NYC RR in Dubois

Cactus Jack wrote:The NYC had rights on the PRR Low Grade from Rose, west of the tunnel at Brookville to Falls Creek where they got on the BR&P for the run to Clearfield via C&M Jct.

Yes, that is what I was trying to say in my post above (2nd in the thread). I also found this on-line, from the 1909 Annual Report of the Lake Shore and Michigan SOuthern (controlled by the NYC at the time).

The company acquired through lease, dated April 1st, 1909, the entire railroad and property of the Jamestown, Franklin & Clearfield Railroad Company, extending from the Ohio-Pennsylvania State Line to Oil City, Pennsylvania, and from Polk Junction, to Brookville, Pennsylvania— the latter part of the road being under construction at date of lease, and opened for operation on September 26th, 1909. In connection with the opening of the above line, trackage rights were acquired over the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad between Brookville and Falls Creek, Pennsylvania, and over the tracks of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railway between Falls Creek and Clearfield, Pennsylvania, forming a connection with the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad at the latter point— thereby giving the company a direct line from the coal fields of Central Pennsylvania to the port of Ashtabula on Lake Erie.

(from the Railway Age Gazette, March 18, 1910) .
http://books.google.com/books?id=m_BQAA ... ia&f=false
(The whole LSMS was later merged into the NYC in 1914). So they built the Polk Jct to Brookville (actually Rose just outside of Brookville) section to carry coal from the Clearfield area west to Lake Erie. I guess the through freight to/from Philadelphia via the Reading RR at Newberry came later.

What I don't get is, why would the PRR and the BR&P grant those trackage rights. Both PRR and BR&P were heavily connected to bituminous coal in central PA (the PRR in the Clearfield area and more, the BR&P a little further west), and both could haul it to Lake Erie as well. So on the surface it seems they were giving something directly to the competition. Perhaps there was some horse-trading for rights on the NYC in return somewere else. JS

Why the BR&P was receptive to NYC&HR traffic was probably due to the fact that the NYC provided a direct connection to New England for BR&P coal.

Can't answer the PRR side of the house, though. As far as Central Pennsylvania goes, it appears that the NYC had far more trackage rights over the PRR than the other way around (Keating Jct. to Avis, NYC Jct. to Rossiter Jct., Cherry Tree to Spangler, Wigton Jct. to Patton to Mahaffey).