Lancaster, Oxford and Southern Railroad

This rare card is another from the little-known Pennsylvania narrow gauge railroads, postmarked 1911. The view shows one of the locomotives from the LO&S small fleet of 4-4-0 Atlantic-type engines seen here in passenger service between Oxford and Peach Bottom in Southeastern Pennsylvania.  

History

The Peach Bottom Railway was chartered on March 24, 1868. Originally planned to include three divisions, the Eastern Division was to run from a location near Philadelphia to the Susquehanna River at Peach Bottom. A crossing would then be built from there to reach the Middle Division which would run north to Felton and then either to Hanover Junction or York. The Western Division was never well-defined and plans called for track to run north of Gettysburg, then cross over the mountain ridges, and to the coal fields near Orbisonia. However, the financial contraction of the Panic  of 1873 made it impossible to raise funds for the Western Division and the Eastern and Middle Divisions, however, were never joined. Heavily bonded and in debt, both divisions finally went into receivership in 1881. The Eastern Division was reorganized as the Peach Bottom Railroad, while the Middle Division became the York and Peach Bottom Railway and was purchased in 1889 by the Maryland Central Railway. 

In 1890 the Peach Bottom Railway was sold to a group of Lancaster businessmen to be reorganized as the Lancaster, Oxford and Southern Railway. Following bankruptcy again the line was renamed the Lancaster, Oxford and Southern Railroad. Continuing to struggle, it entered into receivership in 1911. New owners took control in 1912 and by 1914 the LO&S discontinued all trains, except for a small mail operation using a speeder. In October of 1914 the railroad was sold again, converted to more economic gas-powered railcars. Competition for freight traffic from trucks, combined the high prices being offered for scrap metal during World War I, led to the decision management to close the railroad in 1918.