RR From Williamsport along 414

I am going fishing in the Pine Creek Valley this month and I couldn't help but notice RR tracks on my computer map coming out of Williamsport and paralleling route 414 headed north to NY State.

It is my understanding that some or all of the trackage is now a trail but any info would be appreciated.

PRR?

PRR? Hell no! This is ex-NYC. This was the NYC's Fall Brook District which stretched from Lyons, NY on the mainline to Jersey Shore and then to Newberry Jct. near Williamsport. The line from Wellsboro Jct. to Jersey Shore Jct. was pulled up by Conrail in 1988. The section from Wellsboro to Gang Mills is operated by the Wellsboro & Corning RR (as is the branch to Wellsboro). The portion of the line within the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon are now a trail--I'm not sure about the section south of the canyon.

Jeff

I have driven under the Jersey SHore bridge that crosses route 220 on my way to Williamsport. From the looks of it, the trail literally ends right before the bridge. You can see concrete type highway barries blocking access onto the bridge. There are nice wooden fences along the ROW, so my guess is they need to finish of the bridge to allow pedestrains to use it, then the trail will be truly complete into Jersey Shore. They are getting close that is for sure.

Brooks

Well considering it was X-NYC I'm glad the rails were ripped up!

PRR Forever!

Thanks for the info.

Jeff's sig hints at another major reason for NYC's invasion of PRR country. Steam locomotives used immense quantities of coal. New York ssate doesn't have any that I've ever heard of. In order to get to where there was coal to be mined, NYC built westward from Jersey Shore to (or near) Lock Haven, then southeastward along the foot of Bald Eagle Ridge to the town of Beech Creek. There they clawed their way up valleys, over and through hills to reach the coal measures of northern Clearfield County.

Over the years, their holdings expanded until there were NYC lines and mine spurs in most parts of Clearfield County, with small excursions into Jefferson County (and perhaps others). There were a number of interesting maneuvers and conflicts involving PRR, NYC, and thier operations in those coal fields and elsewhere, but those may be too arcane to interest someone who started by wondering "whose track was that on Pine Creek and is it still there?"

[quote="Trails to Rails"]Well considering it was X-NYC I'm glad the rails were ripped up!

PRR Forever!

Well it was just a rare case where the ex-PRR line (in this case the Buffalo Line) was superior to the nearby ex-NYC route.

I think a better comparison would be to the PRR Elmira Branch to Sodus Point, NY rather then the Buffalo Line. Does anyone know how much damage this line took from the '72 floods? I know that they pretty much spelled the end for the Elmira Branch, but the only thing I can recall about the Fallbrook and the floods were that the bridge was washed away in corning, and that it was partly relocated around Tioga PA for the flood control dam there, which iirc was already under construction.

Lycoming Creek destroyed several bridges of the former PRR/PC Elmira Branch. It also took out much right of way and the cash strapped PC could only abandon rather than restore.

By 1972 the Elmira Branch wasn't the once busy line during the mighty years of the PRR.

I remember as a boy seeing I1s steam doubled headed fore and aft. The sound was deafening.

Best,
Craig
Lock haven, Pa.

Lycoming Creek destroyed several bridges of the former PRR/PC Elmira Branch. It also took out much right of way and the cash strapped PC could only abandon rather than restore.

By 1972 the Elmira Branch wasn't the once busy line during the mighty years of the PRR.

I remember as a boy seeing I1s steam doubled headed fore and aft. The sound was deafening.

Best,
Craig
Lock Haven, Pa.

Best,
Craig

joshuahouse wrote:I think a better comparison would be to the PRR Elmira Branch to Sodus Point, NY rather then the Buffalo Line.

You make a good point. Another case of an ex-NYC line being superior to a parallel ex-PRR line! Seriously I am sure Mother Nature was more of a factor in this decision than anything.

My comparison of the Corning Secondary (former Fall Brook) and Buffalo Line was more in reference to the mid 1980s decision to abandon the latter in favor of the former. If I recall this experiment only lasted a few weeks--I think they concluded the Corning did not have enough capacity (the second track from NYC days was long gone). As a result the Buffalo Line was reactivated (assuming it was really shut down for a brief time) and the Corning eventually abandoned (the track was pulled up beginning in October 1988).

1883: The Jersey Shore, Pine Creek & Buffalo Railroad created--hauled timber and other supplies between W'msport and Wellsboro.  
1892: The RR was reorganized as part of the Fall Brook system. As was mentioned, it was later taken over by the New York Central, followed by Penn Central, and eventually Conrail.
1988: Conrail abandons the line.
 
More can be found in: Railroads of Pennsylvania: Fragments of the Past in the Keystone Landscape by Lorett Treese.

And finally...a postcard...

Nice postcard! It's something, at the time that was made, it was showing a nice, but everyday scene. I doubt that anyone will be sending postcards of walmarts and 4 lanes anytime soon!

Just one more thing about the line. The NYC used it as a back door into Pennsy territory. From Newberry Jct., freight took the Reading to the CNJ at Haucks, for forwarding to Jersey City, or it stayed on the Reading into the Philly area. That was the original goal of the never finished South Penn Railroad.

Most of this traffic dried up after Penn Central was created

Mike

56-57 wrote:Nice postcard! It's something, at the time that was made, it was showing a nice, but everyday scene. I doubt that anyone will be sending postcards of walmarts and 4 lanes anytime soon!

True. But imagine the inscriptions... "And here's the Home Depot where we bought our toilet"...

And a footnote...There was a period when the interstates were new that some postcards proudly displayed cloverleaf interchanges and toll booths. I ran across a bunch of these at a flea market once, and WOW are they DULL.

Give me a green valley, a stretch of rail, and an iron horse anytime.

You can still get interstate postcards in the Corning NY area from time to time, such as rt17/I86 from Mossy Bank in Bath (some of these also have the B&H Alcos in them)