Hanover Branch Railroad

The Hanover Branch Railroad Company was a railroad that operated in Pennsylvania in the mid-19th century. The company was incorporated on March 16, 1847 and began operating trains in 1852. It represents the oldest portion of the Western Maryland Railway. It extended from the connection with the Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad (later to become the Northern Central Railway, and then in 1911, the Pennsylvania Railroad) at Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania to Hanover.

The Hanover Branch Company was chartered on March 16, 1847. Letters patent for the company were issued in Pennsylvania on October 18, 1849. The railroad was commonly referred to as the "Old Branch" and began construction in March 1851 and started operation in October 1852. The railroad connected at Hanover to the Gettysburg Railroad in 1858, just prior to the Civil War.

The Hanover Branch was used to ship a significant volume of iron ore from local mines. In 1873 the Bachman Valley Railroad opened with a connection to the Hanover Branch at Valley Junction. The "21st Annual Report (1873) of the Hanover Branch Railroad" states that about 12,000 tons of iron ore were received from the Bachman Valley during a four-month period. This Bachman Valley route eventually became part of the Western Maryland Railroad's Hanover Subdivision from Emory Grove, Maryland, to Hanover and Gettysburg. Even after the company became part of the Western Maryland Railway, the name Old Branch remained.

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