Does anyone know the short story on this line. One source told me it was built from scratch just to haul tourists.

Does any sign of it still exist?

Thanks in advance for any info!

Yes, the PVM was built from scratch and is now 99.44% vanished back into the dirt. I understand some cuts/fills are still there and a few other token reminders.

Ahh, the old Penn-View Mt. My dad took us when we were kids to this place back in the late 1960's. I had my first cab ride in that locomotive. Sloan invited my dad and myself up in for the trip out and back. Still have some photos.




.........Gary

Also my first ride behind steam! But it was behind Baldwin #8, 0-6-0; which is now the disected display locomotive at the Steamtown Museum in Scranton.

#76 came later. The ex Frisco, ex Missippian Ry, ex PVMRR, ex Blairsville Eastern, ex Gettysburg, ex Ohio Central #76 is currently under restoration at the Steam Institute in Owosso MI.

The Penn View Mountain depot (ex Buffalo Rochester & Pittsburgh Rockton PA depot) was moved and rebuilt at both Gettysburg PA and now Kane PA. This depot also suffered fire damage this year about a month after the roundhouse fire.

My first cab ride (as ell as me first train ride) was in Mississippian RR #76. The railroad was freight only in 1961 and I had just started first grade. Mom (13 members of her family worked for PRR in Harrisburg) wanted me to know steam and took out of school for the trip to Amory MS from Jackson MS.

Long story short, I rode from Amory to Fulton in the cab (some 40-odd miles)!

Love my Mom and Dad for that.

Doug vV

Can you imagine building a tourist line from scratch in this day and age? Impact studies, NIMBYS etc....

Exactly what I was thinking too... It would never happen, unless you had millions to throw at the project. (Speaking of which, what ever happened to that line some movie star was going to build in South Dakota or wherever it was? I recall renderings of a trestle they'd proposed. Obviously it never happened, anyone know details?)

As for the PennView Mountrain Railway, I also got my first ride behind full size steam there. I still remember the trip, even though I was quite young at the time. He even had a water tank, which was impressive.

I'm pretty sure there was a switchback on the line, and I recall it went to a place where you could see "the Narrows", which overlooked the PRR (?) mainline in, as the name implies, a narrow valley. It may have been "Jack's Narrows" or maybe my memory is playing tricks on me after 40 some years.

I also rode behind the 0-6-0, and I was sad to find out it had been sliced and diced at Steamtown. At least it's still around, but it it would have been nice to see it operational.

While we're discussing 0-6-0's, for years there was one sitting in the weeds just north of the PA turnpike and Bessemer RR bridges in Harmarville, PA. Anyone know what happened to that one? (I think it was an 0-6-0, if not, it was an 0-4-0)

[/quote]I'm pretty sure there was a switchback on the line, and I recall it went to a place where you could see "the Narrows", which overlooked the PRR (?) mainline in, as the name implies, a narrow valley. It may have been "Jack's Narrows" or maybe my memory is playing tricks on me after 40 some years.[/quote]

Yes, there was a swtchback on the PVM Ry. If my memory is right, the "narrows" you thinking of concerning the PVM Ry. was/is Packsaddle Gap (or something similar). Isn't "Jacks Narrows" the gap at Mount Union, Pa?

Back in the early days of the PVM Ry. Sloan also had ex-PRR diesel-electric railcar 4666 on the PVM property, but I beleive it wasn't operational at the time. Today the 4666 is at the BR&W RR in Ringoes, NJ (where it once operated).

[/quote]While we're discussing 0-6-0's, for years there was one sitting in the weeds just north of the PA turnpike and Bessemer RR bridges in Harmarville, PA. Anyone know what happened to that one? (I think it was an 0-4-0, if not, it was an 0-4-0)[/quote]

Not sure where is Harmarville is, but are you thinking of the ex-PRR 0-6-0 #60 which used to be "in the weeds" in Western Pa. and visable from some highway overpass? Today this locomotive is displayed along the W&W RR. at the RT. 41 crossing in Hockessin, DE. Just a guess.

Regards,
Jim Robinson

I wonder why Sloan never looked into taking over what was left of the H&BTM RR. I know the line is mostly gone now, but then, there was still a good remant of it left.

He's chosen some interesting RR operations to move around.

When the H&BTM quit operations in March of 1954, there was no lag time between the shutdown and the railroad's scrapping.  Hyman-Michaels had everything cut up by late-summer '54, working north from Cypher Siding towards Huntingdon, leaving only the trackage between Long Siding (the H&BT/PRR yard at South Huntingdon) and Huntingdon in place.  The PRR took ownership of that portion.  The Tatesville and Cypher Siding Railroad and Everett Railroad owned the segments between Cypher and Tatesville, and Tatesville and Mt. Dallas, respectively.

I'm not sure when Sloan started work on the Penn View Mountain, but I'm pretty sure it was after that time.  There really wasn't anything available for Sloan to operate by that point.  Even if he'd been interested prior to the H&BTM shut down, I'm not sure that any of the surviving segments would have been available.  The T&CS operation was based on manganese speculation and shipped only a handful of carloads - all coal, and all before 1956 - over its existence.  The Everett was a community-based operation, with all local businessmen and shippers being involved.

What Sloan did get from the H&BT, however, was the Saxton water tank.  He may have gotten other pieces of the infrastructure, too, as many of the structures sat idle for a little while after the scrapping.  The water tank was used on the Penn View Mountain.Sloan did have at least a passing interest in the Everett Railroad in the late 1970s.  This was in the post-excursion, post-sand plant years, when it was a hand-to-mouth as-needed operation.  Nothing became of that, however.

Keith Burkey

2008-09-13; 1206PM: Edited to fix layout

As he related the story to me, Sloan Cornell quit the Penn View because he wanted to get into the freight business. As Keith has related above, the isolated segment of the old H&BT north of Tatesville would not have offered any freight opportunity, but in 1978 Sloan did approach the owners of the Everett Railroad about buying their operation, which at the time was all old H&BT. The Everett board of directors had a somewhat inflated idea of what their railroad was worth and Sloan walked away from the deal, probably wisely.

Sloan bought the Knox & Kane thinking the coal traffic would come back; when that didn't happen he managed to make a living on the glass plants, and when they quit he built track up to the Kinzua Viaduct and turned it into a tourist attraction.

In between Penn View Mountain and K&K, there was the Blairsville & Indiana Railroad, which never got off the ground, and the Gettysburg Railroad, which put Sloan in the freight business in a big way in addition to having a healthy tourist trade.

I understand strip mining has obliterated much of the old Penn View Mountain.

Alan Maples

First attempt posting on this forum - hope it works!

Family visited the Penn View Mountain Railroad on July 27, 1966. Attached are scans of 3 sequential adult tickets and 2 child tickets. Tickets were stamped on the back with the date.

Also scanned are 2 undated travel brochures. I am guessing the black and white one is older then the blue one, but there is no way to tell on the brochures.

I know we have slides of the trip, but finding them at Mom's will be a challenge, and getting them posted will be a bigger challenge for me. Someday, when I find them, I will post as well to preserve the PVMM history.

Circled location shows the remains of the Penn View mountain RR. Can easily be seen by looking at satellite maps of Blairsville Pa and zooming in upclose.

I have video from 8mm film that was taken by my father in the late 1960's of the PVM. I haven't looked at it in a while, but I recall that the power was an ex Duquense Slag 0-6-0. It was an easy drive from Murrysville and we went there a number of times before I went off to college, and the family moved to California.

Did you notice the ticket prices? $1.00 for adults, .50 for kids?

Talk about moving the decimal point to the right over time....