The Northern Central Railway was formed in 1854 to connect Baltimore, Maryland with Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Abraham Lincoln traveled over this line and John Cowgill writes about the continuing story of this historic railroad.

http://thetracksidephotographer.com/202 ... l-railway/

Edd Fuller, Editor
The Trackside Photographer
http://thetracksidephotographer.com/

I've been a fan of the NC since I first learned about it 20 years ago while commuting to a job at MB Klein in downtown Baltimore.

I've long called it "a railroad too pretty to live", but I'm THRILLED by what the folks at Steam into History / NCRY have been doing up there.

I was having lunch in the cafe in the New Freedom station the other day when the train rolled by. Ten years ago, I would've NEVER thought that would happen, but there it was!

Thanks for sharing the article.

Interestingly, Lincoln's pre-inauguration train was supposed to run over the N. C. Ry. from Harrisburg to Baltimore but a credible assassination threat caused him to be rerouted via a special PRR train to Philadelphia, then the schedulled overnight through sleeper to Washington via the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore RR to President St. Station, Baltimore; horse drayage movement of the sleeper along Pratt Street in Baltimore City to Camden Station, then B&O to Washington.

Phil Mulligan

Quick correction on the article. "Steam into History" actually began operating in 2013, not 2011. The "York 17" Locomotive was delivered by David Kloke in the late spring of 2013.

/Kevin Madore

Is # 17 still at the Northern Central? It seems the current operations are being done with a diesel?

Thanks,
John

I wondered that when I saw they now had a diesel, but, on checking, #17 still features prominently on their website and appears to be down to work some of the trips.

It's scheduled to pull a rare mileage excursion to the Howard Tunnel in two weeks.
https://www.northerncentralrailway.com/ ... 7-1200-pm/

They have been running a scheduled mix of steam and diesel for a few years now. Probably why they changed the name from “Steam into History”

Wasn't there another "northern central" in the 90s?
I've not ridden on the route since behind a well known locomotives last run in the mid 80s.

The Entertrainment Line was there for a while, and Stewartstown Railroad also offered through service to York via Northern Central after Entertrainment left.

Wesley

The Northern Central Ry. (NCRY) was a through RR from Baltimore MD to Sunbury PA via York and Harrisburg. It fell under PRR control around 1861 and the Baltimore-Harrisburg portion became PRR's passenger line between Washington and Pittsburgh and thence St. Louis and Chicago. The Harrisburg-Sunbury portion became part of PRR's Main Line Harrisburg to Buffalo.

The passenger service used the PRR/Amtrak NEC line between Washington and Baltimore (Baltimore and Potomac RR) with the train reversing at Penn Station Balto. For example, after 1938, a GG1 pulled the Liberty Limited backward from Washington to Baltimore (Observation Car next to the motor) then two K4's coupled to the head end and pulled the train to Harrisburg. The NCRY was steeply graded around the PA-MD border.

Through freight moved via Perryville and the C&PD Branch. There is a wye at Perryville and the "Port Road" is water level meaning no change of direction and no engine change or helper engine.

When Amtrak came in, passenger service over the NCRY was one coach in one train each way.

Amtrak chose to run its Washington-Chicago cars via Perryville and the Port Road with no change of direction and no engine change.

In June 1972 Hurricane Agnes washed out the Northern Central between York and Cockeysville MD and the bankrupt PC did not repair the line.

Today's Northern Central uses the old NCRY between York and New Freedom PA.

Phil Mulligan

Thanks to all for answering my question!

John

Lets correct a couple of bits here.



Just to clarify, Amtrak never ran over the Northern Central. Penn Central ran one coach each way over the line at the very end, but when Amtrak formed, that was it for revenue intercity passenger service on the NCRy.



Swap that around. Stewartstown was the operator of the line between New Freedom and York after the rebuilding of the line, from 1985 to 1992, when they no longer deemed it worth the cost of upkeep of the line compared to incoming revenue. Entertrainment and the Liberty Limited dinner trains ran from 1996 to 2001.

Big Jim is right. The NCRY was permanently washed out a little over one year after Amtrak came in.

If the Port Road (Columbia and Port Deposit Branch) from Perryville MD to Columbia PA were not available, Amtrak's alternate was to run via Philadelphia. Eventually 440/441 were permanently routed via Philadelphia, adding Wilmington and 30th St. Phila as stops. Faster track offset longer distance. (40/41 to/from NY Penn ran via North Philadelphia)

The one coach train was the pre-Amtrak Penn Central train, and the evening train was known in Baltimore as "The Six O'Clock Ridiculous." With changes of train in Baltimore and Harrisburg you could go from Washington to Chicago on PC 49 after Harrisburg. Of course, before Amtrak, you could also take B&O's Capitol Limited.

Phil Mulligan

Not permanently. The major bridges destroyed, such as the former Twin Arch Bridge over South Codorus Creek north of Howard Tunnel, and the one just north of Hanover Junction, were rebuilt by the Commonwealth, which I believe still now owns the track from York to the Mason-Dixon Line. Other damage occurred on the Maryland side north of Cockeysville.

But during Penn Central days, the line had about as much traffic as Raton Pass has now--which is to say, the passenger train (one loco, one car) was the only real excuse to keep the line open. After the damage of Agnes (the tropical storm in June 1972), there was just no money to effect repairs on an already-bankrupt system. As I understood it, between York and Cockeysville the line was good for maybe 20-30 cars A YEAR over 35+ miles of line.