Nostalgia & History > Wellsville, Addison and Galeton: Feb. 1970

On February 18, 1970, my new wife, along with railfan buddy Dick Allen and his wife, traveled from our homes in Binghamton, N.Y., to spend a day photographing the Wellsville Addison and Galeton. We were lucky, because the "WAG" was operating two trains that day, one to the Penn Central connection at Ansonia, Pa., and another to the Erie Lackawanna interchange at Wellsville, N.Y.

We shot both trains several times.

I hope the rarity of the subject matter will make allowances for the poor quality of the photos. I had only a cheap camera, and the day was, for the most part, badly overcast.

Photo 1. A WAG caboose of B&O and Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh ancestry sits, unused and snow topped, in the yard at Galeton, Pa.

Photo 2. The Ansonia-bound freight, behind one of the WAG's rare GE centercab, ex-Ford road switchers, is pictured along Pine Creek, east of Galeton.

Photo 3. A close-up shot of the engine powering the Ansonia job.

Art House
Gettysburg, Pa.



Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/10 11:52 by aehouse.

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Photo 4. The Ansonia bound freight goes away from the camera. The caboose is an ex-Erie "Dunmore" all steel cab.

Photo 5. The Wellsville-bound train approaches.

Photo 6. The Wellsville train also sports a former Erie all-steel cab.

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One of the big, former Ford GE units was encountered out of service at Genesee, Pa. So, we appropriated its (unlocked) cab to get a shot of the station there.

Art



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/10 09:29 by aehouse.

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Nifty railroad. Anything I haven't seen before of the the railroad is worth seeing. I have the book and the DVD. Thanks for sharing Art. Nice that you have photos of the GE's. As you know, the ex SP F-7's were photographed more as by the time most railfans started noticing the WAG, the GE's were out of service. And those big GE's purchased from Ford secondhand were definitely unique.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/10 09:46 by wabash2800.

That's very cool styling on those engines; I'd love to have seen them in action. Thanks for posting.

Andy

Love those short line photos. Thanks.

Art,
Thanks for the WAG posts. I used to get up there a lot but it was after the lumber mill in Galeton closed. The tracks were still there but the trains were gone.
Gonut

Well, you just hit my jackpot. My dad and I both were fans of the WAG, but we never got to see the property. We were both W A Gs (William Arthur Gibson, Sr. and Jr). We did get to see the F units on the L & N W. Pop has been gone for over 25 years, but I still have a HO box car that is lettered W A & G 5050. THANK YOU for shareing your photographs.
Art Gibson

Dang Art, 40 years on and you woudn't even know that railroad existed hardly at all anymore. I was always amazed at the abundance of lines in north central Pennsylvania and along the Southern Tier. And Sinclair! You have to go to Kansas City or west to see those these days!

DT

DanThorne Wrote:
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> Dang Art, 40 years on and you woudn't even know
> that railroad existed hardly at all anymore. I
> was always amazed at the abundance of lines in
> north central Pennsylvania and along the Southern
> Tier. And Sinclair! You have to go to Kansas
> City or west to see those these days!
>
> DT

The poor WAG. The Buffalo and Susquehanna couldn't make a go of it; neither could the B&O; local ownership gave up on it, and the Salzburg Company ran it until it too threw in the towel. Northern and northwestern Pennsylvania was full of interesting lines that--like the WAG--are now long gone.

Art

Mr. House, I seem to have it in the back of my mind that the WAG was nicknamed "The Sole Leather Line". Am I correct about that? Also, wasn't one of the WAG's GE's preserved? Could definitely be wrong about that.

Bob Callahan
Monticello, IN

rcall31060 Wrote:

> Mr. House, I seem to have it in the back of my
> mind that the WAG was nicknamed "The Sole Leather
> Line". Am I correct about that?

Yes:

http://www.personal.psu.edu/tss109/WAG/homepage/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Sole_Leather_Line.jpg

> Also, wasn't one of the WAG's GE's preserved?

Yes, at the Lake Shore Railway Historical Society Museum in North East, PA:

http://www.velocity.net/~lsrhs/loading1700.html
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPicture.aspx?id=92545