The Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and State Line Railroad was a

paper railroad In the United States, a paper railroad is a company in the railroad business that exists "on paper only": as a legal entity which does not own any track, locomotives, or rolling stock. In the early days of railroad construction, paper railroads h ...

planned in northern Pennsylvania. The railroad was incorporated on April 11, 1853, to run from

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 ...

, in Lycoming County, to the New York state line, up Pine Creek through

Tioga Tioga may refer to: United States communities *Tioga, California, former name of Bennettville, California *Tioga, Colorado *Tioga, Florida * Tioga, Iowa *Tioga, Louisiana *Tioga, New York, a town in Tioga County *Tioga County, New York, a county at ...

, Potter and

McKean McKean may refer to: Places * McKean, Pennsylvania * McKean County, Pennsylvania * McKean Island, island in the Phoenix Islands, Republic of Kiribati * McKean Township (disambiguation) Other uses * McKean (surname), people with the surname ''McKea ...

Counties, or turning at Gaines from Pine Creek up Long Run to reach the state line. Alexander H. McHenry, a prominent local surveyor, was one of the original incorporators. Another was John A. Gamble, a resident of Jersey Shore and state Canal Commissioner. The charter was amended on April 4, 1854 to allow the railroad to build up the " third fork of Pine Creek" and down Crooked Creek to connect with the

Tioga Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Eri ...

near

. Another supplement, on March 25, 1856, allowed the railroad to build a branch up the " first fork of Pine Creek" to the Larrys Creek Plank Road at English Center and on up Blockhouse Creek to reach Blossburg, site of coal mines and the terminus of the Tioga Railroad. Despite this legislative activity, little work took place, and the company was quiescent for several years. A revival of the corporation took place in 1864, directed by

Francis Hughes Francis Joseph Sean Hughes (28 February 1956 – 12 May 1981) was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) from Bellaghy, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Hughes was the most wanted man in Northern Ireland until his ar ...

. The charter was amended on April 14, 1864 to permit the construction of the branch to Tioga via Marsh Creek (the "third fork of Pine Creek") and Crooked Creek once the main line had been located as far as Manchester, on the third fork, and also allowed it to construct branches to the

Philadelphia and Erie Railroad The Philadelphia and Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania between 1861 and 1907. It was subsequently merged into the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). History The Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company (also known a ...

from Jersey Shore, or to any other railroad in

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a given ...

or Lycoming Counties. A final amendment to the charter on March 21, 1865 allowed the company to change its name. While a new survey was run, the enterprise again failed to go forward. A local history states that the "name was merged into the

Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Railway The Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Railway was a railroad built in the early 1880s to give the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad access to the coal regions around Clearfield, Pennsylvania, United States. It was originally planned as ...

" in 1870, but that railroad possessed a separate charter, and no corporate merger ever seems to have taken place. That company did succeed in building a line from Jersey Shore up Pine Creek and then Marsh Creek to a junction 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 ...

, which had built south from Tioga. Some grading was done along Pine Creek to the west of Marsh Creek, but was sold to the Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad and never completed as a through line.

Bibliography

References

* * *{{cite book , last=Taber , first=Thomas T. III , year=1987 , title=Railroads of Pennsylvania Encyclopedia and Atlas , publisher=Thomas T. Taber III , ISBN=0-9603398-5-X Defunct Pennsylvania railroads