Western Extension (Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway)

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The Western Extension is the Western Maryland Railway line from Highfield-Cascade, Maryland to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It followed the Hanover Junction, Hanover and Gettysburg Railroad west from the Gettysburg Battlefield to Marsh Creek in 1884, crossing the north–south Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad and its Round Top Branch (a site of a 1909 freight-train collision). The line reached Orr Station by June 30, 1885. After the 1886 merger that formed the Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway, about 15 miles to the main line at Highland near the Mason–Dixon line was finished in 1888–1889. The Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway leased the line to the Western Maryland Railway until WM bought it in 1917. The Western Extension used sections of the old Tapeworm Railroad bed, including the McPherson Ridge cut on the Gettysburg Battlefield, and required the Jacks Mountain Tunnel south of Maria Furnace.