Hagerstown

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Re the name "Hager" for the (south) tower at Hagerstown...

In the good old days, the PRR did not use names for its towers... it used telegraph calls.   Names came around beginning in the mid-1930s (on the PRR's Central Region, i.e. Pittsburgh area) when a new generation of railroad management was coming on the scene... men who were unable to telegraph and often found the call letters inscrutible.  Those guys started introducing four- and five-letter names for towers... e.g. "Alto" for JK at Altoona, "Cola" for CD at Columbia and "Hager" for HJ at Hagerstown.  They were still swapping out telegraph calls for monosyllabic names in the 1950s and, mirabile dictu, some of the telegraph calls survived right up until the towers closed in the mid-1990s (e.g. SO South Fork, AR Gallitzin, MO Cresson, MG at Horshoe Curve.)

It seems rather transparent to me that "HJ" in Hagerstown stood for "Hagerstown Junction," although Terry's information indicates that "Hagerstown Junction" was a good bit north thereof.

By the way, what is now called "CP Town" is more than a mile north of old Hager tower.  It is located where the PRR's Cumberland Valley Division crossed the Western Maryland, completely on the other side of Hagerstown from HJ/Hager Tower.  It's telegraph call was "NC," which stood for "North Crossing."  (See Westhaeffer's book on the Cumberland Valley concerning this subject.)  "NC" was likewise a victim of that PRR monosyllabic babbling.

N&W trains did not even go as far north as NC/Town Tower.

-- abram burnett



-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 

Do you still have Terry's original poste on this item, of a few days ago?

Somehow I deleted my copy by mistake.

--adb

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
Terry

Thanks for your research on the Hagerstown stations.  I have been trying to line these stations for some time.  Below shows the miles from Roanoke, Station name, State and the station call.  Do I have Hagerstown Transfer in the proper order? 

Spielman    MD

232.4 St. James MDMA

236.9 Vardo Yard (4.5 miles North St. James 1.4 South of Hagerstown)MDV 

236.9 Shomo (Vardo Yard)MD

PRR Tower changed to Hager (Tower)MDG, AU

Hagerstown Jct. (Old CVRR (PRR) and WM Jct.) about 1 mile north of Hager)MDG


Hagerstown TransferMD

238.1 HagerstownMDHG, DX

Jim Blackstock

At 07:38 PM 10/8/2006, you wrote:

Yesterday I reported that Hagerstown Junction was CP Hager. Today local RR historian & lecturer, Randy Anderson, found on a 1918 Cumberland Valley RR (former PRR/Conrail, now NS) blueprint that lists Hagerstown Junction at the intersection of the CVRR/WM rails.
 
That area is now CP Town - about one mile north of CP Hager - near the area where NS goes under Burhans Blvd.
 
Randy agrees what the information I reported yesterday which Rick Morrison & Dennis Masters provided.
 
Terry Marshall
Hagerstown, MD
 
 
 


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