The appearance of the fresh stone ballast suggests that it was not too long after the opening of the Atglen & Susquehanna branch in 1906, when this photo was made of an eastbound freight approaching the water station and "CO" tower on the Pennsy's "Low Grade," freight line at Creswell. The Susquehanna is in the left back-ground and the tracks of the Columbia & Port Deposit branch are at the far right.
Provenance
From box labeled Pennsylvania RR Main Line, Columbia Br., A & S Br.
The Pennsylvania's diesel electric number 4638 running as train number 5011 pauses at the Washington Borough station in the early 1930's to pick up a few passengers during its hour and fifty minute run along the Susquehanna from Columbia to Perryville, Maryland. The trailing coach at the rear had a section which accomodated a mail clerk and the "Columbia & Perryville R. P. O.," one of the several local mail runs in Lancaster County.
Grist mills were an important part of the rural economy for two centuries. Stoneroad's Mill was a gun shop at the time of the Revolution. It was built by Andreas and Veronica Kauffman.
