Hanover Junction Vital Crossroads

Hanover Junction Vital Crossroads. . As its name implies, Hanover Junction was once a transportation hub. It's where the Northern Central Railway met the Hanover Branch Railroad, which traveled west to Hanover and Gettysburg. Look to your right and you'll see the restored track split. , The two lines, linked up in 1852, were intended to deliver agricultural bounty of the region and iron ore from local mines to markets up and down the East Coast. During the Civil War, thousands of soldiers wounded at Gettysburg were processed here and sent to hospitals in York and Baltimore. , Insert 1 , Endangered Building In its heyday, the station, originally built in 1852, included a telegraph office, hotel rooms, and living quarters fro the stationmaster and his family. In 1929, the railroad sold the building to a private owner. By the 1970s, when this picture was taken, the station was a shell of its former self. , Insert 2 , Saving the Station , The station was purchased and transferred to York County in 1977. Now listed on National Register of Historic Places, it received extensive renovations from 1999 to 2001. It reopened on November 18, 2001, the anniversary of a historic visit from President Abraham Lincoln, who stopped on his way to deliver the Gettysburg Address. , Diagram , Trains from Hanover discharged passengers at point A, then back to point B from which a running switch was made to Point C where the engine was cut from the train and moved into the turntable at point D. Engine was turned and moved to switch D, then back to E and coupled to train. , Northern Central Railway and connecting lines, 1862.