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Transformation of the WAG Trail nearly complete
By Chris Potter
Posted Aug. 11, 2015 at 7:30 PM
It was about 15 years ago when Ron Abraham learned the state was in line to assume possession of the WAG Trail.
Abraham is a senior forester based out of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) office in nearby West Almond, and an avid bicyclist. He decided to load up his bike and hit the trail, get the lay of the land while scoping a new outlet for his hobby.
He didn't make it very far — not on two wheels, anyway.
The trail was overgrown with brush, which quickly forced him to drag the bike along the narrow footpath, through bogs and over rickety bridges that were enough to make the heart beat a little faster until his feet were back on solid ground.
The trail had clearly fallen into disrepair since the heyday of the Wellsville-Addison-Galeton Railroad, but the vistas along the path provided a glimpse of what the trail could become.
"I had this great idea of riding my bike down the thing," Abraham recalled. "Well, I road my bike through a little bit of it, then dragged it through the brush, through the wet areas. I tip toed across the bridges. But even then you could see what kind of potential was there."
With a lot of work — plus a cash infusion from the NY Works program — that potential has been turned into progress.
It started with the opening of a pair of two-mile sections on the north and south ends of the trail in the years after the WAG's winding road finally brought it into the state's hands in 2009.
This summer, DEC crews have focused on finishing the final links in the nine-mile trail. Work is currently underway completing the centerpiece of those efforts, the refurbishing of a 120-foot bridge over the Genesee River that will open up a key section between Graves Road and Shongo.
The trail along that stretch has already been transformed. A few months ago the WAG scarcely looked like a trail at all, overgrown with brush. The bridge itself was in a similar state, with weeds and even some saplings growing from its surface.
The brush has disappeared from the trail, giving way to a dirt road navigated by DEC trucks each day. Wet areas have been filled with gravel, several smaller bridges over feeder streams are complete, and the entrance to this section of the trail has a new parking area outfitted with an informational kiosk.
The WAG is back in business.
Community effort
The Wellsville-Addison-Galeton Railroad was originally part of the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad system. The branch from Galeton, Pa. to Wellsville was constructed over 1895-1896.
Its business was hit hard by the closure of the Sinclair Refinery in 1963, while Hurricane Agnes delivered the knockout blow in the Flood of 72. The line generally followed the meandering path of the Genesee River, whose raging floodwaters heavily damaged the rail bed. The Wellsville branch shut down for good the next year, and the WAG Trail's second incarnation began immediately thereafter...
