{{Use American English|date=June 2025}} [[File:Springs Hotel Avenue and Horse Railroad at Willoughby Run.png|thumb|285px|The Horse Railroad (foreground) extended to the Springs Hotel (background) crossing Willoughby Run near the Katalysine Springs (right).]]
The '''Gettysburg Spring Railroad'''<ref>{{Cite news |date=October 30, 1868 |title=Organized |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=i2smAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Nv8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=6526%2C4908346 |format=Google News Archive |newspaper=The Star and Sentinel |accessdate=2012-03-19}}</ref> ('''Springs Horse Railway''')<ref>{{Cite report |last=Heiges |first=Dr. Donald R. |date= |title=["21 typed pages"<nowiki>]</nowiki> |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-BQyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9OYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=7056,937655&dq=lithia+springs+gettysburg&hl=en |location=Adams County Historical Society|accessdate=2012-01-17}}</ref> was a Gettysburg Battlefield tourist conveyance in the Battle of Gettysburg, First Day, area. The trolley extended from the western terminus on the east side of Herr Ridge at the Gettysburg Springs Hotel eastward to the Gettysburg borough after crossing Willoughby Run, McPherson Ridge, Pitzer Run, Seminary Ridge, Stevens Run (stone bridge),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=imsmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Nv8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=7461%2C4947538|title=The Star and Sentinel - Oct 23, 1868|accessdate=2012-10-31}}</ref> to the slopes of Baltimore Hill where it turned northward at the borough square to end at the Gettysburg Railroad Station. In addition to a stop at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, by 1879 <ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=g1EmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BwAGAAAAIBAJ&pg=1509,5857048&dq=samuel-bushman+gettysburg&hl=en|title=Gettysburg Compiler - May 22, 1879|accessdate=2012-10-31}}</ref> the horse railroad had a stop near Pitzer Run at the "Trotting Park" which was replaced after 1904<ref>{{Cite map |publisher=Julius Bien & Co. Lith. |year=1904 |title=…Battle Field of Gettysburg |cartography=<!-- [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/gmd:@OR(@field(AUTHOR+@3(Gettysburg+National+Military+Park+Commission++))+@field(OTHER+@3(Gettysburg+National+Military+Park+Commission++))) Gettysburg Park Commission] (Nicholson, John P; Cope, Emmor; Hammond, Schuyler A)--> |accessdate= |location=New York }}</ref> with a horse track east of Stevens Run at the county fairgrounds (now the Gettysburg Recreation Park).
==History== By October 9, 1867, "the Gettysburg Katalysine Spring Company had purchased...land from Willoughby run to Gettysburg, lying between the Hagerstown and Chambersburg roads ... to lay down a Horse Railway",<ref name=SS1868>{{Cite news |date=October 9, 1868 |title=title tbd |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=iGsmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Nv8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=6043%2C5026759 |format=Google News Archive |newspaper=The Star and Sentinel |accessdate=2012-10-18}}</ref> and the '''Gettysburg Spring Railroad''' was organized by October 20, 1868.<ref>{{Cite news |date=October 30, 1868 |title=Organized |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=i2smAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Nv8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=6526%2C4908346 |format=Google News Archive |newspaper=The Star and Sentinel |accessdate=2012-10-18 |quote=President, Robert McCurdy. Directors, E. G. Fahnestock, D. Wills, G. McCreary, G. D. Smith, R. L. Hamon and J. M. Emerson.}}</ref> Construction had commenced by October 16<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6dolAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rPIFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5194%2C8289876|title=The Compiler - Oct 16, 1868|accessdate=2012-10-31}}</ref> at the west end,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=iWsmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Nv8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=7410%2C4987383|title=The Star and Sentinel - Oct 16, 1868|accessdate=2012-10-31}}</ref> with the first car running on June 25, 1869.<ref name="google1331">{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZqoyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hOgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1331,1103451&dq=marion+sloat+gettysburg+springs&hl=en|title=Gettysburg Times - Oct 22, 1984|accessdate=2012-10-31}}</ref> (the hotel opened on June 28).<ref name="google1331"/>
By December 24, 1904, the receivers of the '''Gettysburg Springs & Hotel Co''' transferred "''four certain parcels of land aggregating''" {{Convert|36.56|acre|ha|abbr=on}} east of the hotel to the United States Department of War<ref name=Deeds>{{Citation |title=Property Deed Books |location=Gettysburg, Pennsylvania |publisher=Adams County Courthouse }}<br> '''Deed tbd''' {{Cite book |location=Deed Book #60 |pages=22–30 |last=Fowler |first=Henry O., et al (receivers) |date=December 24, 1904|title=Deed to '[War Department?<nowiki>]</nowiki>' |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u34AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA321 |accessdate=2011-11-01 }}</ref> which allowed the railbed/wagon road on McPherson Ridge's west slope to be telfordized as the commemorative era Meredith Avenue<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www4.ncsu.edu/~tmdannin/history.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161030000831/http://www4.ncsu.edu/~tmdannin/history.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 30, 2016 |accessdate=October 18, 2012 |title=New Page 1 }}</ref> (the Pitzer Run section of the railroad no longer has Springs Av).
Stones of the railway's Willoughby Run bridge were still visible in the stream in 1991.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-BQyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9OYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=7056,937655&dq=charles-mcclean+gettysburg&hl=en|title=Gettysburg Times - Jul 9, 1991|accessdate=2012-10-31}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:Defunct companies based in Pennsylvania Category:Defunct Pennsylvania railroads Category:Railway companies established in 1868 Category:Railway companies disestablished in 1880 Category:Railway lines opened in 1869 Category:1869 establishments in Pennsylvania