Walkersville Southern Railroad

The Frederick and Pennsylvania Line railroad is chartered in 1867, begins construction in 1869, and opens on October 8 1872. It is leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad on January 1 1875, and that July the PRR creates the Frederick Division to operate the line; the railroad is liquidated in the spring of 1896, sold at a judicial sale, reorganized in December 1896 as the Frederick and Northern Railroad Company, and merged in March 1897 into the Hanover and York Railroad Company. In 1914 the line merges with the newly built Central Railroad of Maryland to become the York, Hanover and Frederick Railway Company, which remains a wholly owned PRR subsidiary through the Penn‑Del creation on December 31 1953, the Penn Central merger in 1968, and the Penn Central bankruptcy in 1970. The State of Maryland receives the Frederick‑and‑Pennsylvania Line segment in 1982 for unpaid taxes, purchases the line after Hurricane Agnes destroys the Monocacy River bridge in 1972, and the right‑of‑way stays dormant until the Maryland Midland Railway resumes service in 1980; volunteers begin restoring the line in 1991, receive state operating rights in 1993, and start tourist trains to the Monocacy River in 1995. The bridge is rebuilt and reopened in March 1996, the line is extended to its present terminus at Maryland Route 26 in 1998, and in November 2008 the state grants three miles of northern right‑of‑way to link with the Maryland Midland Railway, with the north division officially restored on January 1 2014. Steam excursions return in 2012—first since the Pennsylvania Railroad ran steam over the route more than 60 years earlier—and continue with additional restored track in 2013.