If you are here because of the NS/Pennsy Shocks Mill Bridge, then please go to
there.
Pennsy built this route with grades less than 1% and "no curve sharper than two degrees" for freight traffic. This freed up their mainline for passenger traffic and reduced the cost of handling freight. Construction started in 1903 and was finished in 1906. It cost $19.5m ($548m in 2017 dollars). After the
Safe Harbor Dam was built in 1931, Pennsy electrified this line by 1938. "The A&S proved both popular and profitable for about 50 years. Peak service was in 1941 when the average A&S freight length was 89 cars between 3,500 to 4,000 feet. But after World War 2, railroads nationwide began to experience a decline of service. Eventually, the line became redundant in the 1970s as rail traffic further diminished and an alternate freight route to Philadelphia gained operational favor." Conrail chose the Reading line from Harrisburg to northern New Jersey to handle freight traffic. Over 200 workers were killed during construction because dynamite was used and many workers were in close proximity to meet the construction schedule. The dynamiting included some 90' cuts through rock. [
UnchartedLancaster_cutoff]
Documented features along this route:
These topo maps include the mainline across the top and the eastern part of the Enola Low Grade Route along the bottom.
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1950 Harrisburg, 1949 Newark, 1946 Wilmington and 1948 Baltimore Quads @ 250,000
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This is one of the sources that I saw that indicate that the Atglen & Susquehanna Branch joined the mainline on the east end in Parkersburg. But the topo map shows that the plan to join at Atglen was implemented.
Today, the western part of the route is the Enola Low Grade Trail.
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