The Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad was a

shortline railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

that operated in

Potter A potter is someone who makes pottery. Potter may also refer to: Places United States *Potter, originally a section on the Alaska Railroad, currently a neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, US * Potter, Arkansas *Potter, Nebraska * Potters, New Je ...

and McKean Counties in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

in the United States between 1882 and 1964. The original line ran along the

Allegheny River The Allegheny River ( ) is a long headwater stream of the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York. The Allegheny River runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border northwesterly into ...

between the boroughs of

Coudersport Coudersport is a borough in and the county seat of Potter County, Pennsylvania. It is located approximately east by south of Erie on the Allegheny River. The population was 2,371 at the 2020 census. History The Coudersport and Port Allegany Ra ...

, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

of Potter County, and Port Allegany in McKean County. The line was originally a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

and converted to in 1889. It was prosperous during a lumber boom in the region and expanded east to

Ulysses Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature. Ulysses may also refer to: People * Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name Places in the United States * Ulysses, Kansas * Ulysse ...

. The lumber boom ended in the early 20th century and the line slowly declined until 1964, when it was purchased by the

Wellsville, Addison and Galeton Railroad The Wellsville, Addison & Galeton Railroad was formed in 1954 to operate a section of Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) trackage which had been isolated from the rest of the system by a 1942 flood. This trackage was acquired by the B&O as part of ...

. The line was finally abandoned in 1970. Today the only surviving building from the railroad is the

Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad Station The Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad Station (also known as the Coudersport Depot) is a railroad station in Coudersport, Pennsylvania in the United States. It was built by the Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad in 1899 and opened in Janua ...

, which was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1976 and serves as the town hall for Coudersport today. As of 2009, much of the C&PA railroad grading can still be found. Railroad bridge abutments exist at Lillibridge Creek in Port Allegany and along the Allegheny River at Coleman Mills, east of Roulette, and east and west of Coudersport. Coudersport Caboose

History

Both Potter and McKean Counties were formed from part of

Lycoming County Lycoming County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 114,188. Its county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. ...

on March 26, 1804. Coudersport was settled in 1807 and incorporated as a borough from Eulalia Township in 1848. Coudersport has served as the

of Potter County since 1835. Port Allegany was settled in 1815 and incorporated as a borough from Liberty Township on April 4, 1882. The original plan for a railroad along the

between Coudersport and Port Allegany was as a part of the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Railway (JSPC&B), which was incorporated on February 17, 1870. The JSPC&B was originally planned to run from the vicinity of Williamsport west to

Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore (known by locals simply as the Shore) is the coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Geographically, the term encompasses about of oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy in the north to Cape May Po ...

, then north up Pine Creek and down the Allegheny River past Coudersport and west to Port Allegany, as part of a larger route to

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. The

Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the "Lon ...

stopped work, although some grading of the proposed line was done in 1874 and 1875. On April 6, 1882 an organizational meeting was held in Olean, NY attended by H.B. Hamlin, F.W. Knox, A.G. Olmstead, A.M. Benton, F.H. Arnold, F.H. Root, C.B. Barse, and C.S. Cary. On May 1, 1882 the C&PA was chartered. The unfinished JSPC&B route along the Allegheny River was acquired for $7000 and construction was carried out that summer with the first train reaching Coudersport on September 7, 1882. The gauge Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad unofficially opened the next day with the formal opening occurring on September 26, 1882. The original line between Coudersport and Port Allegany was initially operated with two

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s. Both locomotives were built by the Brooks Locomotive Works. Engine number one was purchased from the Olean, Bradford & Warren for $3000. Engine number two was purchased from Brooks for $8250 on November 29, 1882. There was a connection with the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad at Port Allegany, and a

Ramsey Car Transfer Apparatus In railroad industry, the Ramsey car-transfer apparatus (Ramsey transfer) was a device to replace bogies on railroad cars to permit transfer of a train between railroad lines with different gauge. The Ramsey transfer existed in a number of vari ...

was added there in 1883 so that lumber from mills on the line could be more easily loaded onto cars. In 1887 a locomotive was added, and in July the next year the stockholders voted to convert the line to , which was done on June 16, 1889. ''Note:'' This includes A subsidiary of the railroad built an extension southeast along Mill Creek to the village of Sweden Valley in Sweden Township in Potter County. By 1895 a new line was extended northeast along the Allegheny River east to Newfield Junction in Ulysses Township, Pennsylvania, where it connected with the

Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad The Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad was a railroad company that formerly operated in western and north central Pennsylvania and western New York. It was created in 1893 by the merger and consolidation of several smaller logging railroads. It o ...

, and then on to a new eastern terminus at the borough of

, where it linked with the

Fall Brook Railway Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...

. The Fall Brook became part of the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

system in 1899, and a year later the western terminus at Port Allegany connected with the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

, so the Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad connected the two major rail lines in that part of Pennsylvania. The Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad began construction on a new brick and sandstone station in Coudersport in 1899 and opened it in January 1900. Coudersport's population grew from 1,525 in 1890 to 3,217 in 1900, and this was also when the lumber industry was at its height. The lumber industry declined soon after, and in 1924 the line from Newfield Junction to Ulysses was abandoned. The western of the line to Port Allegany were destroyed in a July 18, 1942 flood and the railroad connected to other lines only through Newfield Junction after this. In 1964 the railroad was purchased by the

, which finally abandoned it on December 8, 1970. The borough of Coudersport bought the station in 1975 and restored it, adding a new roof. The station was listed on the

on November 21, 1976. As of 2009 it serves as the

police station A police station (sometimes called a "station house" or just "house") is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, al ...

and office building for the borough government of Coudersport, and is the only remaining building from the Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coudersport Port Allegany Railroad Transportation in McKean County, Pennsylvania Transportation in Potter County, Pennsylvania Defunct Pennsylvania railroads Railway companies established in 1882 Railway companies disestablished in 1964 Narrow gauge railroads in Pennsylvania 3 ft gauge railways in the United States American companies disestablished in 1964 American companies established in 1882