.

The more I think about it, the more I think somebody is missing a great opportunity here!

Get the Leviathan, the VT Lyon or some other early period reproduction locomotive and some reproduction civil war era wood coaches. Ride out into the battle fields, with historians telling the story of the civil war and the role that Gettysburg played.

On the way back, you pick up a re-enactor dressed as Abe Lincoln, and you bring him to the original station, in a reasonably authentic train.

Wow, seems like a natural to me! I just read last night that they get 1.7 million visitors at Gettysburg each year. You don't need a big percentage of that number do just fine...

Well, unfortunately that line is the CSX Hanover Sub. It sure would be great to be able to run an authentic-looking replica train through the battlefield right to the "Lincoln Station" in Gettysburg, but it's not going to happen as long as CSX needs it.

It doesn't sound like the current owners of the former Reading line are absolutely opposed to a passenger operation, they just aren't going to do it themselves. They may be pragmatic enough to be willing to talk about leasing operating rights to a complimentary excursion operation over their line if a professional operator approached them with quality equipment and a real plan for a successful operation. I would argue that the effort being made in York to start a replica operation with a locomotive built by the guy who built Leviathan should really be put on the Gettysburg line, but the local financial interest is in the York area. I suppose one more tourist attraction in Gettysburg doesn't mean as much there. They are going to do fine with tourism for the next four years.

From the late 1880's until about 1930, the Gettysburg & Harrisburg (Reading) had a branch that extended from its station down into the battlefield, ending at a shelter at the foot of Little Round Top. In fact, the branch was known as "the Round Top Extension." They ran regular shuttle trains from the town station down and back, until the National Park Service forced abandonment of the branch. If you know where to look, there are still a few places where the grade is visible. A short segment of the branch survived into the 1960s, serving a monument works and providing part of the joint Reading-Western Maryland wye where the Reading's T-1's were turned on Iron Horse Ramble excursions.

Bob, glad you feel that way, because that's essentially what "Steam Into History" is doing over in York County. Only unlike the ex-Reading branch, the Northern Central was very much involved in the actual battle, before, during and after. That was the only way into Gettysburg then.

If you want to read about a REAL railroad battle - where confederate cavalry actually chased an escaping locomotive and the telegraph crew away from Hanover Jct. during the pre-Gettysburg conflict, read "Flames beyond Gettysburg" by Scott Mingus. Makes your conventional train-robbery recreation sound pretty tame.

A lot more happened on that line that just the trip Lincoln took after the battle. It's a good read. I think the only reason it's not more widely known is that the Pennsylvania Militia did a rather discreditable job of even slowing up Gordon's advance on Harrisburg. If Union forces hadn't shown up behind him when they did, they were preparing to literally wade over the river and take Harrisburg. Instead, they returned to Gettysburg for the big one. Because of the Confederate rout of union forces in York County just before Gettysburg, it gets short shrift, and I can say that because I'm a Pennsylvanian. And because my great-grandfather was there too, in the 154th NY Volunteers, a unit that saw 60% casualties during the war. So yeah, I've done some reading.

It's a bit OT, but a full week of advancing confederates watching union militia forces repeatedly break and run when hit with infantry and cavalry charges HAD to contribute to the overconfidence at Gettysburg. I never understood how that could have happened by Lee until I read what had happened BEFORE the battle.

Great railroad story though! Right up there with the Great Locomotive Chase. And its a serious part of understanding Gettysburg in context.

Here's a link to a map with the Round Top branch of the Reading. It also shows part of the Gettysburg trolley line, which had trackage rights over part of the branch, so returning cars wouldn't retrace the same route.
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/gettysburg_pa_1920.jpg