The Everett Railroad is a
shortline and
heritage railroad
A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...
that operates on ex-
Pennsylvania Railroad trackage in the
Hollidaysburg
Hollidaysburg is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in and the county seat of Blair County, Pennsylvania, Blair County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is located on the Juniata River, south of Altoona, Pennsylvania, Altoona and is part of ...
area of the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
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, ...
. It runs
freight train
Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers.
A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) haul ...
s over two separate lines, one from
Brooks Mill and
Sproul, and the other, owned by the Morrison's Cove Railroad, from
Roaring Spring to
Curryville and
Martinsburg.
The affiliated Hollidaysburg and Roaring Spring Railroad , which the Everett Railroad operates both under contract and via
trackage rights
Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies.
Operating
Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may ...
, connects the two segments to each other and to the
Norfolk Southern Railway (ex-
Conrail) in
Hollidaysburg
Hollidaysburg is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in and the county seat of Blair County, Pennsylvania, Blair County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is located on the Juniata River, south of Altoona, Pennsylvania, Altoona and is part of ...
. The Everett Railroad name refers to its former location near
Everett, abandoned in 1982.
[
]
History
The Everett Railroad was incorporated in April 1954 to take over a portion of the Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain Railroad and Coal Company
Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain Railroad (H&BTM) is a former short line railroad company operating passenger and freight service on standard gauge track in south central Pennsylvania.
Operational headquarters were in Huntingdon and Saxton, wit ...
(H&BT) near Everett, which was abandoned in May of that year. The line, which extended north from the end of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Mt. Dallas Branch at Mount Dallas to a point near Tatesville, parallel to PA Route 26, had been constructed from 1859 to 1863 by the Bedford Railroad, which was merged into the H&BT in 1864.
Conrail discontinued service on the then-Mt. Dallas Secondary in October 1982, severing the Everett Railroad's ties to the outside world and forcing its abandonment.
The company was revived in May 1984, when it acquired a part of Conrail's Bedford Secondary between Brooks Mill and Sproul. Completed in 1910 by the Bedford and Hollidaysburg Railroad, a predecessor of the Pennsylvania Railroad, this line had connected to the Mt. Dallas Secondary near Bedford
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...
until 1982.
A second line, the Morrison's Cove Secondary from Roaring Spring to Curryville, along with a short branch into Martinsburg, was acquired by the Morrison's Cove Railroad, organized by local shippers, in mid-1982. The shippers initially contracted with the Allegheny Southern Railway , which operated the line from September 1982 to the end of 1984, but on January 1, 1985, the Everett Railroad took over operations.[ This line had been constructed by the Pennsylvania Railroad itself in 1871.][
Conrail continued to operate the remainder of the Morrison's Cove Secondary, from Roaring Spring through Brooks Mill to ]Hollidaysburg
Hollidaysburg is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in and the county seat of Blair County, Pennsylvania, Blair County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is located on the Juniata River, south of Altoona, Pennsylvania, Altoona and is part of ...
, until Alan W. Maples, owner of the Everett Railroad, organized the Hollidaysburg and Roaring Spring Railroad (H&RS) and bought the line in March 1995.[
Simultaneously, the Everett Railroad acquired ]trackage rights
Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies.
Operating
Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may ...
to Hollidaysburg, and began operating the H&RS under contract.
Rolling stock
Currently rostered locomotives
Formerly rostered locomotives
References
External links
Everett Railroad Company
{{DEFAULTSORT:Everett Railroad
Pennsylvania railroads
Railway companies established in 1954
">Spin-offs of Conrail
1982 establishments in Pennsylvania
American companies established in 1954
American companies established in 1982
Heritage railroads in Pennsylvania