For all those involved in the recent "short line" threads....

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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I had the opportunity to talk to the crew of the train that runs past my house yesterday, and the engineer told me that Norfolk Southern wante to sell it to a short line!

It is a former PRR main line from the Harrisburg, PA area to Shippensburg, but has been abandonded west of Carlisle. It is currently about 15 miles long and serves several industries including: Carlisle Rubber-manufacturer of rubber products-receives covered hoppers of powdered rubber material. http://www.carlisle-ccw.com/aboutus.asp ; Fry Communications-publisher of local newspapers and flyers-receives box cars http://www.frycomm.com/ ; Lear Corporation-auto parts manufacturer-receives box cars http://www.lear.com/index.jsp There are several other businesses on the line as well that I can’t remember right now, and a few closer to Camp Hill that I’m not familiar with. The engineer told me some of th companies (i.e. Lear) are not doing well right now, and others are talking about moving their operations out of state. However, I don’t know if this is hard and fast decided, and there are several businesses not currently served by the railroad that might be open to the idea.

Here is a map of the line: It runs from approximately Camp Hill, PA to just west of Carlisle, PA. It is currently served by two trains per day, M-F. One makes the run to Carlisle to serve Lear, Carlisle Rubber, and another business that is slipping my mind. The other train stays between Camp Hill and Mechanicsburg and serves the industries there.

Click on the picture for a close up:

I hope you railroad guys can make sense of what I said. I can provide more information or find it for those that have questions, although I’m not suggesting any one here will want to buy this line, I just thought it was interesting that this came up with the recent topics going on here.

EDIT: Forgot to

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Nice map…where did you get it?

ed

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I zoomed in to the section I needed on the maps at rrpicturearchives.net and then saved the image and uploaded it here.

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I have discovered this line is Norfolk Southern’s Shippensburg Secondary, formerly PRR’s Cumberland Valley Branch, if that means anything to anybody. It is currently served from NS’s Shiremanstown Yard. The line used to run from Harrisburg to Mechanicsburg to Carlisle to Shippensburg to Chambersburg to Hagerstown, MD, with other smaller towns in between. It is now abandonded between Carlisle and Shippensburg. The rails have been removed but in most areas the ROW is still in decent condition and accessible, although I don’t know who currently owns it.

Here is a map of the larger area. You can see the large abandonded area noted by the dashed line. The line just to it’s south is Norfolk Southern’s Lurgan Branch. (Click for larger image):

I will try to get more information on the industries on the line next week.

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i think csx shoud restore it

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Wow, cool info!

Adrianspeeder