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

7 A Rugged Route

52  B
S V H H F E
S P V U F B B S S V V H H H H H H F F E E E
S S P P V V U U F F While the South Penn was always intended as a Harrisburg–Pittsburgh main line, there were early arguments about how it would do so. The assumption, of course, was that it would join the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie’s PMcK&Y subsidiary at some point along its Monongahela–Youghiogheny River route east of Pittsburgh. But in August 1883 Twombly began pushing for a new plan that would abandon the South Penn’s planned route west of Allegheny Mountain and instead turn it southwest to connect with the Baltimore & Ohio’s Pittsburgh main line at Garrett, Pennsylvania, about 11 miles away; from there it would use 108 miles of B&O track into Pittsburgh, presumably meeting the PMcK&Y at some point where the two lines adjoined just east of the city. Twombly’s plan would save considerable construction costs, which included a long tunnel under Laurel Hill and some difficult mountain grading on Laurel Hill and Chestnut Ridge. But it would also negate one of the South Penn’s principal purposes, which was to establish the shortest route between its terminals , and would make the line as much a B&O route as a South Penn one. Sayre, for one, was adamantly against it. Even though a contract was signed with the American Construction Company on September 6 to build all the way to a PMcK&Y connection west of West Newton via Big Sewickley Creek, the western terminal debate continued into late December. At that point a thoroughlydisgustedSayrevisitedVanderbiltathisNewYorkhometodiscuss the matter along with Twombly, Richard Whitney, and Vanderbilt’s two older sons. Vanderbilt agreed that the B&O plan was a bad idea, and for once Sayre A Rugged Route 53 got his way. For all that, though, the syndicate still argued about the western terminal location, and in the end yet another (and better) route was adopted.1 As finally settled upon, the South Penn’s basic route was to begin at its east end with a “wye” connection to the Reading in Harrisburg, cross the still-active Pennsylvania Canal, then span the Susquehanna to present-day Lemoyne, or Bridgeport as it was called then. From there it struck out across the valleys and mountain barriers to connect with the Pittsburgh, McKeesport & Youghiogheny’s Pittsburgh–Connellsville line. Its trains would then use PMcK&Y and Pittsburgh & Lake Erie tracks into Pittsburgh. Heading westward from Harrisburg, it took a mostly straight and level path through the broad Cumberland Valley, passing through Mechanicsburg and Carlisle. Blue Mountain marked the end of this easy jaunt and the beginning of an up-and-down succession of mountain ridges and valleys to be hurdled before reaching some grade relief in the form of the Raystown Branch of the Juniata at Everett—specifically Blue Mountain, Kittatinny Mountain, Path Valley, Amberson Valley, Tuscarora Mountain, Sideling Hill, Ladig Valley, and Rays Hill. (The original route west from Marysville via Fishing Creek, Sherman’s Creek,Landisburg,andLoysvillewouldhaveavoidedtheBlueandKittatinny mountains.) From Everett the line would then proceed through Bedford and Mann’s Choice on almost 30 miles of gentle river-level grade before facing Allegheny The basic South Penn routes in final form. The company had charter rights to build to the state lines near Hagerstown and Wheeling, but never exercised them. The Railroad That Never Was 54 MountainatthetinytownofNewBaltimore,about119milesfromHarrisburg. Morehurdlesthenfollowedasitsurmountedthemountaindivideandworked through hilly Somerset County toward another summit at Laurel Hill, the highest point on the railroad. Once past Laurel Hill summit it worked its way steadily down the steep western slopes of the Alleghenies, through Donegal and on down Chestnut Ridge before reaching mostly open country east of New Stanton (which the railroad always identified as Paintersville, the settlement opposite New Stanton on the east side of Big Sewickley Creek). It then headedtowarditsconnectionwiththePittsburgh,McKeesport&Youghiogheny that would take its trains to Pittsburgh. Originally this was to have been at Smithdale, west of West Newton on the Youghiogheny River, but this was later moved farther west to Port Perry, near Braddock on the Monongahela. Passenger trains would begin or end their runs at the P&LE’s two-story wood frame station at Smithfield and Carson Streets, alongside the Monongahela River on Pittsburgh’s South Side. From the beginning the engineers made alignment changes, most notably on much of the line west of Laurel Hill, and in a few cases they never...