Branch line questions

Does anyone know when the RDG quit the north end of the Gettysburg to Carlisle line, more specifically between Mt Holly Springs and Carlisle? I can remember some of the crossings still in place in the early 80's but the rail was pulled up in some other places.

Also when did the RDG quit running to Columbia? I can remember seeing the horseshoe curve as the line decended into Columbia. Is that trackage torn up?

Thanks in advance for any help on these questions.

Snoozer,

I believe the north end was washed out during Hurricane Agnes in 1972 and subsequently abandoned. I went to college in Carlisle and a friend and I sometimes rode the 6 miles down to Carlisle Jct on bicycles to take pics of Conrail. We went on back roads and you could still see the grade in several places (in 1995). One farm even had a cast-iron "Private Crossing" sign at the back of the driveway near the ROW! In Carlisle itself, there were tracks still showing through the pavement on E. High Street, near the Frog Switch Mfg. Co and the connection to the Pennsy. The station was long gone, though.

Thanks for the information. I used to live in Boiling Springs ( My friends called in Boring Springs) and I used to spend a lot of time at Carlisle Jct. watching the action. It makes perfect sense that the north end of the line went out around 1972 given the damaging storms of that year.

Thank for your post

Joe

The North end of the Gettysburg-Carlisle branch was not aquired or operated by ConRail, so the legal answer is 3/31-4/1/76.
NHIR bought the signs and signals from the abandoned portion in late 1978. I remember asking for permission to trespass on the land of a factory that might have had a siding to get the switch target sign, and the young security guard asked "What's a siding?" Just after I unscrewed the station sign from its posts at Craigheads (just North of the junction), the oldest remaining inhabitant of the place came over. He told me that they had already lost the Post Office, General Store, Feed Mill, railroad, and now with the departure of the sign, "I guess this is the official end of Craigheads." If he had talked to me a little earlier, I would have left the sign up. It is available for donation to a worthy organization.