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Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad Rare Mileage Trip 5/20/2010

I awoke in the B&O caboose of the Caboose Motel, showered and walked to MacDonald's for breakfast then returned and worked on stories before taking some pictures.

Cytemp Specialty Steel 50 ton switcher, number unknown, built by Atlas Industrial built in 1946. It was given to the Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad by Ric Tritsch.

Oil Creek and Titusville box car 531, nee Ireco Incorporated 531.

Union Tank bulk petroleum tank car built in 1923.

Oil Creek & Titusville caboose 10, ex. Lake Erie, Franklin & Clarion 10, nee Elgin, Joliet and Eastern built in 1913. It served as the executive car for the Lake Erie, Franklin and Clarion Railroad and Dr. Kevin Moore, a Clarion dentist, bought it and moved it on to the OC&T.

View of the open car I planned to ride on this rare mileage trip.

Oil Creek & Titusville S-2 75, ex. New York and Lake Erie 75, nee South Buffalo 75, built by American Locomotive Company in 1947.

Oil Creek & Titusville station built by the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railrod in 1893.

Oil Creek & Titusville S-2 85, ex. New York and Lake Erie 85, nee South Buffalo 85 built by American Locomotive Company in 1950.

Two views of our train. I returned to the caboose and worked some more on the story then took my clothes to the office to be washed while I was on the trip and picked up Randy's clothes that he had left last night. At 8:50 AM, I walked across the driveway and entered the Oil Creek & Titusville station, walking straight onto the train through to the open car on the rear and waited for departure.

In 1862, the six foot gauge railroad the Oil Creek Rail Road was built between Titusville and Correy, Pennsylvania. The railroad was an immediate success and was soon extended southward to Miller Farm and Shaffer Farm. The main purpose was to haul oil to the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad. In 1864 the New York Central and Erie {PRR Controlled} purchased the majority stock then divided the traffic among them. In 1865 a third standard gauge rail was laid to allow direct connections to other railroads. In September 1865, the Philadelphia and Erie purchased sole control of the Oil Creek Rail Road Company. In 1866 the railroad connected with the Farmers Railroad in Petroleum Centre allowing the oil to move either north to Correy or South to Oil City. On December 10, 1864, Henry A. Guernsey purchased the company and gained the authority to build not exceeding 30 miles between Oil City and Plummer.

On February 27, 1866, the company leased the railroad to the Farmers Railroad of Venango County for $1 a year and the agreement to transport Kersey Company oil at 10 cents a barrel, apparently without Mr. Guernsey's permission, thus a Supreme Court Case occurred which Mr. Guernsey won. The Farmers' Railroad soon completed the line to Rouseville and the connection with the Oil City Rail Road. In 1868 the Oil Creek Railroad merged with several other short line railroads in western Pennsylvania to form the Oil Creek and Allengheny River Railroad Company. By 1875, the Oil Creek and Allengeny Railroad was several million dollars in debt and was sold to the Pittsburgh, Titusville & Buffalo Railroad Company. In 1881, Pittsburgh, Titusville & Buffalo Railroad merged with the Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Western Railroad. The BNY&P went into receiveship on May 20, 1885 and was sold a foreclosure on September 10, 1887 with the New York and Pennsylvania sections being reorganized into Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad Company of New York and Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad Company of Pennsylvania.

These two companies were consolidated on November 28, 1887 as the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad Company. It went into receivership on April 1, 1893 and was sold at a foreclosure on February 5, 1895 and was reorganized on February 25, 1895 as the Western New York Railroad Company in New York and the Northwestern Pennsylvania Railroad Company in Pennsylvania. These two companies were consolidated on March 18, 1895 to form the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway Company. This company operated independently until July 31, 1900 when the Pennsylvania Railroad began operating the company. This line lasted through the Penn Central merger and then the creation of Conrail. The north end of the Chautauqua Branch continued in operation until December 29, 1978 when the last train passed over that part of the railroad. The rails were removed the following year. When Conrail decided to sell or abandon the line, two groups came together to form the Oil Creek Railroad Historical Society and purchased the track, buildings and real estate on June 6, 1986. The first public excursion trip was run on July 18, 1986.

In early 1867, the Dunkirk, Warren & Pittsburgh Railroad Company was organized and construction began on June 17, 1867. Track was laid south from Dunkirk through Laona, Sinclairville and on to Falconer. The first passenger train ran over the line on June 22, 1871. On December 31, 1872, the Dunkirk, Warren & Pittsburgh Railroad Company combined with the Warren Venango Railroad Company to form the Dunkirk, Allengeny & Pittsburgh Railroad Company. This company was then leased to the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company. Later the Dunkirk, Allengeny & Pittsburgh became known as the Valley Branch of the New York Central, fondly nicknamed the "Dolly Varden". Passenger service was dropped in 1937. The line was removed from service between Falconer and Dunkirk in 1972 by Penn Central in the aftermath of Hurricane Agnes. The line south of Falconer was abandoned in 1976 with the formation of Conrail. There is a very small piece of this railroad still in Titusville today.

At 9:00 AM, we started our trip by reversing toward West Central Avenue with a consist of Oil Creek & Titusville S-4 85, coach 65 "Samuel Van Syckel", coach 61 "Andrew B. Funk", RPO/Concession 66, coach "John W. Steele", coach 62 "Thomas Struthers", coach 60 "Jonathan Watson", coach 59 "Colonel Edwin L. Drake" and open air car 827.

Pipes are made in Titusville.

These cars are some of what this railroad ships today.

The switch to our rare mileage on the former New York Central Line in Titusville.

Our train had to reverse all the way to West Central Avnue so we could proceed down the former New York Central Line through Titusville.

The farthest our train travelled west on this line.

We then switched the switch and began our trip down the former New York Central.

Leaving the Oil Creek & Titusville line.

Our line was one block east of the Caboose Motel.

Oil Creek & Titusville S-2 75.

Our route took us in between industries.

You can see the Caboose Motel. We stopped across from the Titusville Junior High School for a posed photo on this former New York Central track.

Our train.

Oil Creek & Titusville S-2 85. We all reboarded and continued on our way.

We left Titusville Junior High School behind.

Crossing Pine Creek bridge.

The decay of industry in the Northeast USA.

These tank cars served an active industry.

More industry.

Flagging the crossings for us.

More tank cars.

We ran by this siding.

The view from where we had been.

The last industry on this line's east end. We all detrained for a posed picture.

Posed pictures at the east end, after which everyone reboarded and the train returned to the siding so the engine could run around.

Our engine running around the train then coming foward to couple.

The coupling of the engine to our train.

I walked to the other end to take a few pictures as we returned west on the New York Central tracks.

The industrial railroad crossing in Titusville.

Our train returned to the former Pennsylvania Railroad track, which is the mainline of the Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad.

This truck was having a major problem this morning.

You can see the former New York Central tracks to the left.

Our engineer operating the Alco switcher.

The Caboose Motel in Titusville. We entered the station and our engine cut off to pick up some freight cars that we would take to the interchange track at Rynd Farm later today.

The engine left our train.

A few minutes later, it had three freight cars.

Several moves were made to get the cars on the rear of our train and as a result, we would be running as a mixed train.

The engine then ran around our train again to be pointed south for our trip to Rynd Farm.