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From the 19th Century until 1986, we had a local shortline railroad here in town, the Bellefonte Central, that ran 17 miles from it's namesake Bellefonte to State College, it's main business was passenger traffic to the university, coal for the University power plant and general freight for State College industry. Aside from that they hauled lime out of Bellefonte to an interchange with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) where it was taken off to Pittsburgh for use in the steel industry.
The "BFC" remained prosperous into the mid 60's of the 20th Century before falling on hard times.
The national economy changed, and traditional railroad heavy industry like steel began to decline, as did the lime traffic.
Society changed, the new freeway system did away with passenger trains, students now drove to school in their own cars, and trucks offered faster/cheaper delivery rates for the powerplant coal.
Railroads in general were in decline in the Northeast, too many fought for too few customers, while Federal regulations made it a long and tortured red-tape process to abandon service to a town, even if you lost money on it, and it was also hard to change freight rates, the trucking industry took advantage and thousands of traditional rail customers switched to trucks. As the big railroads struggled to stay solvent, they became less concerned with the short lines feeding them, and interchange service was fraught with delays, the shortlines weren't getting their cars on time, and the ones they sent out were reaching customers late, completely out of their control.
By 1974, the BFC was losing money and cut off service to State College, ripping out the tracks, and only the lime plants were served, this didn't help, and in 1986 the BFC was gone.
Today, there's little evidence to those coming into town for classes this Summer that they're walking/driving over the remnants of a railroad. So I went out looking for it, using a series of photos taken by students/enthusiasts back in the 40's and 50's and had a lot of luck.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5742/2...232be4ca_b.jpg
A 1947 - 1950 era photo shows one of BFC's two active steam engines (Juniata class engines built in the early 1900's and bought from the PRR when they were retired) backing up to the power plant bunkers with a coal delivery. And the same area today, showing the truck dock and the bits and pieces grafted onto the plant over the years to make it more environmentally friendly.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5798/2...b01cf1e1_b.jpg
This 1947 image shows what could be charitably called the State College Yard, with another Juniata shuffling cars. The bell tower of Old Main is just visible in the distance. The same area today has been swallowed by the town, the squat yellow structure is a laundromat, and the trees behind it just cover up the Old Main tower. The white office building is the Walker Building, the PSU Meteorology Department works out of there.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5819/2...b95cdace_b.jpg
Another late 40's image shows another steamer navigating the Waddle Curve, about 4 miles outside State College, necessary to climb uphill at this point and onto the ridge where the Toftrees neighborhood now sits. Today, the area is so overgrown with trees, even I didn't know this was the original alignment, and even the GoogleMaps image is ambiguous unless you can spot the telltale cuts in the woods that haven't quite filled in yet and look like typical four-wheeler paths or logging roads if you don't stop and look.
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/643/20...324efb58_z.jpg
It's 1962 and passenger service has long since ended, but daily freight runs continue. By 62' the BFC's steam engines were scrapped and they'd bought two new diesel switchers, an SW9 (pictured here) and later, an SW1200 joined the roster, both bought new from the factory. Here, the SW9 climbs the grade just to the west of town, the two brick houses in the upper right are the edge of the existing street grid at that time. In the distance, Mount Nittany. Today, the houses are still there (but now apartments) but the growth of trees hide everything, including the mountain. As you can see, the Penn State golf course now occupies this spot and the fairways have obliterated the old roadbed. The person who took the pic was, like me, standing on Corl St, except now it too is abandoned, sealed off at either end by gates, a much larger 4-lane parkway, Blue Course Drive now serves it's spot in the street grid, about 1/4 mile further behind me.
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/591/20...2069e6e2_b.jpg
It's 1973, and one of the last runs to State College works down the line through the village of Fillmore along PA RT 550, the next year, this track was abandoned and the rails sold for scrap. The same area today looks pretty much unchanged, my shot was taken from the parking lot of what used to be the Fillmore General Store (now closed, run out of business by a nearby Sheetz) and the notch in the ridge back there leads me to believe the original photographer had the same idea.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5733/2...8c8a1386_b.jpg
Today, the last 2 miles of grade from the end of the line at the power plant and train station is still technically there, but you won't know it at first. The section on the left is, unsurprisingly, modern day "Railroad Ave", the section on the right, about 100 yards from the former station, is now a parking lot.
Speaking of the Pennsylvania Railroad, it too is gone today, absorbed in a series of late 1960's mergers of failing railroads. Around that time, it also started shedding unprofitable or duplicated parallel trackage to cut costs. That resulted in the abandoning of the Petersburg branch of the PRR that ran from Cresson (near the famous horseshoe curve) through Hollidaysburg, south of Altoona (the main yards) and eventually rejoined the mainline at Petersburg, just above Huntingdon. It served few customers and was mostly a "spare" line incase traffic up to Cresson (steep mountain grades) was especially heavy. Today, the Petersburg is a rails-to-trails bike path that I use frequently. Here are two pictures taken circa 1920 of the road crossing at modern day Williamsburg, and the whistle-stop station at Mt Etna (misspelled, curiously as "Aetna" in the period photo) Both stops along the path today. The white structure still remaining at Mt. Etna is the former schoolhouse.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5792/2...478d95a9_b.jpg
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/751/20...d439be9a_b.jpg
The "BFC" remained prosperous into the mid 60's of the 20th Century before falling on hard times.
