Gettysburg, PA: Museum/Western Maryland (Lincoln) Depot and Lincoln Highway

Depot: (Satellite)

Lincoln Highway Overview

Note the preserved train order semaphores. I wonder who currently operates this route.

Street View, Oct 2024

Andy Sarge posted
The Gettysburg "Lincoln" Depot. The Gettysburg Railroad opened the Depot in 1858 and hosted President Lincoln when arrived to tour the battlefield and deliver the Gettysburg Address. The rail line would later become a branch of the Western Maryland Railroad.

Eric Zeliff: Try about 5 years after 1858

Randall Hampton: Lincoln arrived from the left. At that time, the line ended here. The infamous railroad cut to the west did not yet have tracks.

Jim Fredlund posted

GETTYSBURG RAILROAD STATION

The Gettysburg Railroad Station, completed in 1859, stands as one of the most significant surviving Civil War-era rail depots in the United States. Built by the Gettysburg Railroad Company, the station quickly became vital infrastructure during the Civil War.

In July 1863, as the Battle of Gettysburg raged nearby, the station served as a crucial logistical hub. After the fighting ended, thousands of wounded Union and Confederate soldiers were transported from Gettysburg through this depot to hospitals in larger cities. The rail lines that once symbolized commerce became lifelines of evacuation and recovery.

Perhaps most famously, on November 18, 1863, Abraham Lincoln arrived at this very station to attend the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. The following day, he delivered the Gettysburg Address—one of the most consequential speeches in American history—just a short distance away.

Today, the restored station operates as a museum and interpretive center, preserving the memory of its wartime role and its connection to Lincoln’s visit. It remains a powerful architectural witness to one of the defining chapters of the American story.

GettysburgFoundation

Reading Railroad had a branch that terminated in this town.

1951/53 Gettysburg Quad @ 24,000

I cruised the Lincoln Highway through town using street view from east to west. I didn't see anything specific to the Lincoln Highway such as murals on the wall or historic markers. But I did see a lot of architecture. This block is west of the traffic circle.

Street View, Oct 2024

Even what I presume to be newer buildings are not just boxes.

Street View, Aug 2024

Mt. Savage, PA: Savage Iron Works, 1844 First Rolled Iron Rails & 1839 First Coke Fired Furnace in USA and C&P Depot

(Satellite information is in the photo captions.)

C&P = Cumberland & Pennsylvania

Michael Maitland posted seven photos with the comment: "If you live near the Cumberland Maryland area, good time to explore the 18 miles between there and Piedmont as it was the cradle of early steel with, according to memorial, the first steel rails rolled in the US."

1, Satellite
Mount Savage Iron and Steel offices
[This building is now part of the Eastern Crucible Refractories works.]

2, the location of this plaque remains a mystery.
First rail rolled in the US

3, Satellite
Mount Savage Railroad station and a nice restaurant on the right.

4, satellite. Verified by Street View, Jul 2023
More Steel and Iron photos - nice brickwork
[Actually, it is stonework instead of brickwork.]

5, satellite. Fortunately, he included the the sign.
Iron furnace. There was a lot of good coking coal serviced by three railroads.
[This furnacee was built into the side of the hill so that material could easily be added from Furnace Street.]

6, I couldn't find this location.
Mount Savage fire brick adjacent to the Iron and Steel works.

7, I couldn't find this location.
Bonus - found a textile mill that still had all the machinery intact. Industry took advantage of the female population while the males worked in the mills and mines.

In 1949, the railroad through town was the Cumberland & Pennsylvania, and the railroad on the other side of the valley was the Western Maryland. By 1974, both routes were owned by the Western Maryland. And now both routes are abandoned. The route across the valley is now part of the GAP Trail. I didn't bother to look for the location of the C&P roundhouse because the roads have changed so much.

1949/66 Frostburg Quad @ 24,000

The Savage Iron Works office building is on the right side of this view. The building on the left has the sign: "Union Mining Company."

Street View, Jul 2008

The 1844 U-shaped rail is what was first rolled here. Montour Iron Works rolled the first T-rail on Oct 8, 1845. Savage may have switched to that shape by then so it is unclear which works rolled the first T-rail in the USA.

"The manufacture of heavy wrought iron rails in this country began in that year at the Mt. Savage Rolling Mill. There, at some time between April and November, were rolled the first edge rails ever rolled in America. They were of the "U" or bridge section known as the "Evans" pattern of the Dowlais Iron Works located at Merthyr Tidfil, Wales and weighed 40 pounds per yard." [MountSavageHistoricalSociety]

explorepahistory

Les DeLawder posted
The first American produced iron rail, happened in Savage.
[Adjectives are important when claiming superlatives such as first or largest. The word "rolled" should be added before "iron rail."]

