The Northern Central Railway (NCRY) was a Class I Railroad in the United States connecting Baltimore, Maryland, with Sunbury, Pennsylvania, along the Susquehanna River.

The early history of the Northern Central Railway is really the story of the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad, and the extended string of subsidiary rail lines that it operated.

Farmers and producers in central and southern Pennsylvania were eager to sell their grain, coal, lumber, and other products, and the cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia both wanted access to this potentially rich trade.

Shippers tried to move cargoes using rafts, flatboats, or disposable “arks” that were flimsily built and loaded upstream, then dismantled at the river’s mouth in Havre de Grace, Maryland.

[9] On July 4, 1831, the railroad company celebrated the opening of its train service, carrying passengers pulled by horses to the Roland Run area and back to Belvedere Station in Baltimore (at or near the intersection of Guilford Avenue and Eager St today).

[26] But the State of Maryland and the City of Baltimore both gave their support, purchasing close to half of the $450,000 in shares that the B&S did sell over the next few years, and loaning the railroad a combined total of $2.7 million.

Although construction was intermittent because of funding issues, as the Baltimore and Susquehanna extended their track, they were gradually able to reach more customers, which in turn provided money to build further north.

[32] However, expenses continued for the B&S, with the purchase of eleven locomotives from 1837-1839, moving from the single Herald to creating a full fleet of engines as their total amount of trackage increased significantly.

But the Baltimore and Susquehanna Company still wanted to connect to York Haven – the source of the original request that led to the railroad’s creation – and they also had their eyes set on Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania state capitol.

[42] When first constructing their lines, the company’s strategy was to build lightly and quickly in order to begin generating income as soon as possible—the directors had seen the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad slowed down by expensive stone trackbed and bridges and wanted to avoid those problems.

Rail replacement began in 1852, and by 1854 a good portion of the tracks on the main route between Baltimore and Lemoyne had been upgraded, with yet more financial support from the Maryland legislature.

Its Italianate-style structure of stucco-covered brick, with many arched windows and doorways, and two distinctive towers, quickly became an iconic image for the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad and also for its successor, the Northern Central Railway.

However, several lawsuits and then an injunction requested by the Baltimore and Ohio put a stop to that line—the Canton harbor project had to be abandoned, and the B&S had to continue using horses to move freight to the City Dock.

Maryland converted the railroads’ debts to a single mortgage that required annual payments of $90,000, though if the new company could pay $1,500,000 over a ten-year period that would satisfy the full loan.

[49] Articles of Union were finalized on December 4, 1854, and filed in both states, creating the Northern Central Railway Company (NCRY), which took control of these four affiliated railroads on January 1, 1855.

Once the Baltimore and Susquehanna Company bargained their way across the Pennsylvania-Maryland border and linked with the York and Maryland Line Railroad, they stopped maintaining the Green Spring Branch.

The new railroad’s charter also mandated that its whole length would have two sets of tracks – the need for which had been horrifically demonstrated on July 4, 1854, when a holiday excursion train collided head-on with a York local, killing thirty-five people and injuring over a hundred others.

While these feeder lines had improved from their early horse-drawn days, mine owners were still eager to link directly with the Northern Central Railway for quicker and smoother transportation to markets.

[59] However, the Northern Central Railway had not yet actually made it in to Sunbury – rather, they were stopped at the edge of town by city officials who were allied with Philadelphia legislators and unhappy about the NCRY’s success in shipping Pennsylvania products to Baltimore.

Although their claim-jumping attempt was quickly stopped (one of the Susquehanna's major stockholders, William Fisher Packer, was a future governor of Pennsylvania), city and railroad officials in Sunbury still saw the NCRY as a hostile intruder.

[67] The Northern Central Railway ended the year 1860 with debts of $2.85 million but only $283,000 to go towards paying interest—it could not cover the annual $90,000 payment on the mortgage held by the state of Maryland.

In fact, the state sought foreclosure late in 1860, a financial disaster that was narrowly avoided only by a loan of $120,000 from the private company of the NCRY’s own president, John S. Gittings.

[69] But as armed conflict became increasingly likely, the Northern Central was also affected financially: investors grew hesitant about keeping stock in a railroad so close to the expected military front.

Once in office, he used his power to give PRR vice-president Thomas Scott the position of Assistant Secretary of War, and he also arranged for business to be given to the Northern Central Railway—of which he was still a major stockholder.

[74] But before President-Elect Lincoln took office, the Northern Central Railway was originally scheduled to be part of the highly publicized whistle-stop train ride organized to celebrate his inauguration.

Traffic resumed shortly thereafter, and thousands of wounded soldiers from the Battle of Gettysburg, including Union Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles, were evacuated via the Northern Central to hospitals in Harrisburg, Baltimore, York, and elsewhere.

[80]: 127–129 Abraham Lincoln traveled on the Northern Central on his way to deliver the Gettysburg Address in November 1863, changing trains in Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania.

On-line freight included flour, paper, milk, farm products, coal, and less-than-carload shipments between such settlements as White Hall, Parkton, Bentley Springs, Lutherville, and the city of Baltimore.

[85] Much of the PRR through freight service to points west was routed via its electrified Port Road Branch along the Susquehanna River to Enola Yard in Harrisburg, however, instead of the Northern Central line.

[88]: 4–5 After sustaining damage along the main line due to Hurricane Agnes, the Penn Central petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to allow it to abandon the railroad south of York.