Tuscarora Valley Railroad
Encyclopedia
The Tuscarora Valley Railroad was a narrow gauge shortline
that operated in central Pennsylvania
from 1891 to 1934.
at Port Royal
to points south. Concord and Dry Run, in Franklin County
, seem to have been the southern termini originally contemplated.
The principal promoters of the new railroad was Thomas S. Moorhead. Moorhead had made a fortune mining phosphate rock in Florida
in the late 1880s, and had previously been involved in promoting the Susquehanna and Southwest Railway during the early 1880s. It appears that he intended the railroad as an outlet for phosphate deposits located at Ross Farm, along the Tuscarora Creek. Local financial backing was provided by John M. Blair. His father, John H. Blair, had founded Blairs Mills, high up the Tuscarora Creek. John M. was a storekeeper and a wealthy pillar of the community.
The TVRR was surveyed along the east side of the valley, against the edge of Tuscarora Mountain
. Grading began in the summer of 1892 and the railroad was finished from Port Royal to East Waterford
on February 1, 1893. Here a temporary halt to construction occurred, possibly due to the straitened financial conditions during the Panic of 1893
. The use of 3 feet (914.4 mm) gauge
may have been a measure of economy, as well; on the other hand, the gauge was a popular one with several nearby short lines, such as the East Broad Top Railroad
. The railroad shop was temporarily housed in the basement of a grist mill in East Waterford, and a turntable was built there.
The announcement of the Path Valley Railroad
in late 1893 temporarily balked plans for a southward extension of the TVRR through Concord Narrows into Franklin County. However, by early 1894, the TVRR had begun selling bonds to finance a further southward extension. In April 1895, grading was finished between East Waterford and Blairs Mills, and regular service began in late 1895. The new extension passed by Ross Farm, and in early 1896, Moorhead made the first public announcement of the phosphate deposits there and his formation of the Pennsylvania Phosphate Company to exploit them. Two miles of grading had also been done between Concord and Dry Run.
The initial workings at Ross Farm were apparently successful, as Moorhead erected a larger processing plant in 1898. At 310 feet (94.5 m) long, 156 feet (47.5 m) wide, and five stories high, it is believed to be the largest commercial building ever built in Juniata County
, and had a capacity of 30 short tons (27.2 MT) per day. To supply this plant, Moorhead planned to tap other local lime deposits, and reportedly surveyed a rail line from Honey Grove to Reeds Gap. However, fertilizer traffic would prove ephemeral for the TVRR. The remainder of the phosphate deposits proved too poor to process efficiently, the plant's output dropping from 2000 short tons (1,814.4 MT) of fertilizer in 1899 to 900 short tons (816.5 MT) in 1900. The company ceased operation in 1904, a great blow to Moorhead and the TVRR, which was now dependent on lumber
and local agricultural traffic.
The railroad's directors continued to contemplate extension. An extensive plan was conceived in January 1897. At the north end, the railroad would extend to Mifflin
, cross the Juniata River
to Mifflintown
, and follow the Selinsgrove and North Branch Railroad's defunct grade to Selinsgrove
. To the south, the line would be extended from Blairs Mills to Burnt Cabins
and McConnellsburg
, and then south to Hancock, Maryland
and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
. The extensions would be built to standard gauge
, and the railroad itself converted.
Such a plan was far beyond the resources of the TVRR and would have required considerable external investment. As part of the program for doing so, a separate corporation, the Tuscarora Railroad, was chartered in January 1898 to build the southern extension from Blairs Mills to McConnellsburg. Considerable grading was done during 1898, and was supposed to be complete to Neelyton by November, with bridges constructed as far south as Nossville. Grading was finished to Burnt Cabins by the end of the year, possibly using some of the grade from the East Broad Top's branch to reach the South Pennsylvania Railroad
. However, no further work was ever done by the company. In 1919, the whole Tuscarora Railroad right-of-way
was sold to the East Broad Top for the construction of their Stanton Rock Spur, and the Tuscarora Railroad's charter eventually expired.
staves, railroad tie
s, tool handles, and other finished lumber, which was then hauled to the railroad and loaded on cars. Shipping points included Honey Grove, East Waterford (the location of Martin's stave mill), and Blairs Mills. The railroad's J.M. Blair was a lumber broker in the latter community, buying and selling lumber from a number of the local loggers and shipping it over the railroad.
