[PRCo] South Fork - Portage Railway

[Daria Phoebe Brashear]

On Fri, Nov 24, 2017 at 6:58 PM, Stephen Titchenal <stephen at titchenal.com>
wrote:

> Interesting thread that I just started reading.  I checked the PRR
> valuation
> maps from June 1918 and found one location showing the Penn Central
> Railway.
> It shows the electric line following the old portage railway right of way
> east of Summerhill rather than crossing the Conemaugh and go up the hill.
> The section on the map corresponds to attachment 3 tracing the line on the
> penn pilot aerials.  Whether the highway department kept the line from
> being
> used is not clear.
>
>
This looks more like tracing 5? If it were tracing 3, I'd expect at least
some of the streets of Summerhill.
We know the streets were there in 1918 because they were there in 1914:
https://collection1.libraries.psu.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/maps1/id/18639/rec/1

Also, that old channel seems to correspond with a lot shown on the Cambria
County mapping here:
http://gis.cambriacountypa.gov/publicgis1/, as does the "Stone Box Co" lot

I attach a clipping.

And if I'm right, if it's truly tracing 5, you found the end of the line.

The line heading east out of South Fork along Maple Street seems to go up a
> rather steep grade if it followed the right of way traced on the penn pilot
> aerial.  Perhaps it cut over to railroad street (RT 53) at some point? Or
> could it have used A Ct. to come into South Fork?
>

We know it followed a steep grade: the "city fathers" of South Fork
installed a bumping block at the edge of town
because they got tired of runaways.

Also note the grade in the first two pics here:
https://thetrolleydodger.com/tag/south-fork-portage-railway-co/


> Where is the reference to the stationing referred to? 72+85 and 79+15?
> 7285' and 7915'  so the starting station was about 1.4 miles away - which
> is
> about the distance from the center of South Fork especially when taking the
> more circuitous routes.
>
> Next time I get back to the PRRT&HS Archive I will see what else I can
> find.
>
>
Awesome.

-- 
Daria Phoebe Brashear
AuriStor, Inc
dariaphoebe.com



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