PRR Cresson Branch - "Clearfield Cluster"

1904 USGS Patton quadrangle and 1903 USGS Curwensville quadrangle maps show the line from Cresson Pa. to Patton, Pa. as PRR (Cambria & Clearfield Div.), then as NYC&HR (Pa. Div.) onward to Mahaffey, Pa. Branch line from Patton to Carrolltown appears to also be NYC&HR. The Hasting Branch on the stretch between Patton and Mahaffey, however, is identified as PRR (C&C Div.).

Are these two official U.S. Government maps in error? If not, when and why did the PRR obtain the trackage?

The "Clearfield Cluster" is very difficult to understand and I will admit to being a beginner. As a matter of fact, I just returned from Clearfield / Curwinsville this evening exploring and trying to understand how things worked.

The Cambria and Clearfield accessed the Clearfield Coal District from Cresson up towards LaJose and beyond to the northwest. This was one of two primary PRR controlled accesses into the region, the other being the Tyrone & Clearfield out of Tyrone into Clearfield and beyond to Grampian. PRR operations were out of Osceola Mills and NYC / PC / CR / Corman out of the NYC yard at Clearfield. The C&C may have been out oof Cresson, but I do not know for sure.

The NYC was represented by the Beech Creek lines, one from over the mountain via Snowshoe and the Moshannon viaduct (still standing sans rails north of I-80) and later via the River Line through Karthaus to Keating and onto the PRR's P&E towards Lockhaven.

The NYC had isolated trackage between Spangler and Patton accessed apparently out of Mahaffrey via PRR trackage rights and also out of Cherry Tree to Spangler via PRR. The Branch from Garway to Hastings was PRR (C&C).

Due to the lucrative coal depostits and various legal actions and agreements there was much cooperation here between the two rival roads. NYC was dependent on PRR to access various branches and also to access the region on the low grade River Line by operating over PRR (Philadelphia & Erie) through Renovo. They also had rights over BR&P (B&O) westward out of Clearfield to "CB" the Junction of the line down to Cherry Tree near Curwinsville and thence west to Falls Creek (west of Dubois) where they ran over PRR's Low Grade to Rose Siding just west of Brookville and thence onto a spectacular mountain railroad to Ashtabula. This NYC patchwork of lines linked Reading Merchandise freights from Philly west to Cleveland and beyond and sucked down Clearfield coal to RDG destinations.

For more info contact the Clearfield Historical Society and look for a book titled "Clearfield, Today and Tomorrow" - Railroads of the Area by editor George A. Scott.

I have been informed by knowledgeable sources that the USGS maps are in error. The area in the vicinity of Mahaffey has been referred to as a Spaghetti Bowl, due to all the overlapping tracks from the B&O, PRR and NYC. And, just to confuse the issue, there was the jointly-owned Cherry Tree & Dixonville Railroad, whose corporate existence outlasted both of its parents (the CT&D wasn't merged into PC until 1971, some four years after the PRR/NYC merger).

Thanks for your input.

The CT&D was a joint NYC & PRR track same as the line from Cherry Tree to Spangler section of now Northern Cambria, PA.
I live next to the NYC line where their highest point of the system was, Carrolltown. I look outback and see the old ROW lol.

While the CT&D was most definitely a joint operation between the PRR and the NYC, the line between Cherry Tree and Spangler was 100% owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Cactus Jack wrote:For more info contact the Clearfield Historical Society and look for a book titled "Clearfield, Today and Tomorrow" - Railroads of the Area by editor George A. Scott.

Also: http://www.amazon.com/Clearfield-Today- ... B0006S2YO6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

-otto-