Wellsville, Addison and Galeton Railroad

Infobox SG rail
railroad_name=Wellsville, Addison and Galeton Railroad
logo_filename=
logo_size=
marks=WAG
locale=Pennsylvania, New York
start_year=1954
end_year=1979
predecessor_line=B&O
successor_line=abandoned
old_gauge=
hq_city=

The Wellsville, Addison and Galeton Railroad reporting mark|WAG was formed in 1954 to operate a section of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 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 purchase of the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad in 1932, and abandoned in stages from 1970 to 1979. It is known as the operator of a set of GE centercab diesels supplemented by F7 locomotives in later years.

Acquisitions and abandonments

The original section of the line consisted in the main of two lines originating from Galeton, Pennsylvania. One ran northwest to Wellsville, New York, where it connected to the Erie Railroad; the other ran northeast to Addison, New York and also connected to the Erie. Two short segments completed the trackage, one running east to Ansonia, Pennsylvania and a connection with the New York Central System, and another southwest to Burrows, representing the stub end of the former connection to the B&O. This totalled 91 miles of trackage and was sold for $250,000, along with six ex-B&S steam locomotives, four cabooses, and a miscellany of work equipment, to the H. E. Salzberg Company, which operated a number of other short lines. Operations began in 1956.

The future of the line was driven by line conditions on the one hand and traffic on the other. Major customers over the years included a Sinclair refinery in Wellsville and tanneries in Elkland and Westfield (both in PA on the line to Addison). These latter supplied the sobriquet of "The Sole Leather Line", which was painted on some equipment.

The first line to go was the stub branch to Burrows, which had never had any significant traffic and was abandoned as soon as operations began. It was followed in 1960 by the section from Elkville to Addison, which had no on-line customers and was imperiled by a weakening bridge.

In 1964 the line was enlarged by the purchase of the Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad (C&PA), which crossed the WAG line at Newfield Junction on the Wellsville line. This line saw light operations until 1970, and it was abandoned along with the entire line to Wellsville in 1973.

Flooding was a major issue in the early 1970s, including damage from the remnants of Hurricane Agnes. By this point the railroad had been reduced to a 40 mile line running from Galeton to Elkland, with a branch (and its only outside connection) to Ansonia. A fire destroyed the Elkland tannery in 1972, and after more floods the railroad filed for abandonment in 1975. Approval to abandon was granted by the ICC in 1978, and the final freight ran on March 13, 1979. The line remained open until November to retrieve equipment and ship locomotives to various buyers.

Motive power and other equipment

The B&O supplied six class E-60 Consolidations (built in 1907-1908) as part of the original sale. The new railroad intended to use diesel power instead, and only one of the six (#3127) was ever lettered for the WAG. However, the first diesels purchased, a pair of Whitcomb 75-tonners, proved inadequate for the grades on the Wellsville line, and so the steamers were pressed into service briefly at the opening of the line, only to be scrapped in 1955-56.

More adequate power came in as a series of General Electric centercab models. The first, a 50-ton unit, served briefly at the opening of the line; then in 1955 a pair of 125-ton units were purchased from Ford, to be joined by five 132-ton units the following year. These were retired in stages through the 1960s, and all except #s 1700 and 1800 were scrapped in 1969.

As the centercabs wore out they were replaced by a series of F7 units, the first of which came from General Electric in 1968. A total of eight were operated, including one B unit and an FP7A purchased in 1972. The first two were transferred to the Louisiana and North West Railroad, another Salzberg line, in 1968; the remainder survived to the end of service and were sold to various other lines.

Two of the six cabooses joined the F7s on the trip to Louisiana; the others lasted to the end of service, and at least three survive. No other cabooses were operated. Like a number of short lines in the late 1950s, the WAG made a profitable business out of cars in interchange service. This began with a purchase of 78 wooden boxcars, and eventually 761 cars were in service. These cars, already obsolescent, grew less profitable through the years, and the refusal of Penn Central to renew a lease of 300 wooden cars put an end to their use, though metal-sided cars remained in service.

Surviving equipment

The WAG was beset by fire and flood over the years, and little physical evidence of the line remains. However, three of the F7 units went to museums (lettered, however, for other lines), and two were included in a group which ended up with the Connecticut Department of Transportation (currently stored on the Naugatuck Railroad). Three of the line's cabooses are known to survive in private ownership. Former snowplow X-3710 is currently undergoing restoration at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum.

References

* cite web
url = http://www.personal.psu.edu/tss109/WAG/homepage/index.html
title = Wellsville Addison & Galeton Railroad: The Sole Leather Line
accessdate = 2008-01-03