James King: The Allegany Tourism white collars should figure out a way to include the Great town of Mount Savage during the train ride to The Frostbite dead end of line and stop at the crossing above foundry row above where Patty Baker lived and have a shuffle bus take the train riders down the hill to Savage and show off the "jail, the bank, the glass factory office, and stop at the beautiful veterans memorial, and have the above "card, plaque or whatever made up to hand out to every one" have the Steel Poney get involved for a snack or some type of hand out, and the "green arrow" (what ever) could offer a special on a snack of some kind, that the people would remember the hospitality of the town, just thinking out of the box. But Savage like the Lefty memorial are not given their credit as being part of the Historical Places in the county. That is all from here!

Michael McKenzie commented on Les' post
I have a piece of that rail, a lot smaller than modern rail on the left.
[The camera is looking down on the rails at about a 45-degree angle.]

Talia Sepiol, Jul 2017

norma barnhart, Jul 2023

Chris, Sep 2023

Digitally Zoomed

Digitally Zoomed

While trying to find the fire brick works (Photo 6), I found this antique cable backhoe.

Street View, Jul 2023

Union Bridge, MD: Museum/Western Maryland Depot, Caboose and Wood Grain Elevator

(Satellite)

The museum is also the headquarters of the Western Maryland Railway Historical Society.

Street View, Aug 2024

Al Tillotson posted
Buffalo & Pittsburgh SD50 5019 passes the former Western Maryland Union Bridge MD station as it returns from Highfield on the Maryland Midland RR, Thursday afternoon July 31, 2025.

Daniel Keeney, Jul 2017

On the other side of Main Street is the office and railyard for the Maryland Midland RR.

Street View, Jul 2012

The above view is what taught me about the wood grain elevator.

Street View, Aug 2024

New Oxford, PA: 1892 Museum/WM Depot and Caboose

(Satellite)

These views were taken from the Lincoln Highway (US-30).

Street View, Sep 2017

Street View, Sep 2017

LC-DIG-highsm- 58837

Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Carol M. Highsmith's photographs are in the public domain.

BigJim Jones posted two photos with the comment:

The former Baltimore and Ohio railroad station in New Oxford (Adams County) Pennsylvania. 

It serves as a museum today run by a non profit.

Arthur House: It’s a former Western Maryland Railway station, not a former B&O station.

1

2

Don O'Brien posted four photos with the comment: "New Oxford, PA."

1

2

3

4

Indeed, it was a Western Maryland depot.

1951/65 Gettysburg Quad @ 62,500

I suspect that this was the source of the confusion. The museum needs a sign explaining what this was and that Western Maryland was the railroad in this town.

Henry Danicco, Nov 2020

SNAKESGAMING YouTube, Apr 2019

It was typical to build the agent's desk into a bay window so that he can better watch the trains come and go.

Pete Long, Oct 2017

Jami Rohland, Oct 2024

12 photos

45 photos

Elkins, WV: 1908 WVC/(WM+B&O) Depot & Roundhouse, Feed Mill & Museums

Depot: (Satellite)

Roundhouse: (Satellite)

Feed Mill: (Satellite)

West Virginia Railroad Museum: (Satellite)

Appalachian Forest Discovery Center: (Satellite)

Street View, Oct 2015

I.e. Xam posted
Elkins WV-WM, 1908

Mountain Rail WV offers the "Elkins Murder Mystery Wine Train" ride from this depot. The "New Tygart Flyer" also runs from this depot. That is a 4-hour, 46 mile round trip.

Howard Waggoner, Feb 2023

I wonder where they park their train when it is not being used.

Dom's Lawn and Landscape, May 2023

Some Class I railroad used the depot stub to store their MoW equipment?

Street View, Sep 2025

WM Roundhouse

 Jeff Honaker (RealJeffedUP), Apr 2024

Doug Nelson posted

38°55'29"N 79°51'07"W

Elkins, West Virginia

Michael McKenzie commented on Doug's post
If I'm not mistaken the turntable at Frostburg came from there.

On the left is the depot and inside the fence is the turntable.

Street View, Sep 2023

Satellite

Facebook Reel
The roundhouse was destroyed by fire in 1983.
[She points out the railroad and "swinging" bridges that are south of this area.]

Feed Mill and Museums

 Jeff Honaker (RealJeffedUP), Apr 2024

The mill is home to the West Virginia Railroad Museum and the Appalachian Forest Discovery Center.

Street View, Sep 2023

The depot is in the right background.

Street View, Sep 2023

According to a topo map and the 2004 SPV Map, all four railroad "spokes" were WM. The spoke to the west was the Coal & Coke (C&C), which became the B&O. Evidently the western spoke was shared by WM and B&O.

1969/71 Elkins Quad @ 24,000