The next portion of the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad gets a little confusing. Their original line was from Gettysburg northward past Biglerville and Aspers to near Holly Springs. Sometime in the late 1880s, a railroad spur (or another short line) was constructed south through the western portions of town and onto the battlefield towards the Little Round Top.
This black and white long rolled up map above is from the Western Maryland Railroad that was copied in June 1919. You read that right…this map is over 100 years old!! It is quite detailed and will be shown often in the Railroad section of this webpage. It shows the train routes through the western portions of town that I colorized.
Let me explain all the colors on the map to make it a little easier to view and to see the Spur. The red railroad tracks you see are the east to west line of the Western Maryland tracks through Gettysburg. The yellow that are curved are the tracks from the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad connecting with the Western Maryland routes from the north. The straight line that goes from North to South is another route for locomotives to access the Battlefield from the north. The blue line is Steven’s Run to put to a reference point. The green box is that of Meade’s Public School (now called Federal Pointe Inn). The purple line is that of Chambersburg Pike or Lincoln Highway. The pink line is that of Fairfield Rd or West Middle Street.
The most important color comes last and that is the orange curved line. That is the railroad spur that connects the main Western Maryland Railroad to the straight line of the Gettysburg and Harrisburg railroad tracks that headed towards Round Top Park near Little Round Top.
Fast forward to the 2026, the location of the spur is near the location of the Post Office and east of Reynolds Street west of the square. It almost lines up to the parking lot that is between Federal Pointe Inn and and what was the Dunlap’s restaurant. The spur would continue behind the present day business of Tom Knox Tire and Auto shop and be joined onto the Western Maryland tracks west of the North Washington Street train station. The building behind the restaurant may have been some kind of train storage building for the spur.
Round Top Park was in the general vicinity of Little Round Top, thus the name. The first excursion train was on May 28, 1884. The Round Top Park included the following things for passengers to enjoy the battlefield and to enjoy the local atmosphere south of town. The park included a cook house and dining hall, a pavilion for dancing and socials, and a merry go around.
Even though the Round Top Park was sold off to the Gettysburg National Park commission in 1896, some of the tracks were removed much later in 1939. Some of the Round Top Spur tracks were even found in 2017 near the present day Codori Memorials along West Middle Street. They were located near the sidewalk that is currently there in 2025. The railroad ties were removed, but if you stand there, you can only imagine the route that was taken. Some of the ties still may exist, with three of them being saved, and one is on display at the Lincoln Museum on Steinwehr Avenue.