Working on the Railroad All the Live Long Day

Working on the Railroad All the Live Long Day. A Heart of Hanover Trail Stop. , The Old Branch Hanover Line , In 1851-52, local laborers built the Hanover line, connecting Hanover to Hanover Junction in Seven Valleys, with the first trains running in 1852. This line, known as the "old branch," was owned by the Hanover Branch Railroad Corporation. , Passenger service from Hanover to Gettysburg began in 1858. The Western Maryland Railroad acquired the line in 1917. , In November of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln's party's journey from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore, New Freedom, Glen Rock, Hanover Junction (Seven Valleys), Hanover and ending in Gettysburg took six hours. Lincoln's layover at Hanover Junction lasted two hours. The Hanover Railroad Company made the car and line that took Lincoln to Gettysburg. , The Hanover Branch Railroad operated four locomotives, the Conewago, Hanover, Heidelberg, and Gettysburg, all light-weight locomotives (25-27 tons). , Built in 1853, the Conewago was the most serviceable as it had a wagon top boiler, a vertical, round-top fire box that burned wood. Wood fueled all these locomotives until 1868, when coal became the fuel of choice. , The Original Hanover Branch Railroad Depot , Built in 1852 and demolished in 1915, the original Hanover Branch Railroad telegraph office and freight warehouse, known as the depot, sat behind the present-day Lincoln plaque on Railroad Street. This was some 100 yards south from the main line tracks that ran to Gettysburg next to present-day Guthrie Memorial Library. , Hanover’s Union Station , For the convenience of passengers, Hanover's Union Station opened next to the main line in 1889 in the same building that now houses Fischer's Insurance Agency. , Standing in front of you, this one-story brick, wood, and slate roof structure, with several ticket counters and elegant, wooden benches for customers, operated until passenger service on the Hanover line ended in 1942.