Waynesboro Branch - Pennsylvania/Penn Central
This view shows the Pennsylvania RR right of way facing southeast in Fayetteville, in June 2003. This short segment of track, just south of US 30, appears to be for a rail car display. Two crossbucks are lying on the near end of the track. Photo courtesy of Mike Palmer.
This line passed through mostly rural areas of southern Pennsylvania. It was a branch off of the Hagerstown, MD to Harrisburg, PA line. It survived into the Penn Central years (mid-1970s) but was abandoned before the startup of Conrail in 1976. In Fayetteville, US 30 crossed over the line with a single concrete arch bridge. Some walking paths have been created in the Fayetteville area, south of US 30, but they do not follow the former right of way. The paths also use a former railroad girder bridge in the area, but that bridge is also not in its original location. Pa. State Highway 997 parallels the former line for about three miles, between Mont Alto and Nunnery. The south end of the branch connected with the [also abandoned] Western Maryland at the north edge of Waynesboro; see separate PA listing for Conboy-Edgemont, MD-WM.
Heading south from Waynesboro Jct, this PRR branch passed through Burgner, Woodstock, Fayetteville, East Fayetteville, Pond Bank, Mont Alto, Good (Knepper), Quincy, and Nunnery, and then ended at the WM Jct. at Waynesboro. At Mont Alto there was a spur to Mont Alto Park.
The right of way is mostly on private property, and is not developed as a trail, although short segments are used as parts of driveways.
This view shows the Pennsylvania RR right of way facing south near Quincy, in June 2003. This is about 1/10 mile west of the parallel Pa. Hwy. 997. Photo courtesy of Mike Palmer.
