<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail-aju"><div class="gmail-aCi"><br></div></div><div class="gmail-gs"><div class="gmail-gE gmail-iv gmail-gt"><table class="gmail-cf gmail-gJ" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr class="gmail-acZ"><td class="gmail-gF gmail-gK"><table class="gmail-cf gmail-ix" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td class="gmail-c2"><h3 class="gmail-iw"><br></h3></td></tr></tbody></table></td><td class="gmail-gH gmail-bAk"><div class="gmail-gK">Railroad Magazine, May 1948, the forgotten trolleys of Cambria County.</div><div class="gmail-gK"><br></div><div class="gmail-gK"><div>"The Southern Cambria electric never contemplated going beyond
South Fork with its track east from Johnstown. Yet there was another
road that planned on building east from South Fork, through Portage and
Gallitzin into Altoona, Pa. This was the South Fork-Portage Railway
which started construction east from South Fork along a single track in
1913. Two heavy steel, center door interurbans were ordered from the
Niles Car Company for the start of what was hoped to be an extensive
interurban, with trackage rights over the SCR into Johnstown.</div><div><br></div><div>Actually
what resulted was more of a joke than an interurban line to the riders,
once it commenced operation. Instead of going to Altoona or Gallitzin,
or even Portage, the line traveled a couple miles out of South Fork to
Summerhill, and a mile or so beyond, stopping just a few feet east of
the old Portage Railroad cut. It was graded to Portage, and a bridge was
built at Wilmore, but there the money ran out. So a three-mile single
track was the net result of the originally impressive plan.</div><div><br></div><div>The
two heavy interurbans arrived as ordered from Niles Company. Painted
red, they closely resembled similar equipment used on Kansas City, Clay
County and St. Joe, and on the Trenton-Princeton interurban in New
Jersey. But on a single-tracked shortline with no turnouts, it's not
only difficult to operate two cars -- it's impossible. For there's no
way to get one car past the other without installing helicopter blades.<br></div><div><br></div><div>So
we find Number 1 standing at the east end of the track where it stayed
until abandonment, having never been operated. Car 2 made the short run
back and forth, day after day, on hourly schedule, The ponderous
interurban, with its whistle, arc headlight and impressive pilot was
little short of ridiculous on this three-mile _interurban_ pike. Due to
the center doors, a two-man crew was necessary; so with expected haste,
the road went into receivership, and was reorganized as the Penn Central
Railway in 1918.</div><div><br></div><div>Like the Southern Cambria
Railway, the Penn Central had its troubles with the hilly country,
Coming into South Fork, the right-of-way passed down a heavy grade, and
on several occasions cars glided down the slope into town like
toboggans, knocking down power poles and throwing South Fork into
darkness. On one occasion Number 2 ran off the tracks, clipped off the
front of a store and a barber shop, then swung back into the street and
rolled to a stop beside the Pennsy tracks. A Pennsylvania derrick lifted
the car on to the railroad's track and carted it up to the old Portage
cut where it set it back on its own runway again.</div><div><br></div><div>Finally,
the town put a large bumping block across the rails at the borough
line, stopping the car there. This spelled doom for the Penn Central. In
a matter of weeks, the line had ceased operation."</div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><table class="gmail-cf gmail-gJ" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr class="gmail-acZ"><td class="gmail-gH"><br></td><td class="gmail-gH gmail-acX gmail-bAm" rowspan="2"><br></td></tr></tbody></table><table class="gmail-cf gmail-gJ" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr class="gmail-acZ gmail-xD"></tr></tbody></table><table class="gmail-cf gmail-gJ" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr class="gmail-acZ gmail-xD"><td colspan="3"><table class="gmail-cf gmail-adz" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td class="gmail-ady"><div class="gmail-iw gmail-ajw"><br></div><div id="gmail-:9x5" class="gmail-ajy" tabindex="0"><img class="gmail-ajz" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif" alt=""></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">Daria Phoebe Brashear<br></div><div>AuriStor, Inc<br></div><div><a href="http://dariaphoebe.com" target="_blank">dariaphoebe.com</a><br><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>