Path Valley Railroad

Path Valley Railroad
Dates of operation	1893–1895 (paper railroad)
Track gauge	3 ft (914 mm)

Last updated May 01, 2019

The Path Valley Railroad was a proposed 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railroad in Perry and Franklin Counties, Pennsylvania, USA.

Three foot gauge railways have a track gauge of 3 ft or 1 yard. This gauge is a narrow gauge and is generally found throughout North, Central, and South America. In Ireland, many secondary and industrial lines were built to 3 ft gauge, and it is the dominant gauge on the Isle of Man, where it is known as the Manx Standard Gauge. Modern 3 ft gauge railways are most commonly found in isolated mountainous areas, on small islands, or in large-scale amusement parks and theme parks. This gauge is also popular in model railroading, and model prototypes of these railways have been made by several model train brands around the world, such as Accucraft Trains (US), Aristo-Craft Trains (US), Bachmann Industries, Delton Locomotive Works (US), LGB (Germany), and PIKO (Germany).

Perry County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the population was 45,969. The county seat is New Bloomfield. The county was created on March 22, 1820, and was named after Oliver Hazard Perry, a hero of the War of 1812, who had recently died. It was originally part of Cumberland County and was created in part because residents did not want to travel over the mountain to Carlisle, and thus the temporary county seat became Landisburg

Franklin County is a county located in South Central Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the population was 149,618. Its county seat is Chambersburg.

Intended as an extension of the Newport and Shermans Valley Railroad, it was to begin at that railroad's terminus in New Germantown and run southward along Sherman Creek and Big Spring Run. Around what is now Big Spring State Forest Picnic Area, the line would climb through a series of curves on a 4% grade and pass through a 2,600 feet (790 m) tunnel under Conococheague Mountain ^[1] named Conococheague Mountain Tunnel to bring it into Burns Valley. It would run down Burns Valley into Path Valley and through the town of Doylesburg, ending at Fannettsburg. An extension through the Concord Narrows was also contemplated, which could have connected to the East Broad Top Railroad and the Tuscarora Valley Railroad.

The Newport and Shermans Valley Railroad was a nineteenth-century, 3 ft narrow gauge railroad in Pennsylvania. It ran from Newport, Pennsylvania to New Germantown, Pennsylvania. It carried lumber, and transferred it to the 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ instandard gauge Pennsylvania Railroad at Newport. The right of way was extended to an uncompleted tunnel through Conococheague Mountain, started in an attempt to connect with the Path Valley Railroad. This right of way was later used by the Perry Lumber Railroad.

New Germantown is an unincorporated community in Blain, Perry County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its ZIP code is 17006.

Sherman Creek is a 53.4-mile-long (85.9 km) tributary of the Susquehanna River in Perry County, Pennsylvania in the United States.

Incorporated on October 24, 1893, grading began almost immediately. The line was graded for 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge , with the anticipation that the N&SV would be converted from 3 ft (914 mm) gauge. The grade soon reached Conococheague Mountain, and construction began on both portals of the tunnel. However, the rock formations of the mountain proved much more difficult to excavate than expected, and the tunnel contractor went bankrupt in September 1894 after excavating about 100 feet (30 m)^[1] at both ends. Most of the remaining grading was completed, but the tunnel proved impractically difficult to complete, and the railroad was given up as a failure in 1895.

Conococheague Mountain is a long and narrow mountain located in the far western corner of Perry County, Pennsylvania, United States. The highest point on the mountain is a summit known as Round Top which rises to an elevation of 2,190 feet (670 m) and is located at the very southern end of the ridge. The mountain is almost entirely located in the Tuscarora State Forest, and has numerous hiking trails and dirt roads, including Bryner Road, New Germantown Road, and the Iron Horse Trail. The nearest town to the mountain is Blain.

Part of the grade from New Germantown to Big Spring was later used by the Perry Lumber Company for a 3 ft (914 mm) gauge logging railroad from 1900 to 1905.^[1] Much of the grading is now preserved as hiking trails in Big Spring State Forest Picnic Area and Tuscarora State Forest. The north portal of the tunnel is still visible, but fenced off.

The Perry Lumber Company was an early 20th-century company which owned timberland in Perry County, Pennsylvania.

Big Spring State Forest Picnic Area is a 45-acre (18 ha) Pennsylvania state park in Toboyne Township, Perry County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The park is on Pennsylvania Route 274, 5.5 miles (8.9 km) southwest of New Germantown. Big Spring State Forest Picnic Area is a hiking and picnic area. A partially completed railroad tunnel in Conococheague Mountain is a feature of the park.

Tuscarora State Forest is a Pennsylvania state forest in Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry District #3. The main office is located in Blain in Perry County, Pennsylvania in the United States.

Related Research Articles

A mountain railway is a railway that operates in a mountainous region. It may operate through the mountains by following mountain valleys and tunneling beneath mountain passes, or it may climb a mountain to provide transport to and from the summit.

A horseshoe curve is a class of climbing curve in a roadbed which reverses turn direction (inflection) twice on either side of a single tight curve that varies through an angle of about 180 degrees or more.

The Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern Railway (CL&N) was a local passenger and freight-carrying railroad in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio, connecting Cincinnati to Dayton via Lebanon. It was built in the late 19th century to give the town of Lebanon and Warren County better transportation facilities. The railroad was locally known as the "Highland Route", since it followed the ridge between the Little and Great Miami rivers, and was the only line not affected by floods such as the Great Dayton Flood of 1913.

The Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad (YMSPRR) is a historic 3 ft narrow gauge railroad with two operating steam train locomotives located near Fish Camp, California, in the Sierra National Forest near the southern entrance to Yosemite National Park. Rudy Stauffer organized the YMSPRR in 1961, utilizing historic railroad track, rolling stock and locomotives to construct a tourist line along the historic route of the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company.

The South Pacific Coast Railroad (SPC) was a 3 ft narrow gauge steam railroad running between Santa Cruz, California and Alameda, with a ferry connection in Alameda to San Francisco. The railroad was created as the Santa Clara Valley Railroad, founded by local strawberry growers as a way to get their crops to market in San Francisco and provide an alternative to the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1876, James Graham Fair, a Comstock Lode silver baron, bought the line and extended it into the Santa Cruz Mountains to capture the significant lumber traffic coming out of the redwood forests. The narrow-gauge line was originally laid with 52-pound-per-yard (26 kg/m) rail on 8-foot (2.44 m) redwood ties; and was later acquired by the Southern Pacific and converted to 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ instandard gauge.

The Peach Bottom Railway was a 19th-century 3 ft narrow gauge railroad in Pennsylvania, designed to haul coal from the Broad Top fields in central Pennsylvania to Philadelphia, but succeeded only in establishing two local short lines.

Fowlers Hollow State Park is a 104-acre (42 ha) Pennsylvania state park in Toboyne Township, Perry County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The park is 0.25 miles (400 m) from Blain just off Pennsylvania Route 274. Fowlers Hollow State Park is on the site of a former sawmill, and was developed as a park by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression.

The Tuscarora Valley Railroad was a 3 ft narrow gauge short-line railroad that operated in central Pennsylvania from 1891 to 1934.

The East and West Railroad of Alabama was a railroad in the U.S. states of Alabama and Georgia. The railroad started out with 3 ft narrow gauge track, but it was eventually converted to 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ instandard gauge track.

Standard gauge was favored for railway construction in the United States, although a fairly large narrow-gauge system developed in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Utah. Isolated narrow-gauge lines were built in many areas to minimize construction costs for industrial transport or resort access, and some of these lines offered common carrier service. Outside Colorado, these isolated lines evolved into regional narrow-gauge systems in Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Hawaii, and Alaska.

The Hoosac Tunnel and Wilmington Railroad was an interstate railroad in southwestern Vermont and northwestern Massachusetts. It ran from the Hoosac Tunnel in Massachusetts to Wilmington, Vermont, a distance of approximately 25 miles (40 km).

Pennsylvania Route 274 is a 44-mile-long (71 km) state highway located in Franklin and Perry Counties in Pennsylvania. The western terminus is at PA 75 in the Fannett Township community of Doylesburg. The eastern terminus is at an interchange with U.S. Route 11 /US 15 in Duncannon. PA 274 is a two-lane undivided road that runs through rural areas in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians. The route heads northeast and crosses Conococheague Mountain, at which point it leaves Franklin County for Perry County. PA 274 continues through agricultural valleys and intersects PA 17 in Blain, PA 850 in Loysville and PA 233 and PA 74 in Green Park. In New Bloomfield, PA 274 intersects PA 34 and turns southeast for a concurrency with that route to Mecks Corner. From here, the route continues east to Duncannon.

The Cincinnati Northern Railroad was a railroad that stretched from Franklin, Ohio north to Jackson, Michigan, a distance of about 186 miles (299 km). It was acquired by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway in 1901 and the New York Central Railroad several years later. Most of the line has since been abandoned.

The Conococheague Mountain Tunnel was a proposed railroad tunnel in Perry County, Pennsylvania. It was originally planned as part of the Path Valley Railroad, with the intent to link the Newport and Shermans Valley Railroad with the East Broad Top Railroad and the Tuscarora Valley Railroad further west. Only about 100 feet of either end of the planned 2600 foot tunnel was completed in 1894. The partially completed tunnel exists in Big Spring State Forest Picnic Area and Tuscarora State Forest. The north portal of the tunnel is still visible, but fenced off.

The East Waterford Lumber Company was an early 20th-century company which leased and harvested timberland in Juniata and Perry County, Pennsylvania.

The Potomac, Fredericksburg, and Piedmont Railroad (PF&P) was a 3 ft narrow gauge short-line railroad in central Virginia that operated between Fredericksburg and Orange, Virginia. It operated until 1926, when its track was sold. A one-mile portion of the former PF&P line continued to be operated as the Virginia Central Railway until the early 1980s. The track has since been removed.

References

1 2 3 Hilton, George W. (1997) [1990]. American Narrow Gauge Railroads. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1731-1.

Pierson, George N (1995). Tommy Varner's Red Rooster: A History of the Tuscarora Valley Railroad. Mifflintown, Pennsylvania: Juniata County Historical Society.
Rainey, Lee; Kyper, Frank (1996) [1982]. East Broad Top. San Marino, California: Golden West Books. ISBN 978-0-87095-078-0.

Mifflintown is a borough in and the county seat of Juniata County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 936 at the 2010 census.

San Marino is a residential city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It was incorporated on April 25, 1913. With a median home price of $2,431,900, San Marino is one of the most expensive and exclusive communities in the United States.

Golden West Books is a privately owned American publishing company specializing in American Railroads. Donald Duke founded the company in 1960, and wrote some of its titles. Its headquarters are in San Marino, California. The company's titles cover steam locomotives, diesel locomotives, logging railroads, mining railways, funiculars, the caboose, electric interurbans, Inter-city rail and histories of the Santa Fe Railroad. Model railroad-oriented hobby retail shops sell some of Golden West's books.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[hilton-1] 1 2 3 Hilton, George W. (1997) [1990]. American Narrow Gauge Railroads. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1731-1.