A 1911 photograph of roadbed grading for the Midland Pennsylvania Railroad, which was to operate through the Lykens Valley from Millersburg and Killinger to Berrysburg and Gratz in Dauphin County, to Sacramento, Valley View, and Hegins in Schuylkill County, to a terminus in Ashland, Schuylkill County. The railroad was never completed.
In 1957, Lloyd M. Bellis wrote a piece entitled “We Almost Had a Railroad.” Here is the first part of his account of that railroad as written by Lloyd M. Bellis and as published in the souvenir book, Gratz Sesquicentennial, July 2-4, 1955:
We Almost Had a Railroad
Strangers to the Lykens Valley traveling Route 25 between Gratz and Millersburg will see, now [1955] to their right, then to their left, cuts and embankments which bear all the earmarks of an abandoned railroad. The older natives of the valley know that evidences of interference with the natural terrain of the valley are the remains of the Midland Pennsylvania Railroad. the railroad that died a-borning.
The people of the valley realized, that despite its great natural resources, the valley was handicapped tremendously in its development because of inadequate transportation. Farm produce not consumed locally had to be hauled to Good Spring, Oakdale (south of Loyalton), or Elizabethville via horse and wagon. In years gone by vast quantities of mine timber, lumber, and bark for tanning were produced in our wooded areas. For these also no transportation was available besides four or six-mule hauling. Coal consumed in the many homes, schools, churches and stores was usually hauled in one-ton lots from Rausch Gap or Wiconisco. Fertilizer and lime used by the farmers likewise had to be hauled long distances via teams and wagons.
It so happened that wealthy Philadelphians visiting the valley for the first time about 1905 literally fell in love with its beauty, saw its possibilities, and bestirred themselves to do something about this lack of transportation.
For several years a trolley line carrying both passengers and freight was under discussion, but, since legislation did not permit trolley lines to carry freight, this was tabled, the merits of a steam railroad were studied, and a decision to build a railroad was reached.
Accordingly, efforts were made to construct a railroad through the entire valley, a distance of forty-miles, connecting with the Pennsylvania at Millersburg and the Reading at Ashland, and bearing the name of the Midland Pennsylvania Railroad.
The project was slow in getting under way. Capitalists had to be found who were willing to invest money, stock had to be sold locally, rights of way had to be secured, and necessary surveys made before actual construction work could begin.
During July 1908, land was purchased in Millersburg for a terminal and a right of way was secured from farmers in the lower end of the valley. During 1909, much preliminary work was done farther up the valley in the matter of getting station sites, and in surmounting financial obstacles in the New York and Philadelphia money markets.
By spring of 1910 there was every indication of success. The contract for the actual construction was let early in the summer to the Pinkerton Construction Company of Philadelphia. O. H. Bundy, the field engineer put in charge, with a crew of seventeen, pushed the survey of he road with vigor.
Ground for the new railroad was broken at Killinger in the field of F. W. Lenker, south of the highway during the middle of September 1910. Construction equipment began coming in rapidly, and a large force of men was but to the task of grading early in October, All of the grading was in the Killinger area, but by 1 February 1911, a new section was in progress between Curtin and Berrysburg.
Just before New Year’s Day a steam shovel was brought to Millersburg to be used in the deep cuts. In April 1911 this steam shovel began gnawing its way through the hills north of Oak Hill Cemetery for a cut thirty-five feet deep and a hundred feet wide at the top.
By 1 June 1911, the first ties had been laid. More laborers and teams were put to work daily, and grading was proceeding at about five places between Millersburg and what is now [1955] the Gratz airport.
Making the cut north of Millersburg proved more difficult and costly than the engineers had anticipated. Much blasting had to be done and the results of the charges many times were disappointing. This handicapped the work farther up the line because they could not run a supply train over the already graded portion to move materials farther up the right of way. Forty thousand ties and the rails for them were in Millersburg, and, because of the incomplete cut, had to be transported by teams to the graded portion of the road for putting into place.
During the summer of 1911 work was booming all along the line as far as Gratz. The girders for the bridge east of Berrysburg were put into place on 19 September 1911, plans were made for the Millersburg terminal, and arrangements made to do much of the remaining grading by the use of dinky locomotives.
And then the blow fell. The construction company could not meet the payroll late in September, and the men were furious. They all got their pay within a few days, but the crew was reduced by about seventy-five per cent. The big officials visited the valley and fired the Pinkerton Construction Company, claiming that they had at no time been pushing the work vigorously.
The Midland Company was reported to be dickering with a New York bond house for new financing and to be seeking a new contractor. The management confidently announced that regular trains would be running between Millersburg and Gratz by February 1912. Late in November a new combination passenger and express car, gasoline operated, was received at Millersburg. Other than that, the project was dead.
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Continued in Part 2.
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