 While the principal arteries of the Lancaster County railroads had mostly been completed by this time, the Gilded Age witnessed a period of independent railroad construction, speculation, and financial maneuvers.The Lancaster and Reading Narrow Gauge Railroad was chartered in 1871 to build a gauge route from Safe Harbor to Lancaster to Reading, with a branch from Lancaster to Quarryville, competing with the Reading & Columbia.Construction began on the branch line to Quarryville, but was quickly changed to standard gauge.