For example, the county wants to seal off the towering Martic Forge railroad trestle that is sometimes a place for partying and close portions of the abandoned rail line prone to flooding.

“There are parts of that line that are not safe right now,” says Dee Dee McGuire, the project manager for the county’s planned rail-trail on 23 miles of the former freight line.

“Part of the plan once we take possession is to secure areas like that,” she says. “Various parts of the line have issues with four-wheelers. We will be patrolling the line as well.”

But six Solanco townships, whose leaders think they were blindsided by a county that formerly supported the Solanco ownership of the 930-acre ribbon across the southern end, vow to continue the court fight to try to wrest control of the line.

In court briefs filed in the case, the townships assert the county is “insultingly trying to take the townships’ reward.” They maintain it is the county that is putting the public at risk by holding up planned improvements to aging and dangerous bridges and overpasses.

“The townships are just looking to conclude the transaction that they had started a decade ago with the county’s full blessing and support,” says Scott Wyland, one of two Harrisburg attorneys representing Sadsbury, Eden, Bart, Providence, Martic and Conestoga townships.

Wyland is referring to a deal approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission in 1997 in which the rail line would be transferred to the townships, along with $1.4 million to address current and future bridge issues. The Lancaster County Commissioners at that time supported the plan.

The county had hoped county court would throw out the townships’ objections to the takeover by the end of July. But oral arguments before a two-judge panel in Lancaster County Court won’t even be held until Aug. 29, with a decision sometime after that.

Now, the county is hoping to get a first snippet of the public trail launched in 2006, the 100th anniversary of the historic railroad.

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Forty-five miles of the Low Grade, known as the Atglen-Susquehanna line, was considered one of the country’s great engineering feats shortly after the turn of the century and was compared to the digging of the Panama Canal.

Built to give freight trains unencumbered passage that they couldn’t get on the Pennsylvania Railroad’s main line, the new railroad line’s grade never exceeded 1 percent; no curve was greater than 2 percent.

Italian stonemasons fashioned majestic arched bridges across Lancaster County. The bridges have become a preservation issue in the case.

The hard labor for building the railroad line was supplied by immigrants from Italy, Turkey, Syria and other southeastern European countries.

Many died. The families of workers continue to live in Solanco.

The last train to use the line was in 1988 and the rails were removed in 1997.

A private rail-trail group succeeded in lining up more than $1 million for the property’s conversion for hiking, but the effort fell apart amid rancorous opposition by residents and officials in most of the affected townships.

The county also briefly considered taking on the rail-trail project but retreated in the face of Solanco opposition.

It appeared the deal brokered by the townships and former owner Conrail would come to pass. The deal had been approved by PUC.

But in March 2004, the County Commissioners abruptly announced their intent to seize the line for a rail-trail, something they consider an irreplaceble resource.

Angered Solanco townships quickly challenged the takeover.

First, the townships said the county couldn’t exercise eminent domain because the rail line had not been formally abandoned by Norfolk Southern.

Norfolk Southern also initially challenged the condemnation but withdrew it and abandoned the line after the county agreed to take over responsibility for a court-ordered historic documentation of the rail line.

The townships continue to maintain the county is barred by an old county law that bars the county from taking the right of way of a railroad company.

But the county argues in court briefs that there has been no railroad on the Low Grade for 20 years, only an abandoned tract of land.

Second, the townships assert a county takeover would be in direct violation of the 1997 PUC order giving the land to the townships.

The county replies that PUC jurisdiction extends only to rail crossings, not the entire line.

The county “will step into the shoes” of the townships to address road crossings and bridges, according to court briefs.

McGuire says the county wants to save as many of the historical bridges as possible.

Another key issue yet to be decided if the county is successful in obtaining the line is whether the county would get the $1.4 million for bridge removals and maintenance that the railroad had promised the townships.

The county’s McGuire would only say the matter has been discussed with Norfolk Southern officials.

Amtrak would continue to have an easement through the center of the rail-trail for its electric catenary lines. The active lines would not present a safety issue for trail users, according to McGuire.

Efforts to bring the two sides together to try to work out an out-of-court settlement have fallen flat.

What do the townships want?

According to their attorney Wyland, just what’s rightfully theirs.

According to McGuire, some want “their bubble parcels along the line,” some want future rights to any revenue-generating use of the line, such as for fiber optics, and some want their legal fees reimbursed by the county.

Says McGuire, “The county is willing to sit downand discuss anything.”