Juniata and Southern Railway

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Juniata and Southern Railway
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Locale Pennsylvania
Dates of operation 1913 – 1917
Successor line abandoned
Track gauge ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters Lock Haven?

The Juniata and Southern Railway was a short-lived coal and logging railroad in Central Pennsylvania.

It originated as a private lumbering railroad owned by Caprio and Grieco, contracters in Lock Haven. It was built from Marklesburg about five miles towards timberland near Paradise Furnace, following Great Trough Creek, in 1910.[1]

In 1912, Caprio & Grieco reached an agreement with R.W. Jacobs, then engaged in a dispute with the East Broad Top Railroad over service to the Broad Top Coal and Mineral Company's along Rocky Ridge. A charter was obtained for the Juniata and Southern Railway, which took over Caprio & Grieco's logging line. The new railroad was surveyed as far as Jacobs and the coal mine there, and was projected south towards Hancock, Maryland.[1]

However, the bankruptcy of Jacobs' Broad Top Coal company in 1914 slowed construction, and the railroad did not reach the mines at Jacobs until summer 1915, when a new tipple was built to serve them. It followed Great Trough Creek to the gap between Shirley Knob and Rocky Ridge, running high along the ridge to reach the tipple. Traffic was never heavy on the line, consisting of coal, mine props, and a little local freight and lumber. Never profitable, it was abandoned in 1917, and the East Broad Top built its own siding to the new tipple.[1]

The western part of the railroad was submerged by the formation of Raystown Lake, but part of the roadbed was used for Trough Creek Drive and part of the Terrace Mountain Trail in Trough Creek State Park.[2]

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[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Rainey, Lee; Kyper, Frank [1982] (1996). East Broad Top. Golden West Books, 108–109. ISBN 0-87095-078-9. 
  2. ^ Hiking at Raystown Lake. Retrieved on October 8, 2006.