Eastern Railroad Discussion > The NYC branches in PA

Are there any websites or books dedicated to the NYC lines in PA? Particularly the branch that ran to the middle of the state. Where there tunnels, yards, etc? Was the principal commodity coal, oil,or what?

Some of the towns or Brookville, Curwensville and Newberry Jct.

Any help is appreciated. I cross posted on the history board, too. Please no smarta$$ed answers.

I don't know much about the historic reason for development, but by the 1980s the ex-NYC branch network in central Pennsylvania was almost exclusively coal-hauling. The line up through Pine Creek Gorge, "the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania," was a funnel for this traffic and, historically, for interchange with the Reading at Williamsport. Conrail continued to operate a daily pair of road freights between Enola, Newberry Yard, and DeWitt Yard near Syracuse on this part of the ex-NYC network until 1988, when the line through Pine Creek Gorge was abandoned.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/14 11:50 by toledopatch.

PC Railroader or Rails Northeast (it successor) had an article on the line I believe with photos. Both magazines are long out of print but perhaps there is a collection somewhere. I recall it quite interesting as Alco FAs etc., were used quite late, and I recall a photo of a large two stall engine house in the article too. Yes, it was all about coal hauling.


Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/14 11:57 by wabash2800.

Looking at USGS maps, I see that the PRR and BRP (B&O) were in the area as well. Must have been a lot of coal.

PC era, but there's a lot of neat stuff on this site:

http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/x/mxb13/RRS/PennCentral.html

A very interesting line with plenty of high bridges and tunnels.
Part of it near Franklin PA is a bike trail.

Attached is a photo of the river bridge over the Clarion River south of Clarion PA. There are tunnels on both sides of this bridge which still stands.

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Wow, that is impressive. I found that area on Google Earth. The tunnels aren't small either, and may have been curved. Curved tunnels were commonplace, but the engineering for that time, never fails to amaze me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/14 18:22 by NYC6001.

I have seen a book titled "Railroads of the Clearfield Area", or something close to that. Try Google first, then Amazon. If you can find it,I believe it would go a long way to satisfying your quest.

In Snowshoe PA (which I do believe is the NYC line you are inquiring) Was an interchange point with the PRR. The Bellefonte Central tried to make a connecting route (Nittany VAlley Southern) to Snow shoe as well.

The area also produced a huge amount of timber. Erie, B&O, Pennsy, New York Central all had branches in the general area.

Wooden barrel making for the oil fields just west was a big business, too.

I believe the NYC route through Pine Creek had many "feeders" from the timber industry in it's infancy. That was way before my time, but I do recall chasing the coal drags through there in the 80's with much of the line being Alco powered. Pictures notwithstanding, I still remember the smoke flying when they were notched up!

John R -- CP Spring
Carlisle, PA

You can easily see the footprint of a roundhouse in Clearfield at the west end of the yard up against the river.

Thanks for the info.

Clarion Tunnel on the east end of the Clarion River bridge. The photo is looking west with the bridge at the west end of the tunnel.

Further west towards Franklin PA is Belmar Bridge, a magnificent structure crossing the Allegheny River and a PRR Line. This is now a trail, actually both the NYC above and the PRR along the river are both nice trails.

Last photo is from the Belmar Bridge looking down at the PRR, basically this would be the fireman's view from an eastbound (towards Clearfield) train.

Out of Clearfield the NYC had BR&P (B&O) rights to PRR near Dubois. PA, then over the PRR through Brookville and over more neat bridges and through a tunnel at Brookville then splitting off on their own heading for Franklin PA where the old line branched off to Oil City. There was a crew terminal at Stoneboro and about the only thing left is well, nothing really but an old caboose provides a memory of what was once there. Further east the line crossed the ERIE and both lines of the B&LE north of Greenville (Osgood) and then off towards Pymatuning crossing the PRR (E&P) at Jamestown then down the grade to Ashtabula Ohio.

I am told in steam days double headed Mohawks were the norm, L-2's I think. This is far removed territory from the iconic NYC "Water Level Route" and I sure wish one day a good history is published.

Fascinating territory !

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The book mentioned about Railroads in the Clearfield area was offered by the Clearfield Historical Society and sorts out the various lines in the area.

A link to the society is: http://www.clearfieldcountyhistoricalsociety.net/

Thanks for all the background on a rarely discussed area.

Awesome photos!

I think I know where I am biking and hiking this spring! How are the snakes, bears, critters, etc?? Being from Central Indiana, I hate snakes. The pioneers wiped out all the vipers ages ago in my region. We only have non-poisonous snakes left in Central Indiana.

I apologize to all snake enthusiasts in advance.

If anyone else has more pictures, info, etc., please chime in.

I can't say much about the snakes, but there may be a few black bears depending where you go. Being on the designated trail sections is pretty tame. Hiking the abandoned portions and tunnels is probably another thing. I do not recommend anyone wander into these tunnels. Years ago while hiking the remains of the NYO&W Railroad in the Catskill Mountains I got hurt in an old tunnel and literally had to be dragged out. That was no fun and extremely foolish.

This is certainly a fantastic line to poke around and trace from Clearfield to the Ohio line.

There is still an LS&MS style depot in Franklin, although in recent years it has been altered.

I thought I had pics of the big bridge at Curwensville but don't seem to find them, also pics east (north) of Clearfield as the depot at Bigler still stands. The Central had two routes out of Clearfield but I have yet to adequately explore that area, some of which is very remote.

Below is the Belmar Bridge looking west towards Stoneboro and Ashtabula on the trail.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/14 08:16 by train1275.

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Finally, I found the images I was looking for....

The bridge piers and abutment is the Clarion bridge on the east side of the tunnel - picture above. A train travelling west would cross this bridge, go through the tunnel, cross the bridge pictured above over the Clarion River and then go into another tunnel. The tunnel portal is just several hundred feet behind me.

The caboose is at the terminal of Stoneboro, seemingly a very strange, remote and small place for such and almost nothing left there. Stoneboro is west of Franklin area about 1/3 way or so towards the Ohio border.

Last is the Beech Creek depot at Bigler looking east. We are on the east side of Clearfield on the line that goes up to Snowshoe. The other line goes up the river through Karthaus to the PRR at Keating, then east.

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That's a lovely little depot.

Thanks for the photo journey

How long is the trail?