Nostalgia & History > Cumberland Valley RR relics

On 6/26/20 I gave a fellow enthusiast a quick tour of some old Cumberland Valley RR remains around Chambersburg, PA.
The CVRR was a pre-Civil War regional RR that stretched across 4 states from Harrisburg, PA., to Winchester, VA.
Absorbed into PRR in 1919, the line is run by NS and Winchester & Western, with the portion between Shippensburg and Carlisle, PA. mostly a rail trail.

This 4-story HQ building  off Market St.dates from 1914, when the CVRR tracks were relocated onto an elevated embankment through Chambersburg to remove them from the middle of 3rd St.
The building has been renovated and repurposed.
The parking lot just north was the location of CVRR's 3rd station in Chambersburg, another 1914 addition that was razed in the early 1960s after passenger service ended here in 1961.
WW Jenkins photos 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/20 07:47 by bigsavage.

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The first HQ and passenger station were on 2nd St., and was originally 2 stories.
Built before the Civil War, it was burned by a Confederate raiding force, and not rebuilt until 1866.
It was replaced by another station in 1875-76, but remained the CVRR HQ until 1914, with a 3rd story added in 1907.
It now houses a couple of businesses and apartments.

The 1875-76 passenger station over on 3rd St. once had a trainshed extending over the street. 
The station was used by CVRR until 1914, and has been the home of the Public Opinion newspaper for many years.

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Over off Grant St. is the former shop complex, which has a 6-stall roundhouse built in 1918, 2 shop buildings dating from 1892, and a huge locomotive erection shop built in 1918.
The roundhouse was a newer part of a 1880s roundhouse, and is now used as a produce market. The turntable was where the large puddle is.
PRR and PC closed all these facilities by the late 1960s, the shop buildings are owned now by Knouse Foods, which has a large plant where the yard used to be.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/20 07:48 by bigsavage.

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The 1890 freight station was also on Grant St., it has been been modified and repurposed into a winery.
2 more old photos of the 1914 passenger station off Market St., which seems to have been quite a facility.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/20 07:45 by bigsavage.

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Neat series of photos! Thanks for posting these along with your narrative!

I watched a presentation on the Cumberland Valley on CSPAN-3 about a month or so ago and your post dovetails nicely with that!

Posted from iPhone

I am always amazed when I look at old brick buildings--masons back then did fantastic work--all those bricks set one-by-one by hand--level, square, flat faced--top to bottom.  Building a building by brick is not easy.  At some point, one could easily come "off square", and the building could have a "lean" to it.  Thus masons and their work always impresses me.  And even more so when it's a big shop erection building, which had to include additional brickwork to support cranes and other heavy items.

In the photo of original station that now has a 3rd floor, it appears that some of the brick survived the Confederate attack, as the 3rd floor has different colored bricks near the seam--that's pretty cool.

Thanks for the very interesting story and pictures on this railroad.
I am amazed right along with coach on the incredible talents of the old master brick masons.
Gary

Warren - thanks for the fascinating look at the relics of this long-gone railroad.  Although I've passed through the area numerous times, I had no idea that some of these relics were still there.  

There is an excellent book on this subject, History of the Cumberland Valley Railroad, 1835-1919, by Paul J. Westhaeffer, published by the Washington DC Chapter of the NRHS, copyright 1979.  Copies can be found on Amazon or Ebay.  

Years ago I worked with a guy who grew up in Chambersburg. He told me about the PRR water tank in the last photo. He called it the "High Line Tank". The reason it came up in conversation, he was talking about his favorite Christmas Tree ornament when he was a kid. He said it was shaped like the High Line Tank!
So there is a real twist to this history.
​Gonut