Jan 24, 2008

Hungerford Station


Hungerford Station, formerly Turnpike Station, sits on the outskirts of Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania. The station was built in 1925 and was part of the Stewartstown Railroad, which ran from 1885 through 2004. It was a classic "farmers railroad," and prospered in its time. Later, it went into the excursion business. There is a group trying to get the old line back in operation, you can read about them here.
In the picture above, you can get a glimpse of why there was a station in Hungerford: Anderson's feed mill on the left and some old commercial buildings on the right. There was a general store, a wire screen plant, a packing house, and a potato warehouse there as well - all served by the railroad.
A history of the short line, printed by the Baltimore chapter of the NRHS, is available for purchase here. It's a good book, covering most of the railroad's history and that of the ill-conceived New Park & Fawn Grove Railroad as well.


Canon EOS 30D & EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS lens

3 comments:

Penwrencher said...

Great building--understanding how these small railroads worked helps make sense of where these small towns and hamlets pop up. It also paints a stark picture of why those that still exist seem to be walking a thin line between quaint and dead. What would happen if these regional lines were reinvigorated? The 6:45 express between Stewartstown and APG, perhaps?

Also--including here as I couldn't find another way to send this--but does Falmanac know the provenance of the overgrown small brick building at the corner of Harford Road and Fork/Sunshine roads in Baltimore County?

falmanac said...

Yeah, or how about the MA&PA Light Rail from Bel Air to Baltimore?
I've wondered about that building at Harford and Sunshine myself. I don't know its history. BTW, there's a story in last week's Sun about Fork. The Sun likes to move it's URL's around (which is why we don't feature many of its stories), but if you go to Baltimoresun.com and put in the key words "fork" & "Mayor" it'll come up.

Penwrencher said...

I did see that article on the Sun's website. Interesting piece, I thought. The part that resonated with me was the hardware store, and the fact that it's relegated to history now. I grew up in a small Hudson River town in New York state, and remember being a small boy in Crispell's Hardware, wondering at how anybody knew where anything was among the towering, haphazard stocks. Wood floors, a bell on the front door...the anti-Home Depot. Funny thing is, to make Home Depot they've taken the small hardware store, organized it and erased all character, and yet still nobody knows were anything is. I wonder if Crispell's is still there.