The national economy changed, and traditional railroad heavy industry like steel began to decline, as did the lime traffic.
Society changed, the new freeway system did away with passenger trains, students now drove to school in their own cars, and trucks offered faster/cheaper delivery rates for the powerplant coal.
Railroads in general were in decline in the Northeast, too many fought for too few customers, while Federal regulations made it a long and tortured red-tape process to abandon service to a town, even if you lost money on it, and it was also hard to change freight rates, the trucking industry took advantage and thousands of traditional rail customers switched to trucks. As the big railroads struggled to stay solvent, they became less concerned with the short lines feeding them, and interchange service was fraught with delays, the shortlines weren't getting their cars on time, and the ones they sent out were reaching customers late, completely out of their control.
By 1974, the BFC was losing money and cut off service to State College, ripping out the tracks, and only the lime plants were served, this didn't help, and in 1986 the BFC was gone.
Today, there's little evidence to those coming into town for classes this Summer that they're walking/driving over the remnants of a railroad. So I went out looking for it, using a series of photos taken by students/enthusiasts back in the 40's and 50's and had a lot of luck.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5742/2...232be4ca_b.jpg
A 1947 - 1950 era photo shows one of BFC's two active steam engines (Juniata class engines built in the early 1900's and bought from the PRR when they were retired) backing up to the power plant bunkers with a coal delivery. And the same area today, showing the truck dock and the bits and pieces grafted onto the plant over the years to make it more environmentally friendly.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5798/2...b01cf1e1_b.jpg
This 1947 image shows what could be charitably called the State College Yard, with another Juniata shuffling cars. The bell tower of Old Main is just visible in the distance. The same area today has been swallowed by the town, the squat yellow structure is a laundromat, and the trees behind it just cover up the Old Main tower. The white office building is the Walker Building, the PSU Meteorology Department works out of there.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5819/2...b95cdace_b.jpg
Another late 40's image shows another steamer navigating the Waddle Curve, about 4 miles outside State College, necessary to climb uphill at this point and onto the ridge where the Toftrees neighborhood now sits. Today, the area is so overgrown with trees, even I didn't know this was the original alignment, and even the GoogleMaps image is ambiguous unless you can spot the telltale cuts in the woods that haven't quite filled in yet and look like typical four-wheeler paths or logging roads if you don't stop and look.
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/643/20...324efb58_z.jpg
It's 1962 and passenger service has long since ended, but daily freight runs continue. By 62' the BFC's steam engines were scrapped and they'd bought two new diesel switchers, an SW9 (pictured here) and later, an SW1200 joined the roster, both bought new from the factory. Here, the SW9 climbs the grade just to the west of town, the two brick houses in the upper right are the edge of the existing street grid at that time. In the distance, Mount Nittany. Today, the houses are still there (but now apartments) but the growth of trees hide everything, including the mountain. As you can see, the Penn State golf course now occupies this spot and the fairways have obliterated the old roadbed. The person who took the pic was, like me, standing on Corl St, except now it too is abandoned, sealed off at either end by gates, a much larger 4-lane parkway, Blue Course Drive now serves it's spot in the street grid, about 1/4 mile further behind me.
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/591/20...2069e6e2_b.jpg
It's 1973, and one of the last runs to State College works down the line through the village of Fillmore along PA RT 550, the next year, this track was abandoned and the rails sold for scrap. The same area today looks pretty much unchanged, my shot was taken from the parking lot of what used to be the Fillmore General Store (now closed, run out of business by a nearby Sheetz) and the notch in the ridge back there leads me to believe the original photographer had the same idea.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5733/2...8c8a1386_b.jpg
Today, the last 2 miles of grade from the end of the line at the power plant and train station is still technically there, but you won't know it at first. The section on the left is, unsurprisingly, modern day "Railroad Ave", the section on the right, about 100 yards from the former station, is now a parking lot.
Speaking of the Pennsylvania Railroad, it too is gone today, absorbed in a series of late 1960's mergers of failing railroads. Around that time, it also started shedding unprofitable or duplicated parallel trackage to cut costs. That resulted in the abandoning of the Petersburg branch of the PRR that ran from Cresson (near the famous horseshoe curve) through Hollidaysburg, south of Altoona (the main yards) and eventually rejoined the mainline at Petersburg, just above Huntingdon. It served few customers and was mostly a "spare" line incase traffic up to Cresson (steep mountain grades) was especially heavy. Today, the Petersburg is a rails-to-trails bike path that I use frequently. Here are two pictures taken circa 1920 of the road crossing at modern day Williamsburg, and the whistle-stop station at Mt Etna (misspelled, curiously as "Aetna" in the period photo) Both stops along the path today. The white structure still remaining at Mt. Etna is the former schoolhouse.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5792/2...478d95a9_b.jpg
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/751/20...d439be9a_b.jpg
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