he Walkersville Southern Railroad is a 7-mile tourist railway operation located in Walkersville, Maryland. Formed in the early 1990s, today the railroad operates on a portion of former Pennsylvania Railroad trackage now owned by the State of Maryland. Built by the Frederick & Pennsylvania Line Railroad in 1869, from Frederic north to the state line, the route was soon leased to and later purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad and operated as a portion of their Frederick Division -- operating from Frederick as far north as Columbia, Pennsylvania. Over the years, always under PRR control, the route was reorganized several times under various corporate names and survived into the creation of PennCentral in 1968. After the PennCentral bankruptcy in 1970, the Maryland segment of the route -- debilitated by a Hurricane Agnes bridge washout -- was sold to the State of Maryland. In 1980, the new Maryland Midland shortline operated on the line as far south as Walkersville to serve a lime shipper, but the Frederick segment went dormant.

With state approval to operate as a tourist hauler, the new Walkersville Southern began rehabilitation of the Walkersville segment of the line in 1991. Excursion trains ran as far south as the Monocacy River by 1995, and then over the rebuilt bridge by the following year. Today the tourist line terminates north of Frederick, with plans for the line inside the city to become a rails-to-trail program. In 2008 the state granted the WSR rights to operate 3 miles of trackage north of Walkersville, including a link to the Maryland Midland Railway. However, today that link to the shortline is out of service, as the trackage northbound has deteriorated -- leaving the WSR functionally isolated from the rail network. The Walkersville Southern collection includes several rare light diesel-electric switchers for motive power, coaches and excursion cars for excursions, cabooses and other rolling stock, plus a restored passenger depot, 2-track locomotive shop, and a small railroad museum.