Water was among the most vital resources for operation of the A&S, which from its beginning under steam locomotion depended on the abundant water resources it crossed. After earlier droughts and expanding service in Pennsylvania, the PRR equipped the A&S with a reliable modern water system. In 1903, the Octoraro Water Company was created by merging seven smaller water companies along the A&S route, and the PRR was its only customer. The entire Octoraro Creek watershed, about 208 square miles, was available to supply both the A&S and the PRR’s main line. In the steam era, average daily use from this system was estimated at more than 2 million gallons. Infrastructure originally built for the PRR later also served residential consumers in nearby communities. Even after steam locomotives gave way to electric ones, water still powered the A&S through hydroelectric energy from Safe Harbor. Octoraro Creek, slower and more meandering than the Susquehanna River, helped power one of the nation’s busiest freight roads in the first half of the twentieth century. Water pumped from the McCrea and Pine Grove intakes on the Octoraro fed a distribution system of reservoirs and gate houses stretching from Thorndale, east of Parkesburg, west to Smith Tower in Martic Township. The largest and highest reservoir, with a capacity of 10 million gallons, stood on Mars Hill in Bart Township. From there, water moved by gravity through pipes to smaller reservoirs near watering stations along the A&S, where locomotive tenders were filled from water columns. The greatest demand came at the track pans west of Atglen, where locomotives scooped up water without stopping, giving the A&S ample water on demand with little mechanical assistance.