The other major lumber broker on the line was Henry Clay Hower, whose large lumberyard in Port Royal received much of the TVRR's traffic. Hower supplied ties and other lumber to the Pennsylvania Railroad. Besides finished lumber, the railroad also shipped tanbark
to Port Royal, to be used by the Oak Extract Company in nearby Newport
. In 1899, it was rumored that the Oak Extract Company would built a new connection from the Newport and Shermans Valley Railroad
to Honey Grove and abandon the TVRR north of there, making it a feeder for tanning operations, but this plan never came to fruition. Some of the timber logged in the valley probably also went to the old Ross Farm phosphate plant, which was converted to the mill of the Nemo Paper Company in 1904, but it only operated for a few years.
In 1905, the East Waterford Lumber Company
erected a sawmill, a double stave mill, and a lath mill on the southwest edge of East Waterford. The company owned timber lands in Kansas Valley and Horse Valley, south and east of the town, and chartered its own logging railroad, the East Waterford and Kansas Valley Railroad, to bring timber to the company's mills. The company's railroad, built with the used rails and equipment of the Perry Lumber Company, was constructed to the same gauge as the Tuscarora Valley, to which it connected. The sawmill, with a capacity of 30,000 board feet per day, was relatively small when compared to its contemporaries elsewhere in Pennsylvania. However, it was sufficient for the East Waterford operation, which shipped over the Tuscarora Valley until 1908. At that time, the logging railroad and facility were sold, dismantled, and shipped to the Midlothian, Maryland
operation of the Juniata Lumber Company (a co-owner of which was the local broker H.C. Hower).
abutments for the railroad's bridges and a creamery and warehouse in Port Royal in 1912. This era also saw a turnover in the railroad's management; after the death of T.S. Moorhead in 1906, all of the other Moorheads disappeared from the board and offices of the railroad. Initially replaced by other local men, the railroad then seems to have fallen into the hands of New York investors, such as Jacob S. Farlee, president from 1910 to 1915. However, locals were still represented on the board of directors, albeit as a minority; for instance, J.M. Blair was vice-president of the railroad during this era. A revival of the Tuscarora Railroad's charter was granted in January 1910 under the influence of the New York group, to extend south to Hancock and the B&O, but the Tuscarora was declared abandoned again in 1912. The financial condition of the Tuscarora Valley continued to deteriorate, and after 1913, it was unable to pay its bonded interest. The railroad was nearly abandoned, but the lumber brokers Blair and Hower bought up the railroad's bonds in early 1915 and gained control of a majority of the stock by 1917. By protecting the unprofitable railroad, they could ensure that their lumber businesses could retain access to what was, as yet, the only means of transportation in the Tuscarora Valley capable of sustaining them.
ShortLine
Short Line is a brand name for three different Coach USA companies, Hudson Transit Lines, Hudson Transit Corporation, and Chenango Valley Bus Lines that provide local, commuter and intercity bus service in lower New York State, primarily along the Route 17 and Southern Tier corridor.-Service...
that operated in central Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
from 1891 to 1934.
Construction and plans for extension
The TVRR was chartered in April 1891 to build from a junction with the Pennsylvania RailroadPennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
at Port Royal
Port Royal, Pennsylvania
Port Royal is a borough in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 977 at the 2000 census.- History :Port Royal was originally named Perrysville, after Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. At the time, the Port Royal post office was located in Saint Tammany town, just across the...
to points south. Concord and Dry Run, in Franklin County
Franklin County, Pennsylvania
As of the census of 2000, there were 129,313 people, 50,633 households, and 36,405 families residing in the county. The population density was 168 people per square mile . There were 53,803 housing units at an average density of 70 per square mile...
, seem to have been the southern termini originally contemplated.
