A rail-fan trip was operated in May 1955 from Philadelphia to Gettysburg over the Pennsylvania and Western Maryland via York. Pennsylvania's K-4, No. 7133 heads up the special near the Centerville Road crossing on the Columbia branch west of Rohrerstown.
Provenance
From box labeled Pennsylvania RR Main Line, Columbia Br., A & S Br.
Landisville's "Railroad House," was in such close proximity to the Pennsylvania's main line tracks that legend has it that the draft from passing non-stop expresses could blow soup from plates in the dining room. Also in this 1909 view is "NV" block station which controlled the cross over of the Pennsylvania's tracks with that of the Reading & Columbia branch of the Reading. The block station in later years was changed from "NV"to "LANDIS" before it was eventually demolished.
Caught on the bridge with two trains passing! A group of intrepid individuals cling to the guard rails of the massive steel bridge that carries the Atglen & Susquehanna freight line over the Conestoga Creek where it breaks through the river hills and into the Susquehanna River. This winter scene from the 1920's before the erection of Safe Harbor Dam shows the great bridge and the tracks of the Columbia & Port Deposit branch far below.
Lancaster County's flat, open, fields around Landisville made the Reading's Reading & Columbia Branch an easy vicitim to severe winter weather conditions. The locomotive's big wedge plow doesn't to have helped much in this February 1918 scene. Obviously off the iron with its tender askew the crew is either looking for the wrecker or a rescuing St. Bernard with the traditional keg of brandy.
Published in 1909, this view card shows the Reading station at Landisville on the company's Reading & Columbia branch. Like so many Reading structures, it was designed by the famous Philadelphia architect Frank Furness. It originally served as the station at Cordelia a few miles south of Landisville but after business declined at the Cordelia furnace the structure was moved into Landisville.
Rugged hills dropping abrubtly to river level and the commanding expanse of the Susquehanna made the ride over the "Port Road," one of the most beautiful rail trips in the state and some even compared the scenery to that along the Rhine. A July 1949 steam powered fan trip out of Philadelphia waits while passengers take in a tour of the Safe Harbor Dam.
The massive steel supports of the Atglen & Susquehanna Branch's imposing bridge at Safe Harbor, PA forma back drop for the Pennsy's classic GG-1 class electric No. 4923 during a stop of a May 1957 "Port Road" Excursion to view the dam and the scenery along the Susquehanna at Safe Harbor.
The date is April 18, 1903 and Safe Harbor, PA would never be the same. Excavation is already in progress on the hillside for the Pennsylvania's "Low Grade," or Atlgen & Susquehanna Branch. The steam derrick with the wrecking ball is about to demolish the "Port Road's" bridge over teh Conestoga along with the frame station.
The tower operator at "Landis," on a summer morning in 1950 watches the Reading's local freight to Columbia as it crosses the Pennsy main line before doing switching work at Landisville.
The legendary ghost of Sppoky Nook had obviously vanished with the coming of daylight hours. The undergrowth during the mid-summer of 1950 practically hides the pilot of the Reading's No. 1678 as the engineer of teh Columbia freight whistles for the approaching Spooky Nook crossing.
