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Prototype History

The origins of the Cornwall Railroad Company go back to 1850, but the basis for its development dates back to 1742. In that year, mining of the Cornwall ore hills begun and it has continued without significant interruption ever since. For about a century, the operation was a local enterprise of the Coleman family and included the mines and adjacent blast furnaces for the manufacture of iron.

In 1850, some of the Coleman family began setting up a railroad to connect the mines with the Union Canal at Lebanon. The original railroad company was named the North Lebanon Railroad Company with R. W. Coleman as the first president. There were some delays in the construction process, but in January 1855, the first trains hauling ore began to move with power provided by mule teams.

Seven months later, the mules were replaced by the railroad's first locomotive, and one train then could haul as much ore as could previously be moved by 100 teams of mules. The railroad also transported limestone and anthracite which were used in the blast furnaces of the area. The railroad was an immediate financial success. Within twelve years after ground was broken for it, the entire cost of construction had been recovered by net receipts from current operations. It's financial success has continued throughout the years.

In 1870, the name was changed from the North Lebanon Railroad Company to the Cornwall Railroad Company. In the 1880's, direct competition arose from the Cornwall & Lebanon Railroad. This was built by Robert H. Coleman who received $1,200,000 in iron profits on his twenty first birthday. The Cornwall & Lebanon directly paralleled the Cornwall Railroad between Cornwall and Lebanon, with its tracks side by side most of the way. The stock of the Cornwall & Lebanon Railroad Company was acquired by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1913, with a merger into the parent company occurring in 1918.

In 1883, the Cornwall & Mount Hope Railroad Company built a line from Cornwall southward to Mount Hope, a distance of six miles. A connection was made there with the Reading & Columbia, now a part of the Reading Company System. On October 31, 1886, the Cornwall & Mount Hope Railroad Company was absorbed by the Cornwall Railroad Company.

On the South Mountain, about four miles from Cornwall, a recreation spot known as Penryn Park was established by the railroad which transported many pleasure seekers to and from it. The railroad was in the passenger business for many years with the traffic to and from Penryn only part of the operation. Trains were run between Lebanon and Lancaster using the Cornwall tracks from Lebanon to Mount Hope and the Reading & Columbia (later the Reading) tracks between Mount Hope and Lancaster. Scheduled passenger service was discontinued in 1931.

The Cornwall Railroad Company long has operated thirteen miles of trackage. Of these, twelve miles constitute the main line from Lebanon to Mount Hope. The remainder is branch line mileage at Cornwall. Approximately twelve of the thirteen miles are in Lebanon County and the other one is in Lancaster County.

The northern terminus of the railroad is on the western edge of Lebanon where it has its prime connection with the Reading Company and one of lesser importance with the Pennsylvania Railroad. It has sidings to several industrial plants in Lebanon. Its general offices are located adjacent to the interchange point with the Reading.

From Lebanon, the Cornwall Railroad runs southward to Cornwall, a distance of six miles. From a point on the southwestern edge of Lebanon to Cornwall, the tracks of the Pennsylvania (the formal Cornwall & Lebanon) are alongside those of the Cornwall. There is also an interchange with the Pennsylvania at Cornwall, but this is little used. Almost all the interchange traffic between the Cornwall and the Pennsylvania takes place in Lebanon, even for traffic destined for customers in Cornwall.

South of Cornwall is the South Mountain which the Cornwall Railroad scales by looping around to the east. The former Penryn Park on the mountain was almost on the Lebanon-Lancaster county line. Mount Hope is in Lancaster County about a mile from the county line. There, the Cornwall makes a second connection with the Reading. This minor branch of the Reading was part of the former Reading & Columbia and runs to Manheim to a connection with the line running between Columbia and Reading. For some time, the trackage between Cornwall and Mount Hope has been virtually unused.

For many years, the prime function of the Cornwall Railroad has been to haul raw iron ore from the mine at Cornwall to the ore concentrator in Lebanon, a distance of six miles. The Cornwall Railroad also hauled beneficiated ore to the interchange point with the Reading Company in nearby Lebanon. The Reading Company hauled the beneficiated ore to Bethlehem Steel plants, especially those in Bethlehem, Steelton, Johnstown, and Sparrows Point, with connecting railroads playing important roles in hauls to the last two. Other functions of the Cornwall Railroad included serving industrial and commercial customers in Lebanon and Cornwall.

A major development affecting the Cornwall Railroad became effective early in 1962. The ore concentrator in Lebanon was closed down and replaced by a new one at the mine in Cornwall. This meant that no more green ore was to be hauled into Lebanon. On April 16, 1962, the first shipment of finished ore, in the form of pellets, was made over the Cornwall Railroad. The tonnage hauled by the railroad to move the same amount of usable of iron has thereby been reduced by sixty percent. These carloads of pellets are interchanged with the Reading Company in Lebanon for movement mainly to the Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem.

The change in location of the ore concentrating activities has had a tremendous effect on the Cornwall Railroad. Previously, there were six train crews working most days. Recently, there has been one crew working every other day, and sometimes not that often. Employment dropped from about 85 to 20 over a period of a few months. Three of the company's six diesel locomotives are used regularly, but the other three are in standby status. However, they are being kept in operating condition by regular maintenance. Many fewer hopper cars are needed now. All 182 freight cars owned by the company were retired in 1962.

There are two manufacturing establishments in Lebanon for which the Cornwall Railroad provides service. One is Cleaver-Brooks Company, makers of heating equipment, and the other is the Bressler Metal Works, Incorporated, a sheet metal work plant. The Cornwall Railroad also has coal, sand, wholesale grocery, and feed dealers among its customers. Most of them are located in or on the edge of Lebanon.

The freight traffic on the Cornwall Railroad, as measured in ton-miles of revenue freight, has, since World War I, varied from a high of 16.6 million ton-miles in 1941 to a minimum of 1.3 million ton-miles in 1932. Traffic was especially heavy during World War II with the 15 million ton-mile mark having been exceeded four times in that period. Between then and 1962, the total hovered around the 10 million ton-mile mark, usually falling on the upper side of that. With the beginning of operation of the new concentrator at Cornwall in 1962, the ton-mile figure is destined to fall far down, almost certainly to about the 5 million ton-mile mark.

The Cornwall Railroad had a rather active passenger business at the start of the 1920's, but it fell off rapidly through the years that followed. There were 839 thousand passenger-miles recorded in 1922, and 329 thousand passenger-miles in 1928. The following year, the total was a meager 55 thousand passenger-miles. In 1931, regularly scheduled passenger operations were discontinued. For another decade, there was some passenger traffic on special trains.

Bibliography

"Cornwall Railroad Centenary," Lebanon County Chamber of Commerce Magazine, May 1950.

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Last modified: November 23 2007.

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