The principal promoters of the new railroad was Thomas S. Moorhead. Moorhead had made a fortune mining phosphate rock in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
in the late 1880s, and had previously been involved in promoting the Susquehanna and Southwest Railway during the early 1880s. It appears that he intended the railroad as an outlet for phosphate deposits located at Ross Farm, along the Tuscarora Creek. Local financial backing was provided by John M. Blair. His father, John H. Blair, had founded Blairs Mills, high up the Tuscarora Creek. John M. was a storekeeper and a wealthy pillar of the community.
The TVRR was surveyed along the east side of the valley, against the edge of Tuscarora Mountain
Tuscarora Mountain
Tuscoarora Mountain is a mountain ridge of the Appalachian Mountains in the Ridge and Valley province in central Pennsylvania. It reaches its highest point on Big Mountain at 2,458 feet above sea level....
. Grading began in the summer of 1892 and the railroad was finished from Port Royal to East Waterford
East Waterford, Pennsylvania
East Waterford is a census-designated place that is part of Tuscarora Township in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 185 at the 2000 census.-Geography:East Waterford is located at ....
on February 1, 1893. Here a temporary halt to construction occurred, possibly due to the straitened financial conditions during the Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
. The use of 3 feet (914.4 mm) gauge
Rail gauge
Track gauge or rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the heads of the two load bearing rails that make up a single railway line. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a standard gauge of . Wider gauges are called broad gauge; smaller gauges, narrow gauge. Break-of-gauge refers...
may have been a measure of economy, as well; on the other hand, the gauge was a popular one with several nearby short lines, such as the East Broad Top Railroad
East Broad Top Railroad
The East Broad Top Railroad and Coal Company is a for-profit heritage railroad headquartered in Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania, north of Interstate 76 and south of U.S. Route 22, the William Penn Highway. The railroad operates excursion trains on a seasonal schedule.-History:The East Broad Top...
. The railroad shop was temporarily housed in the basement of a grist mill in East Waterford, and a turntable was built there.
The announcement of the Path Valley Railroad
Path Valley Railroad
The Path Valley Railroad was a proposed narrow gauge railroad in Perry and Franklin Counties, Pennsylvania, USA.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...
in late 1893 temporarily balked plans for a southward extension of the TVRR through Concord Narrows into Franklin County. However, by early 1894, the TVRR had begun selling bonds to finance a further southward extension. In April 1895, grading was finished between East Waterford and Blairs Mills, and regular service began in late 1895. The new extension passed by Ross Farm, and in early 1896, Moorhead made the first public announcement of the phosphate deposits there and his formation of the Pennsylvania Phosphate Company to exploit them. Two miles of grading had also been done between Concord and Dry Run.
The initial workings at Ross Farm were apparently successful, as Moorhead erected a larger processing plant in 1898. At 310 feet (94.5 m) long, 156 feet (47.5 m) wide, and five stories high, it is believed to be the largest commercial building ever built in Juniata County
Juniata County, Pennsylvania
Juniata County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of 2010, the population was 24,636. Juniata County was created on March 2, 1831, from part of Mifflin County and named for the Juniata River. Its county seat is Mifflintown....
, and had a capacity of 30 short tons (27.2 MT) per day. To supply this plant, Moorhead planned to tap other local lime deposits, and reportedly surveyed a rail line from Honey Grove to Reeds Gap. However, fertilizer traffic would prove ephemeral for the TVRR. The remainder of the phosphate deposits proved too poor to process efficiently, the plant's output dropping from 2000 short tons (1,814.4 MT) of fertilizer in 1899 to 900 short tons (816.5 MT) in 1900. The company ceased operation in 1904, a great blow to Moorhead and the TVRR, which was now dependent on lumber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
and local agricultural traffic.
The railroad's directors continued to contemplate extension. An extensive plan was conceived in January 1897. At the north end, the railroad would extend to Mifflin
Mifflin, Pennsylvania
Mifflin is a borough in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 627 at the 2000 census.- History :Mifflin was founded as the town of Patterson. At one time, Mifflin, as well as the small community of Denholm lying directly north of the town, was an important stop along the...
, cross the Juniata River
Juniata River
The Juniata River is a tributary of the Susquehanna River, approximately long, in central Pennsylvania in the United States. The river is considered scenic along much of its route, having a broad and shallow course passing through several mountain ridges and steeply-lined water gaps...
to Mifflintown
Mifflintown, Pennsylvania
Mifflintown is a borough in and the county seat of Juniata County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 861 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Mifflintown is located at ....
