You may have already seen this, but here's some information that I posted in a thread in the New York State forum titled "Salamanca Question" about the former Oil City-Olean branch and its use during the construction of the Kinzua Dam.
Rick, thanks for the photo! The book I referenced was loaned to me by my brother-unfortunately the photos in the book were some rather grainy black and whites. Having grown up in Warren County, PA this topic is always of interest to me. However, I was less than 10 years old at the time of the Kinzua Dam dedication so my memories are a little vague.
"For those of you who may be interested in such things, I just finished reading a book titled Kinzua From Cornplanter to the Corps by William N. Hoover, copyright 2004.
A couple of points of interest as it relates to the final days of the railroad and the construction of the dam:
The passenger train that provided service to the dam dedication originated in Oil City and was made up of 2 locomotives and 18 passenger cars, carrying 1,400 passengers. This was on Oct. 22, 1960. Supposedly this was the first passenger train on the line in at least 30 years. I recall boarding this train with my parents and younger brother in Warren for the short ride to Big Bend where the dedication ceremony was held.
Regarding freight service on the line, the book has this to say on pages 147 & 148:
"Freight traffic on the Pennsylvania Railroad route from Warren to Olean via Kinzua officially ended August 1, 1962. This freight line had been in use twice a day. Pennsylvania Railroad received a $20,250,000 settlement from the US Government for these 28.5 miles of line. The Pennsylvania Railroad abandoned this line beginning one-half mile downstream from the dam site.
Regular freight traffic had been discontinued, but the railroad line was not to be deserted entirely at this time. Now its sole purpose was to provide construction materials for the dam. In March of 1963, Hunkin-Conkey Construction of Cleveland, Ohio, began laying rail for their railroad system within the dam construction area. The firm installed a mile of railroad track within the work area.
Construction materials such as sand, gravel and cement for Kinzua Dam were brought to the area by the Pennsylvania Railroad where Hunkin-Conkey had its own locomotive for switching purposes. This switching locomotive worked within the construction area of the dam. The Hunkin-Conkey locomotive brought cars loaded with construction materials off the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks nearby, onto company tracks for distribution in the work area.
During March of 1962, on the west bank of the Allegheny River, an aggregate unloading plant for railroad gondola cars was constructed in preparation for the production of concrete. Sand and gravel from rail cars were dumped into the pit, then conveyed through two large tubes to another conveyor system to a batching plant. The sand and gravel required were shipped to the dam site in special, larger than normal railroad cars. At the batching plant the concrete for the dam was mixed".
There are 2 photos of the passenger train, one showing the 2 RS locomotives in Warren and one of a couple of the passenger cars at the dedication site. There are also some photos of the dam site with railroad cars on the trestle above what was to become the dam and an ariel photo of the concrete mixing and cooling plant showing a number of railroad cars in a 3-track yard."
Last edited by Aa3rt on Thu Sep 09, 2010 10:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
Art Audley, AA3RT
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