The Railroad That Never Was: Vanderbilt, Morgan, and the South Pennsylvania Railroad

5 The Spoilers

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4 41 1 P P J J J M M M F F S S 4 4 Vanderbilt may have thought he was moving into the South Penn under deep cover, but it took no time for word to get out that something serious was going on in southern Pennsylvania and that Vanderbilt probably was involved. And when it did, several similar projects miraculously materialized, created by promoters who suddenly showed interest in the long-ignored route. Their real motives probably will never be known; perhaps they were truly legitimate enterprises,perhaps corporate blackmailershoping to be boughtout,orpossibly Pennsylvania Railroad surrogates aiming to block him. But what is known is that even as Twombly, Reon Barnes, and the others were in the preliminary process of investigating and negotiating, three companies received state charters to build railroads over the South Penn’s general route. First to appear was something called the Southern Tier Railroad, chartered in June as a 3-foot gauge line stretching 208 miles between a Western Maryland Railroad connection south of Shippensburg and West Elizabeth, near Pittsburgh. (The company’s name referred to its intended route through Pennsylvania’s “southern tier.”) Its incorporators were Philadelphians with no discernible railroad affiliations. Once created, however, the company did nothing further.1 Next came the ambitiously titled Seaboard, Pittsburgh & Great Western Railway, chartered September 27 by another group of Philadelphians. Like the Southern Tier, this railroad was to start on the Western Maryland near Shippensburg but would then follow a route somewhat north of the pro- The Spoilers 37 posednarrow-gaugelineandterminateontheOhioRiverinStoweTownship, roughly3.5mileswestofdowntownPittsburgh.Again,thepromotersdidlittle or nothing with their creation. AlthoughthepromotersoftheSouthernTierandtheSeaboard,Pittsburgh & Great Western seemed to have no railroad ties, their bases in the Pennsylvania Railroad’s headquarters city raise some suspicions. It is also interesting that both lines chose for their eastern connection the Western Maryland Railroad, a relatively weak company that reached only Baltimore and, at the time, had no direct routes to Philadelphia and New York Harbor. The PRR’s Cumberland Valley Railroad subsidiary also served Shippensburg and would have been a much better bet, since it offered excellent connections over the entire Pennsylvania system, including not only the big northeastern cities but also Baltimore, Washington, and points south. Might it be that the promoters took deliberate pains to avoid any hint of PRR influence or involvement?2 The third project proved more serious and effective. On October 5, 1881, the Pittsburgh & Atlantic Railroad received its state charter, intending to buildwestfromShippensburg(whereitwouldconnectwithboththeWestern Maryland and the Cumberland Valley) to Connellsville on the Baltimore & Ohio.ItschiefpromoterandfinancialbackerwasEdwardK.Hyndman,whose past career included a stint as superintendent of the B&O’s Pittsburgh & Connellsville Railroad and, after coming under the wing of coal operator John Leisenring, as the organizer and manager of Leisenring’s Connellsville Coal &IronCompany.InJune1881hemovedtoPittsburghtobecomegeneralmanager of the Pittsburgh & Western Railroad, and he later served as president of the Pittsburgh Junction Railroad, a line opened in 1884 to connect the B&O with the P&W. The Pittsburgh & Atlantic’s president was Watson C. Mobley, who happened to be the Pittsburgh & Western’s general agent. Hyndman and Mobley’s involvement would imply that the Pittsburgh & Western was at least one major force behind the Pittsburgh & Atlantic, althoughthiscannotbeproven .Atthetime,theP&Wwasapartnarrow-gauge/ part standard-gauge line running northwest from the north side of Pittsburgh to New Castle, Pennsylvania. James Callery, its principal investor, was looking for ways to expand his line to the north and west and also to make it more attractive to some buyer, so it is possible that the Pittsburgh & Atlantic may have been part of this scheme. And, to pile speculation upon speculation, the Baltimore & Ohio may have had an interest in the project. The B&O bought control of the Pittsburgh & Western in February 1884, but was rumored to have been involved in the line as early as 1881. Also, in that year the Pennsylvania managed to cut off the B&O’s access to the Philadelphia and New York The Railroad That Never Was 38 markets, and the Pittsburgh & Atlantic may have looked like a possible way to solve its problem.3 Whatever its backing and motives, the Pittsburgh & Atlantic went right to work to establish its claim on the route. Vanderbilt’s South Penn surveys had begun in December 1881, but by January 1882 a Pittsburgh & Atlantic party headed by chief engineer Thomas P. Roberts was out in the bitter midwinter...