Hagerstown and Frederick Railway
| Locale | Frederick and Hagerstown, Maryland |
|---|---|
| Dates of operation | 1896–1961 |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Headquarters | Frederick, Maryland |
The Hagerstown & Frederick Railway, now defunct, was an American railroad of central Maryland built in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Hagerstown & Frederick Railway, a suburban (later interurban) trolley system was developed by George William Smith and initially called the Frederick & Middletown Railway. Construction began early in 1896, almost simultaneously with the development of Braddock Heights Park, the mountaintop resort that was intended to provide patronage for the line. Service between Frederick and Braddock Heights commenced on August 22, 1896. The line was complete to Middletown by October.
Two years later an extension was built to Myersville, nominally called the Myersville & Catoctin Railway, but leased to the F&M and operated as an integral part of the F&M. In 1904 the Hagerstown Railway built a connecting link from Boonsboro to Myersville, and through service between Frederick and Hagerstown became possible, making the still separate lines an interurban.
The Jefferson branch was added in 1906, running down the east side of Jefferson Boulevard. This extension served the H&F investors, who were largely the same as the Braddock Heights investors, by opening up more mountaintop resort land for development. An extension of this branch planned in 1907 which would have taken the line to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad yard facilities in Brunswick was never completed.
Like the H&F, the Hagerstown Railway was begun in 1896. The leading investors were Christian W. Lynch and William Jennings, who took a different approach to development by creating an urban loop within Hagerstown, with crossing lines on Washington Street and South Potomac Street, and a branch to nearby Williamsport. By 1897 line Potomac Street line extended to Funkstown.
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