, and follow the Selinsgrove and North Branch Railroad's defunct grade to Selinsgrove
Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania
Selinsgrove is a borough in Snyder County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1787 by Captain Anthony Selin, who fought with Washington in the Revolutionary War....
. To the south, the line would be extended from Blairs Mills to Burnt Cabins
Burnt Cabins, Pennsylvania
Burnt Cabins is an unincorporated community in Dublin Township, Fulton County, Pennsylvania, United States, at the foot of Tuscarora Mountain. It contains U.S. Route 522 and I-76 ....
and McConnellsburg
McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania
McConnellsburg is a borough in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,073 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Fulton County....
, and then south to Hancock, Maryland
Hancock, Maryland
Hancock is a town in Washington County, Maryland, United States. The population was 1,725 at the 2000 census. The Western Maryland community is notable for being located at the narrowest part of the state...
and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...
. The extensions would be built to standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
, and the railroad itself converted.
Such a plan was far beyond the resources of the TVRR and would have required considerable external investment. As part of the program for doing so, a separate corporation, the Tuscarora Railroad, was chartered in January 1898 to build the southern extension from Blairs Mills to McConnellsburg. Considerable grading was done during 1898, and was supposed to be complete to Neelyton by November, with bridges constructed as far south as Nossville. Grading was finished to Burnt Cabins by the end of the year, possibly using some of the grade from the East Broad Top's branch to reach the South Pennsylvania Railroad
South Pennsylvania Railroad
The South Pennsylvania Railroad is the name given to two proposed but never completed Pennsylvania railroads in the nineteenth-century. Parts of the right of way for the second South Pennsylvania Railroad were reused for the Pennsylvania Turnpike....
. However, no further work was ever done by the company. In 1919, the whole Tuscarora Railroad right-of-way
Right-of-way (railroad)
A right-of-way is a strip of land that is granted, through an easement or other mechanism, for transportation purposes, such as for a trail, driveway, rail line or highway. A right-of-way is reserved for the purposes of maintenance or expansion of existing services with the right-of-way...
was sold to the East Broad Top for the construction of their Stanton Rock Spur, and the Tuscarora Railroad's charter eventually expired.
Lumber era
With the collapse of phosphate production, lumber rapidly replaced it as the principal freight of the railroad. It peaked in 1900, when the Tuscarora Valley hauled 16024 short tons (14,536.7 MT) of lumber, and would remain high for many years, exceeding other traffic in weight by as much as five to one. Small lumbering operations in the hills surrounding the valley cut timber into mine props, barrelBarrel
A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container, traditionally made of vertical wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. Traditionally, the barrel was a standard size of measure referring to a set capacity or weight of a given commodity. A small barrel is called a keg.For example, a...
staves, railroad tie
Railroad tie
A railroad tie/railway tie , or railway sleeper is a rectangular item used to support the rails in railroad tracks...
s, tool handles, and other finished lumber, which was then hauled to the railroad and loaded on cars. Shipping points included Honey Grove, East Waterford (the location of Martin's stave mill), and Blairs Mills. The railroad's J.M. Blair was a lumber broker in the latter community, buying and selling lumber from a number of the local loggers and shipping it over the railroad.
The other major lumber broker on the line was Henry Clay Hower, whose large lumberyard in Port Royal received much of the TVRR's traffic. Hower supplied ties and other lumber to the Pennsylvania Railroad. Besides finished lumber, the railroad also shipped tanbark
Tanbark
Tanbark is the bark of certain species of tree. It is traditionally used for tanning hides.The words "tanning", "tan," and "tawny" are derived from the Medieval Latin tannare, "to convert into leather."...
to Port Royal, to be used by the Oak Extract Company in nearby Newport
Newport, Pennsylvania
Newport is a borough in Perry County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,506 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Newport is located at ....
