Cumberland Valley Rail Trail

The Cumberland Valley Rail Trail follows the former Cumberland Valley Railroad for about 13 miles across the farm country of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, from Shippensburg Station at the edge of Shippensburg University through Oakville and Newville to Green Hill Road. The grade is rail flat and the corridor is mostly open, with fields on both sides and short wooded stretches. The first mile out of Shippensburg and a half mile at the Newville trailhead are paved; the rest is packed crushed limestone with a grass bridle path alongside. Trailheads with parking sit at Shippensburg Station, Shippensburg Township Park, Oakville, and Newville, and a shaded picnic area in Oakville marks the midpoint.

• The Cumberland Valley Railroad began running through this corridor in 1837, the same year it opened from near Harrisburg to Chambersburg.
• The railroad pioneered sleeping cars on American railroads with a car named Chambersburg.
• John Brown and his companions rode the Cumberland Valley Railroad on their way to the raid on Harpers Ferry.
• During the Civil War the line carried Union troops toward the Shenandoah Valley, and Confederate forces burned most of the railroad property in Chambersburg in July 1864.
• The never finished South Pennsylvania Railroad was planned to meet the Cumberland Valley line at Newville.
• Shippensburg Station at the trail's west end is a replica depot that houses the Cumberland Valley Railroad Museum.
• A grass bridle path runs beside the stone dust trail the whole way, and horses must stay on the grass except at road crossings.
• The trail was certified as a National Recreation Trail on May 2, 2010.
• The trail is part of the September 11th National Memorial Trail linking the three 9/11 memorial sites.

The Cumberland Valley Railroad opened through this valley in November 1837, linking White Hill near Harrisburg with Chambersburg by way of Carlisle, Newville, and Shippensburg. The company had been chartered by the Pennsylvania Legislature on April 2, 1831. In its early years it made railroad history by running the first sleeping car in the country, named Chambersburg. John Brown rode the line on his way to Harpers Ferry. After the Civil War began, the railroad moved Union troops toward the Shenandoah Valley, and Confederate raiders twice destroyed railroad property in Chambersburg, burning most of it in July 1864. The Pennsylvania Railroad took control in 1859 and bought the company outright on June 2, 1919. The valley line then passed to Penn Central and, in 1975, to Conrail. Conrail abandoned the Shippensburg to Carlisle segment around 1979 and 1980. In 1995 Conrail donated the first 11 miles between Shippensburg and Newville to the Cumberland Valley Rails-to-Trails Council, an all-volunteer group formed in 1992. The first four and a half miles of trail opened in the fall of 2004, and five more miles followed in 2006. The council has kept building since: the Shippensburg section and bridge in 2017, a two-mile extension east from Newville to Green Hill Road in 2018, and further sections toward Carlisle, with a 22-mile Shippensburg to Carlisle trail as the goal.

• Shippensburg StationMILE 0Directions
• Shippensburg Township ParkMILE 1Directions
• OakvilleMILE 6.3Directions
• NewvilleMILE 10.1Directions

• Cumberland Valley Rails-to-Trails Council · About CVRTC
• Wikipedia · Cumberland Valley Rail Trail
• Cumberland Valley Rails-to-Trails Council · Trail Rules
• Pennsylvania DCNR · Cumberland Valley Rail-Trail
• Wikipedia · Cumberland Valley Railroad
• National Recreation Trails · Cumberland Valley Rail Trail
• John Cowgill: Stories of the Railroad · The Cumberland Valley Rail Trail, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania