New Bloomfield

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The events that brought not just one, but two, railroads into Perry County were mostly political.

New Bloomfield was - and is - the county seat in Perry County, but Newport was - and is - larger and busier. Newport had an advantage over sleepy little New Bloomfield because the Pennsylvania Railroad ran through the center of it.

Because of this disparity in size and vigor, political pressure was being raised to move the county seat to Newport. If the seat were to remain in New Bloomfield, a connection must be made to the outside world.

A charter had been granted to the Duncannon, Bloomfield and Loysville railroad in 1872, but nothing had been done with it. This charter was resurrected in 1887 as the Perry County Railroad, and the line was completed from Duncannon to New Bloomfield in September of 1889.

David Gring, a logger from next-door Huntingdon County, had recently lost his lease on the tracts of land he was currently operating on and was casting about for a new location. Meanwhile in Newport, so as not to be outdone by the Perry County Railroad, businessmen and farmers were clamoring for a route to market. David Gring saw an opportunity to harvest timber from the Sherman's Valley, a deal was quickly struck and a charter for the Newport and Sherman's Valley Railroad was granted on July 30, 1890.

The road was narrow gauge because the equipment that David Gring brought with him from the Diamond Valley railroad was 3 foot gauge. It was completed to Loysville in 1891, but missed New Bloomfield by about two miles.

Trouble erupted when the standard gauge Perry County attempted to complete their own line to Loysville and then to Landisburg, because to do so they would have to cross the narrow gauge at two points.

A crossing was built without permission one night, and the court battles immediately began. The narrow gauge eventually emerged victorious and the Perry County Railroad was forced to make it's crossings via trestle instead of diamonds.

David Gring purchased the Perry County on September 14, 1903 and it's operations were soon cut back to it's original terminus in New Bloomfield. The narrow gauge built a spur to New Bloomfield to make a connection, and in 1921 the rails to Newport were removed. The narrow gauge's shops and offices were relocated to New Bloomfield, and that borough became the terminus of both railroads.

Little evidence of either railroad remains in what was once the central focus point of both. The dual gauged yards started just south of the ball diamond and crossed Carlisle Street just south of Barnett Street, about where Gusler Alley is now. It ended in the large parking lot just south and west of where the National Bank of Mifflintown now resides.

A small path extending eastward from Barnett Woods Road, called Train Lane, is the only reminder of the twin roads' existence, and at the end of Train Lane is a cluster of buildings that may or may not be all that remains of the railroads shops and engine house. Evidence of the standard gauge roadbed can be seen running eastward past this point, but is soon lost in the fields and farmlands.

New construction has obliterated the remains of the yard, and the only structure that is referenced on the maps in "Narrow Gauge in the Sherman's Valley" is a big red barn east of Carlisle Street. There is one on or near that spot now (on the east side of Gusler Alley just before it makes its turn westward), but it is impossible to tell from just the satellite map if it is the same structure.