The Frederick and Pennsylvania Line railroad ran from Frederick, Maryland to the Pennsylvania-Maryland State line, or Mason–Dixon line near Kingsdale, Pennsylvania consisting of of center-line track and of total track including sidings. Chartered in 1867, the railroad started construction in 1869 and cost $868,687.50.
It opened October 8, 1872 and was subsequently leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) from January 1, 1875 and in July of that year, PRR formed the Frederick Division to operate the rail line. In the spring of 1896, it was liquidated in a judicial sale to the PRR for 10 percent of its 1896 book value.
Pennsylvania reorganized the railroad in December, 1896 as the Frederick and Northern Railroad Company. In March 1897, this new company was itself merged with other PRR-controlled railways, the Littlestown Railroad Company and the Hanover and York Railroad Company into the York, Hanover and Frederick Railroad, chartered under the general laws of Pennsylvania and Maryland. In 1914, this railroad and the newly built Central Railroad of Maryland were then merged into the York, Hanover and Frederick Railway Company which remained a wholly owned stock subsidiary of the PRR into the creation of the PennDel Company on December 31, 1953, and then the Penn Central Transportation Company merger in 1968 and then bankruptcy in 1970. The Frederick and Pennsylvania Line segment and other former PRR properties in Maryland were sold by Penn Central to the State of Maryland in 1982 for $9,295,000.Frederick County Land records, folio 1169, page 712 In 2006, the State sold approximately 20 miles of the branch to the Maryland Midland Railroad for approximately $300,000.Frederick County Land records, folio 5856, page 477
As of 2021, all but two miles () at the southern terminus at Frederick still exist, operated by either the Walkersville Southern Railroad or the Maryland Midland Railway.
Chartering the railroad company In January, 1866, organizers met in Frederick to discuss chartering a railroad from the District of Columbia to the Pennsylvania State line through Frederick. This required a legislative act by the Maryland General Assembly to incorporate and charter the railroad. Without it, the group could not solicit stock, purchase property through condemnation, or obtain financial backing in the form of stock subscriptions or bond sales from either the city or the County of Frederick. In March 1867 the Maryland General Assembly passed an Act to incorporate the Frederick and Pennsylvania line railroad. an Act to incorporate the Frederick and Pennsylvania line (F&PL) Railroad Company (Accessed from Maryland State Archives) One of those senators voting to incorporate the railroad was its future president, Charles Edward Trail of Frederick. Volume 133, Page 694
The F&PL was authorized to raise $1 million ($=), in capital (at $50 per share, US$s, 1867) to construct a railroad of one or more sets of tracks (within a right of way of less than one hundred feet () in width) from Frederick, Maryland, through Frederick and Carroll counties to the Maryland and Pennsylvania line, in the direction of Littlestown, Pennsylvania. The charter also required the road to make connections with the Western Maryland Railroad but made no specific references to requiring the railroad to serve any of towns along the line such as Walkersville or Woodsboro. The charter further required the line to commence construction by March 1870 (three years from passage) and be completed within ten years or be dissolved.
(see also The full text of the corporation charter as well as General Regulation applicable to all railroads incorporated in the State of Maryland prior to 1872.)
In August 1868, the company was organized with John Loats elected as the first president of the railroad. This organizational effort required additional legislation. In 1868, John A. Lynch, John Sifford, and 356 others, citizens of Frederick, requested legislation to authorize the corporate authorities of Frederick to subscribe to the capital stock of the Frederick and Pennsylvania Line Rail Road, and to levy taxes on said city for such purpose. A similar measure was requested to authorize Frederick County to subscribe to the capital stock and endorse the mortgage bonds of four railroads, the Western Maryland Rail Road Company, the Frederick and Emmittsburg Rail Road Company, the Frederick and Pennsylvania Line Rail Road Company, and the Frederick and Williamsport Rail Road Company. On March 30, 1868, the Governor signed a bill authorizing the Mayor, Aldermen and Common Council of Frederick to subscribe to as much as $250,000 ($=) of Frederick and Pennsylvania Line Railroad Company stock and bonds subject to a vote approving such subscription. Frederick would issue its own debt to pay for the railroad capital and pay the bonds off with taxation on the real and personal property of Frederick. On May 4, 1868, the city had an election seeking approval which passed 797 to 80.
The Frederick and Pennsylvania Line Railroad Company's incorporation act was modified a second time in 1870 by the Maryland General Assembly to authorize it to build a rail line south from Frederick, its then authorized terminus through Frederick and Montgomery Counties, and on to the boundary of the District of Columbia, so as to make a direct connection with the city of Washington. The F&PL was authorized to connect with or cross over any railway in Frederick or Montgomery counties as well as construct one or more branches, none of which could exceed in length. The railroad was authorized to build a right of way in width, modified as necessary for cuts and fills. The company was authorized to issue another $3 million ($=) in stock or bonds for this purpose. The extension had to be commenced within five years (1875) and at least one set of tracks completed by 1880. This target schedule for starting construction was revised in 1874 to 1876 and complete one track by 1882, but the railroad was never extended south of its 1872 terminus.
