Overview | |
---|---|
Headquarters | Williamsport |
Locale | New York, Pennsylvania |
Dates of operation | 1830s–1863 |
Successor | Northern Central Railway |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
The Elmira and Williamsport Railroad (earlier Williamsport and Elmira Railroad) is a historic railroad that operated in Pennsylvania.
The W&E was organized in 1832 and ran between Williamsport, Pennsylvania and Elmira, New York. It was reorganized as the E&W in 1860, and operated its own property until 1863.
The railroad originally ran north from Williamsport along Lycoming Creek as far as the village of Ralston, and was only extended beyond it to Elmira in 1854.
In 1863 the line was leased by the Northern Central Railway, and in 1910 the line was leased by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The line continued to operate until 1972, when it was destroyed by flooding from Hurricane Agnes. [1]
Williamsport is a city in, and the county seat of, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. It recorded a population of 27,754 at the 2020 Census. It is the principal city of the Williamsport Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of about 114,000. Williamsport is the larger principal city of the Williamsport-Lock Haven, PA Combined Statistical Area, which includes Lycoming and Clinton Counties.
The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Erie, at Dunkirk, New York. It expanded west to Chicago with its 1865 merger with the former Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, also known as the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad. Its mainline route proved influential in the development and economic growth of the Southern Tier of New York State, including cities such as Binghamton, Elmira, and Hornell. The Erie Railroad repair shops were located in Hornell and was Hornell's largest employer. Hornell was also where Erie's mainline split into two routes, one northwest to Buffalo and the other west to Chicago.
Lycoming Creek is a 37.5-mile-long (60.4 km) tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River located in Tioga and Lycoming counties in Pennsylvania in the United States.
The Northern Central Railway (NCRY) was a Class I Railroad connecting Baltimore, Maryland with Sunbury, Pennsylvania, along the Susquehanna River. Completed in 1858, the line came under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in 1861, when the PRR acquired a controlling interest in the Northern Central's stock to compete with the rival Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). For eleven decades the Northern Central operated as a subsidiary of the PRR until much of its Maryland trackage was washed out by Hurricane Agnes in 1972, after which most of its operations ceased as the Penn Central declined to repair sections. It is now a fallen flag railway, having come under the control of the later Penn Central, Conrail, and then broken apart and disestablished. The northern part in Pennsylvania is now the York County Heritage Rail Trail which connects to a similar hike/bike trail in Northern Maryland down to Baltimore, named the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail. Only the trackage around Baltimore remains in rail service.
The Philadelphia and Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania between 1861 and 1907. It was subsequently merged into the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR).
The Elmira and Lake Ontario Railroad was a subsidiary of the Northern Central Railway and later the Pennsylvania Railroad, formed to give the Northern Central an outlet for coal traffic on Lake Ontario.
The Lycoming Valley Railroad is a short line that operates 38 miles (61 km) of track in Lycoming and Clinton counties in Pennsylvania in the United States. It is part of the North Shore Railroad System.
The Wellsboro and Corning Railroad is a 35-mile (56 km) shortline railroad that operates between Wellsboro, Pennsylvania and Corning, New York, passing through Tioga, and Lawrenceville. It parallels PA Route 287 and U.S. Route 15, following the valleys of Marsh Creek, Crooked Creek, and the Tioga River. The railroad connects with Norfolk Southern's Southern Tier Line at Corning.
The Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Railway was a railroad built in the early 1880s to give the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad access to the coal regions around Clearfield, Pennsylvania, United States. It was originally planned as part of a connecting line between the East Coast of the United States and Buffalo, New York.
The Susquehanna and New York Railroad was a short-line railroad connecting the Lehigh Valley Railroad at Towanda, Pennsylvania, with the Pennsylvania Railroad at Marsh Hill Junction. The railroad carried freight and passengers between Williamsport and Towanda by rail rather than using the Susquehanna River or the Pennsylvania Canal.