. In 1899, it was rumored that the Oak Extract Company would built a new connection from the Newport and Shermans Valley Railroad
Newport and Shermans Valley Railroad
The Newport and Shermans Valley Railroad was a nineteenth century, narrow gauge railroad in Pennsylvania. It ran from Newport, Pennsylvania to New Germantown, Pennsylvania. It carried lumber, and transferred it to the standard gauge Pennsylvania Railroad at Newport...
to Honey Grove and abandon the TVRR north of there, making it a feeder for tanning operations, but this plan never came to fruition. Some of the timber logged in the valley probably also went to the old Ross Farm phosphate plant, which was converted to the mill of the Nemo Paper Company in 1904, but it only operated for a few years.
In 1905, the East Waterford Lumber Company
East Waterford Lumber Company
The East Waterford Lumber Company was an early 20th century company which leased and harvested timberland in Juniata and Perry County, Pennsylvania....
erected a sawmill, a double stave mill, and a lath mill on the southwest edge of East Waterford. The company owned timber lands in Kansas Valley and Horse Valley, south and east of the town, and chartered its own logging railroad, the East Waterford and Kansas Valley Railroad, to bring timber to the company's mills. The company's railroad, built with the used rails and equipment of the Perry Lumber Company, was constructed to the same gauge as the Tuscarora Valley, to which it connected. The sawmill, with a capacity of 30,000 board feet per day, was relatively small when compared to its contemporaries elsewhere in Pennsylvania. However, it was sufficient for the East Waterford operation, which shipped over the Tuscarora Valley until 1908. At that time, the logging railroad and facility were sold, dismantled, and shipped to the Midlothian, Maryland
Midlothian, Maryland
Midlothian is a small unincorporated community in Allegany County, Maryland; at one time called Midlothian Junction. Its ZIP code is 21543.-See also:Regional Businesses...
operation of the Juniata Lumber Company (a co-owner of which was the local broker H.C. Hower).
New York investment
In the first decade of the Twentieth Century, the Tuscarora Valley began to suffer from increased labor expenses and operating costs. The causes are not understood in detail, although they may be attributable in part to capital improvements to the original lightly built narrow-gauge infrastructure, including the construction of concreteConcrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
abutments for the railroad's bridges and a creamery and warehouse in Port Royal in 1912. This era also saw a turnover in the railroad's management; after the death of T.S. Moorhead in 1906, all of the other Moorheads disappeared from the board and offices of the railroad. Initially replaced by other local men, the railroad then seems to have fallen into the hands of New York investors, such as Jacob S. Farlee, president from 1910 to 1915. However, locals were still represented on the board of directors, albeit as a minority; for instance, J.M. Blair was vice-president of the railroad during this era. A revival of the Tuscarora Railroad's charter was granted in January 1910 under the influence of the New York group, to extend south to Hancock and the B&O, but the Tuscarora was declared abandoned again in 1912. The financial condition of the Tuscarora Valley continued to deteriorate, and after 1913, it was unable to pay its bonded interest. The railroad was nearly abandoned, but the lumber brokers Blair and Hower bought up the railroad's bonds in early 1915 and gained control of a majority of the stock by 1917. By protecting the unprofitable railroad, they could ensure that their lumber businesses could retain access to what was, as yet, the only means of transportation in the Tuscarora Valley capable of sustaining them.
Stations
| Name | Mileage | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Port Royal Port Royal, Pennsylvania Port Royal is a borough in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 977 at the 2000 census.- History :Port Royal was originally named Perrysville, after Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. At the time, the Port Royal post office was located in Saint Tammany town, just across the... |
Used PRR station; site of car house, wye, and offices | |
| Old Port | ||
| Turbett | no station facilities | |
| Freedom | no station facilities | |
| Graham | no station facilities | |
| Spruce Hill | Water tank, station | |
| Esh | ||
| Pleasant View | ||
| Warble | ||
| Fort Bingham | ||
| Honey Grove | ||
| Heckman | ||
| East Waterford East Waterford, Pennsylvania East Waterford is a census-designated place that is part of Tuscarora Township in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 185 at the 2000 census.-Geography:East Waterford is located at .... |
Former shops, turntable (removed). Station intact today | |
| Perulack | ||
| Ross Farm | Engine house and shops, water tank | |
| Leonard's Grove | ||
| Waterloo | Station intact today | |
| Blairs Mills | Turntable (later wye), engine house |