Railroad Forums 

  • "Oil Fields Short Line" in Oklahoma

  • A general discussion about shortlines, industrials, and military railroads
A general discussion about shortlines, industrials, and military railroads

Moderator: Aa3rt

 #328553  by salminkarkku
 
This ran from Clifford on the SLSF, northwest for 4.4m to a dead-end terminal at Dilworth, and operated from 1917 to 1924.

I thought I would put this here, because it's been on my bug-list of untraced historical short lines for years and I've just found out where it was!

 #328598  by BR&P
 
Only 7 years! Was it abandoned, or absorbed into the SLSF?

 #328672  by Aa3rt
 
salminkarkku-I'm afraid I can't help you with this one as this is a little out of my area of interest.

However, there were many short-lived "oil boom" shortlines in northwest Pennsylvania and southwestern New York State as well.

Many of these lines were incorporated with the intent of hauling drilling equipment into the area served for the development of the oil fields. Part of this included miles of pipe. Once the oil fields were developed, the crude oil was transported via pipeline-the owners and drillers had no further use for the rail lines, contributing to their quick demise.

 #328930  by salminkarkku
 
This is probably what happened. The line was abandoned not taken over, because there's a sad little note in my 1926 copy of the OG saying so. It was part of a consortium of short lines operating under the banner of "Oklahoma South-Western" which included the "Miami Mineral Belt" and the interurban running south-west of Tulsa. I think there was a dream of a unified network.