The Buffalo Line is a railroad line owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania. The line runs from Buffalo, New York southeast to Rockville, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania along a former Pennsylvania Railroad line. Its north end is at Seneca Yard in Buffalo, with no direct access to the Lake Erie district, and its south end is at the Pittsburgh Line at Rockville. The line is operated by the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad between Buffalo and Machias, New York, the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad between Machias and Driftwood, Pennsylvania, and the Norfolk Southern Railway between Driftwood and Rockville.
The Columbus to Indianapolis via Bradford Main Line was a rail line owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad in the U.S. state of Ohio.
Daniel Hughes (1804–1880) was a conductor, agent and station master in the Underground Railroad based in Loyalsock Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in the United States. He was the owner of a barge on the Pennsylvania Canal and transported lumber from Williamsport on the West Branch Susquehanna River to Havre de Grace, Maryland. Hughes hid runaway slaves in the hold of his barge on his return trip up the Susquehanna River to Lycoming County, where he provided shelter to the runaways on his property near the Loyalsock Township border with Williamsport before they moved further north and to eventual freedom in Canada. Hughes' home was located in a hollow or small valley in the mountains just north of Williamsport. This hollow is now known as Freedom Road, having previously been called Nigger Hollow. In response to the actions of concerned African American citizens of Williamsport, the pejorative name was formally changed by the Williamsport City Council in 1936.
The Williamsport and North Branch Railroad was a short line that operated in north-central Pennsylvania between 1872 and 1937. After a long struggle to finance its construction, it was completed in 1893. It derived most of its freight revenue from logging and to a certain extent from anthracite coal traffic. It also carried many passengers to mountain resorts in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania. With the decline of the logging industry and increased accessibility of the region by automobile in the 1910s and 1920s, the railroad's business rapidly declined. The economic blow of the Great Depression proved insurmountable, and it was abandoned as unprofitable in 1937.
The Atlantic City Railroad was a Philadelphia and Reading Railway subsidiary that became part of Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines in 1933. At the end of 1925 it operated 161 miles (259 km) of road on 318 miles (512 km) of track; that year it reported 43 million ton-miles of revenue freight and 204 million passenger-miles.
The Catawissa Railroad was a railroad that operated in Pennsylvania between 1860 and 1953. For most of its lifespan it was leased by the Reading Company, and was subsequently merged into the Reading.
The Cayuga and Susquehanna Railroad was a railroad in the state of New York, in the United States. Its line ran from Ithaca, New York to Owego, New York. It was founded in 1829 and began operations in 1834. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (Lackawanna) leased the company in 1855, but it remained in existence as a non-operating subsidiary. It was conveyed to Conrail in the bankruptcy of the Erie Lackawanna Railway, successor to the Lackawanna, in 1976.
The Eagles Mere Railroad was a 3 ft narrow gauge railroad in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, built in 1892 to connect the resort of Eagles Mere with the standard gauge Williamsport and North Branch Railroad at Sonestown, 8 miles (13 km) away by rail. It was leased to the connecting Williamsport & North Branch in 1901, which continued to operate it as a narrow gauge, and extended it in 1902–3 to Eagles Mere Park and a connection with the narrow gauge Susquehanna and Eagles Mere Railroad, a logging railroad. The line went through a receivership and reorganization in 1911–2, and a second in 1920, due to increasing competition with automobiles for traffic to Eagles Mere. It was reorganized again in 1922 as the Eagles Mere Railway, operating independently of the W&NB, but ended passenger service in 1923 and freight service in 1927. It was abandoned in 1928.
Ralston is an unincorporated community in McIntyre Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. The community is located along Pennsylvania Route 14, 18.5 miles (29.8 km) north of Williamsport. Ralston has a post office with ZIP code 17763.
The Buffalo Day Express was a long-distance north–south Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train from Washington, D.C. to Buffalo, New York. It had a second branch that originated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and at times, from New York, New York. In the southbound direction, the train ran by the name, Washington Express. It was the longest running of trains on the Washington-Buffalo route, north through central Pennsylvania on the Buffalo Line, operating from 1900 to the latter years of the 1960s, with a shortened segment until 1971.