Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern Railroad

by Ken Clark

Overview

The Pittsburg (no "h"), Shawmut & Northern Railroad was described by locals as a railroad that "started nowhere and ended no place, with a lot of nothing in between," although it actually linked the coal mines of Elk County, Pennsylvania, with markets in Cattaraugus, Allegany, and Steuben Counties in central and western New York State. Always an underdog, the Class I line went into bankruptcy a mere five years after its corporate birth, holding the record for the longest receivership of any American railroad at 42 years. Always starved for cash, it limped along with outdated and tired equipment, yet it never failed to meet its payroll. It was scrapped completely in 1947.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467117265
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	08/15/2016
Series:	Images of Rail
Edition description:
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	665,938
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Ken Clark, who grew up along the old Shawmut tracks in Olean, New York, is a local historian and a lifelong devotee of the Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern. He is an avid volunteer at the Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern Railroad Historical Society in Angelica, New York. He is also the society's webmaster and a regular contributor to the society's newsletter, the Cannonball. Clark has compiled the best photographs from the society's archive in this stunning look at the "Pretty Slow and Noisy."

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 6

Introduction 7

1 The Shawmut in New York State 11

2 The Shawmut in Pennsylvania 53

3 Motive Power and Rolling Stock 83

4 The Shawmut Mining Company 117

Bibliography and Index 126

About the Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern Historical Society 127