Lorett Treese, Railroads of Pennsylvania: Fragments of the Past in the Keystone Landscape. Mechanicsburg PA: Stackpole Books, 2003. Photos, 256 pps., $18.95.
This book is described by its writer as "part history and part travel guide, intended to place many of the Commonwealth's railroad artifacts, or fragments, in historical context." It is organized into eight chapters based on regional tourism promotional districts. Each chapter then follows a standard format to discuss the major railroads, rail stories, historic figures, existing artifacts and rail trails. Cumberland County is included in the Hershey/Gettysburg/Dutch Country section.
The "Great Railway" described in the section covering Cumberland County is the Western Maryland Railroad. The Western Maryland played a minor role in the region's rail history and only reached the Cumberland valley in the 1870's, as a branch line, three decades after the other lines in the region. While it was important in parts of York and Adams counties the real story of the region was Harrisburg's role as a transportation hub that continues to this day, a theme only lightly alluded to anywhere in the chapter.
The "Rail Stories" section focuses on stories of canals in the lower part of the Susquehanna below Middletown and some railroad activity concurrent with the canals. The intent is, possibly, to relate the economic rivalry of Philadelphia and Baltimore to railroad construction of the era but the point is not well made.
The Cumberland Valley railroad is described in two paragraphs. The first incorrectly relates that the Canal Commission surveyed for a railroad between Chambersburg and the Susquehanna in 1828- in reality they surveyed for a canal but found the concept unworkable. The Cumberland Valley Railroad was eventually built in 1837 but used a completely different route than the 1828 survey.
The second paragraph relates some facts but does not relate the importance of the route to the west or its use of the first sleeping car in America. Paul Westhafer’s comprehensive study of the line does not appear in the bibliography.
In the "Railroads and the Civil War" snippet the author relates several disjointed quotes and facts that seem to allude to the railroads of the region having played a major role in the war, but no details are provided. Lincoln's passage through Harrisburg to his inauguration is covered in a separate section but provides more details of the southern end of the trip. His passage to Gettysburg for the dedication of the cemetery and his fabled Gettysburg Address is accorded one paragraph.
John Mifflin Hood, a Marylander and later President of the Western Maryland Railroad is selected for the region's "Rail Giant" segment. Among others Thomas Scott, a Franklin County native and subsequent President of the Pennsylvania Railroad, would have been a better choice (he is covered in the Pittsburgh section).
The only Cumberland County site mentioned in the section "Sampling the Region's Railroad History" is the Enola yard. Harrisburg's Transportation Center and Rockville Bridge are mentioned, but the region's role as a rail transportation hub is not discussed.
Cumberland County's rail trails are mentioned only by name. Significant text is devoted to Harrisburg's Greenbelt Trail, although only several thousand feet of its twenty-mile length is actually on a railroad right of way.
Read the entire article