Newport and Shermans Valley Railroad

Newport and Shermans Valley Railroad

Pennsylvania Railroad depot in Newport
Overview
Locale	Perry County, Pennsylvania
Dates of operation	1890–1935
Technical
Track gauge	3 ft (914 mm)
Length	30.67 miles
Other
Website	Big Spring State Park [1]

The Newport and Shermans Valley Railroad was a nineteenth-century, American, 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railroad that was located in Pennsylvania.[1] It ran from Newport, Pennsylvania to New Germantown, Pennsylvania.

History

The railroad's founder David Gring, who previously ran the Diamond Valley Railroad in Huntingdon County, relocated and reutilized his two locomotives from his previous venture, which were a Portable Saddle Tanker 0-6-0 steam locomotive and a 4-4-0 steam locomotive from the Kane and Elk Railroad.[2]

The rail line carried lumber, and transferred it to the 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge Pennsylvania Railroad at Newport. The right of way was extended to an uncompleted tunnel through Conococheague Mountain, started in an attempt to connect with the Path Valley Railroad. This right of way was later used by the Perry Lumber Company Railroad.

Gallery

• 
  Restored depot in Blain, Pennsylvania

References

1. Pennsylvania Bureau of Industrial Statistics, Pennsylvania Dept. of Internal Affairs (1907). Annual Report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (web facsimile). Pennsylvania: Dept. of Internal Affairs, Bureau of Industrial Statistics. p. 181. Retrieved 2008-12-31.
2. "Columnist shares tales of Diamond Valley Railroad". The Daily News. Retrieved 2023-01-26.

External links

• Photo of uncompleted tunnel