In April 1872 the state legislature revised Frederick's charter to allow any railroad in the city such as either the Baltimore and Ohio, or the Frederick and Pennsylvania Line to construct track on any of the city's streets, lanes, or alleys. Although the right of way for the track had been granted through Frederick, the railroad then had to negotiate with the connecting railroad (Baltimore and Ohio Railroad).
In 1874 F&PL was authorized by the Maryland General Assembly to lease its railroad to any party or group of persons it saw fit, subject to the assent of a stockholder majority. Legislation was passed allowing Frederick county to purchase stock of any turnpike built or starting construction after 1868.
In 1878, the railroad issued preferred stock which if issued must pay a perpetual dividend of six per cent, per annum out of the profits of said company.
In 1882, the railroad was ordered not to obstruct any streets in Taneytown, longer than five minutes nor to allow any of its engines to stop longer than five minutes noting in the law's preamble that a great inconvenience has been suffered by the citizens of Taneytown and vicinity. (Session Laws, 1882 Special Session) Two years later, the railroad is ordered to station a flagman or a signalman by day and by night, at the crossing over the Frederick and Woodsboro turnpike, near Frederick, in Frederick County. Volume 390, Page 1201
Engineering the railroad In the period just after the American Civil War, engineering a railroad consisted of locating the route, choosing locations for structures and their size and then contracting for the work. (See article on construction contracting)
Route location The first step in locating a route is to establish the class of the road (Main line or branch line), the terminals and perhaps one or more intermediate points such as crossings or stations, etc. The road's organizers had promoted the preferable route as being terminated in Frederick and then proceeding north crossing the Monocacy river through Israel's Creek and into Pennsylvania using Piney Creek, which heads near Littlestown, offering a valley route almost the entire distance.
Railroad topography can be broadly classed into three types: (1) level prairie country offering no obstacles in the way of hills, valleys, etc., and allowing the locating engineer much latitude in the placing of his line, and consequently reducing distance and curvature to a minimum; (2) rolling, hilly country through which several lines are possible, none of them departing to any great extent from the direct line between controlling points; and (3) mountainous country, which taxes the skill and ingenuity of the locating engineer to the utmost.
The railroad was promoted as a route of the second type and was almost an "air line".
Reconnaissance and Preliminary Survey
In 1867, Joseph Gitt and P.H. Irwin located a route for the Frederick and Pennsylvania Line Railroad. Unlike the 1865 survey for the Western Maryland, Gitt made a much shorter reconnaissance in the field on horseback for the proposed road and did not supplement that information with instrumental surveys. The major feature of Gitt's proposed route was that from Woodsboro south into Frederick, it was located between the Woodsboro and Frederick Turnpike, now Maryland Route 194 and Israel Creek. Aside from diverting in Walkersville, the road continued south along the eastern side of the turnpike, crossing over at the toll house and crossing the Monocacy just north of what is today Route 194 at Ceresville, Md.
The first route south of Walkersville terminated opposite the Court House, at Church Street, in Frederick, Md. on the west side. (The Frederick branch line was on the east side.) Gitt and Irwin conducted a second survey, this time starting in Frederick at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) depot at South Street in downtown Frederick, Maryland on the east end heading north out to intercept the line established by their first survey at Worman's Mill and intercept the first line near the river crossing.
Gitt recommended a truss bridge crossing for the Monocacy river with an elevation of 30 feet, and two spans of 150 feet each with no references to any wooden trestle work on the north shore of any length or masonry foundations. Bridges were also required for Big Pipe Creek with an elevation of 50 feet, and span of 150 feet; Little Pipe Creek with an elevation of 58 feet, and span of also 150 feet with no references to any wooden trestle work on the south–north shore of any length or masonry foundations.
Gitt developed the cost estimate for the road assuming single track operation, iron rail at 50 pounds per yard, ties on 24 inch centers, a road bed base fourteen foot in width, with slopes of one foot horizontal to each vertical for cuts and twelve foot in width for embankments with slopes of one foot and-a-half horizontal to each vertical, no excavation deeper than 25 feet or embankments over 30 feet. As in his Western Maryland work, the cost for right of way was not included in Gitt's estimate. The ruling grade for Gitt's proposed route was 52.8 feet to the mile, or 1% and no curve was shorter than 1,000 feet. The highest point on the line between Littlestown and Frederick at 520 feet was one mile west of Ladiesburg, Maryland while the lowest point on the line at 281 feet was at the Frederick station. (Data from 1953 USGS topo maps) At the end of their survey, Gitt and Irwin estimated that their proposed 30 mile alignment could be shortened by a half-mile with more careful work, or 29.5 miles.