State College RailRoad Sites

Here are a few active (at least not torn down) RR sites near State College, PA.

Railroad Companies

Bellefonte Historical Railroad, Bellefonte, PA
This group runs one (or two depending on maintanence) Budd Rail Diesel Car (RDC). The cars are open for riders at a nominal fee. Excursions run on Saturday and Sunday thru most of the year. Ticketing is handled at the train station off High Street by the tracks. Most scheduled runs start and end at the station in Bellefonte. Length of any particular run may be limited by track conditions.

Summer schedule runs start May 30 and end at Labor day. Runs go to Tyrone, Curtin Village, Unionville and Lemont.

Winter runs are scheduled as time permits. Generally there are afternoon runs to Curtin Village and Unionville.

Fares depend on destination and range from $6.00 to $8.00 for adults and from $3.00 to $4.00 for children.

Further information is available by calling +1 814 355 0311.
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Nittany and Bald Eagle Railroad, Bellefonte, PA

(Photo courtesy of Mark Wurst)
This short-line freight hauler moves loads from the Conrail Main in Tyrone to sites along the Bald Eagle branch (x-PC xx-PRR) and Nittany branch (x-Bellefonte Central xx-PC xxx-PRR). They are responsible for the right-of-way upkeep and grade crossing maintanence.
A railfan site with more information: http://www.railroad.net/short_line/nber/nber.html .

Revenue producing sites

Corning Glass Works, State College, PA
This site requires large quantities of sand, recycled crushed glass and other processing chemicals which are conveniently deliverd in pneumatic center-flow hoppers. The plant has its own shunting engine which can move empties to a nearby siding at Nittany Summit (across from Sears at the Nittany Mall) and push full loads into place for use.
Also visable at this site (as of Nov. 1994) is the old roadbed of a spur which used to also provide rolls of newspaper for the local Centre Daily Times. The direction of the spur was not conducive to Corning's shunting operations and was reversed to the present direction in the late 1980s after the newspaper stopped shipments by rail due to storage space problems.
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Lezzer Lumber, State College, PA
This site takes deliveries of spine cars loaded with wood and boxcars loaded with steel and shingles. They offload the railcars into on-site storage areas and then distribute to other local Lezzer stores via truck.
The spur which serves this site was installed in the early 1980s with the aid of a pre-assembled turnout unit. Carefull observers at the site will notice the change in rail height as well as the factory dimensioned ties used here.
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Centre Concrete, State College, PA
This plant takes delivery of Lime and Portland Cement from pneumatic center-flow hoppers. Deliveries are stored in large silos on-site.
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Inoperative (for railroad use) sites

The Grainery, Lemont, PA
A wooden structure on Mountain Street which was used to transfer grain from local farmers' vehicles to rail cars until approximatly 1955. The name implies one use, but this building was also used to bring coal loads in for local distribution. The rails are supported on large timbers below each rail without cross ties so that hopper doors could be opened to drop coal to bunkers below.
From the 1950s thru the 1970s it was used as an office for a local heating oil company. Boy Scout Troop 67 used it for storage after that time.
A local group was formed to purchase this property when the previous owners had decided to offer it for sale. The group hopes to restore it to "tourist" quality and safety.
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Lemont Train Station, Lemont, PA
The train station in Lemont dates from the late 1800s and even though it no longer has tracks adjacent to the structure, it is obvious where they were on the East side, and the corner cut on the building's West side indicates the freight track that was there also. The West side track extended across the street to a parallel loading ramp which was paved to allow unloading of large farm implements and other heavy objects from flat cars and box cars alike. In the early 1980s, the Post Office moved onto the site of the old loading ramp, and the siding track that fed the Grainery.
The structure has been modified to include a basement with a ramp leading down where the West loading dock and track used to be attached. The main floor houses Forster's hobby shop which carries primarily Lionel electric trains.
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The Gamble Mill, Bellefonte, PA
This structure used to house a mill which was powered by water pressure from the stream which flows directly past the building. It is presently a resturant serving light lunches and moderate dinners.
It is apparent that the mill used to take and or deliver goods by rail, as the remains of a loading dock are quite visable. The parking lot encloses some partially burried rails which also appear to have served the site.
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Agway, State College, PA
This facility used to take deliveries of seed, fertilizer and other farm supplies by rail. The rails were pulled in the early 1970s. The grade for the roadbed is still obvious crossing West College Avenue. The buildings and storage silos are obviously aligned for service from rail cars.
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PSU Power Plant, University Park, PA
This facility used to receive hopper car loads of coal, but now is only serviced by truck. On site one notices the truck scale is an obvious modification from a train car scale. Even the auger feed point by the side of the building still has rail sections as structural elements, but a front-loader is all that moves over them now.
The rails were pulled in the early 1970s (after damage to Bellefonte Central's bridges from hurricane Agnes in 1972). An interesting side-effect of this track spur was the restriction on the shape of the Applied Sciences Building, where the North-East corner was "cut" to allow clearance for train loads:

This effect (and some of the railroad grade) is still visable as of January, 1997.
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Bus Station/Depot, State College, PA
This structure has not been heavily modified from the time of its last use as a train station. Busses now pull into the area where the platform used to wait for unloading students and townfolk alike.
The rails were partially pulled in the early 1970s and some areas were paved over. The end loading ramp and bumper next to the Post House were the last to be removed in the late 1980s as Penn State reworked the parking lot for its new engineering shop building. Slightly prior to that, there were 2 or 3 sets of tracks still showing their railheads thru the pavement of Atherton Street. A renovation of that street after the state completed re-routing Rt. 322 finally removed the rails, curb cuts and grade modifications.
The grade from the station west is now paved as a bike path and continues behind O.W. Houtz and past the PSU Blue Golf Course.
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A map and table data for Active and Abandoned Rail Line Data for Centre County from the PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Back to John Balogh's Train Page.

Last updated February 4, 1998.
John Balogh