This article details a trip on the Allegheny Valley Railroad from Pittsburgh to Driftwood in 1874 shortly after the railroad had been extended in Elk County. The journal was prepared by a man named "Richard" who provides an interesting assessment of the business and industrial development along the route. It was published in the Huntingdon [PA] Journal dated 20 May 1874.
Jottings on the rail. Pittsburgh, May 14, 1874.
Neglecting to look at the report of “Old Probabilities,” we boarded the Buffalo Express at 7 AM on Monday, the 4th inst., and soon found ourselves in a clever rain storm of whose duration we knew nothing and cared less. We had determined on a trip to the lumber counties of Cameron, Clinton and Elk, having selected this time on account of the reported opening of the eastern extension of the Allegheny Valley R. R., known as the “Low Grade Division” about which we will have something more to say, good, bad or indifferent as we progress.
The first object of interest that attracts the traveler on the line of the Valley road is the monument of Bishop Bowman near Arnold station, about nineteen miles from the city. Here Dr. Samuel Bowman, assistant Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, is buried on the very spot where he died suddenly of chronic affection of the heart in July 1861. . . .
We pass Kittanning, a considerable village in Armstrong county where justice is dealt out in meagre quantities, or to suit purchasers. But we cannot delay to recount all the glory of this ancient town, important to itself more than the rest of the world. The river scenery is very fine all along the road and were it not that we were compelled to change cars at Red Bank, 64 miles north of Pittsburgh, and “change cars for Brookville, Reynoldsville and Driftwood” greets our ears. So bidding good-bye to the main line of the Valley road, we take up the low grade division. Red Bank is not blest with first-class hotels though we found the “Floating Echo” (a boat restaurant) quite as good a place for refreshing the inner man as most of the hotels with far greater pretensions.
After a delay of one hour and a quarter we are aboard the first through passenger train for Driftwood. Two and a half miles up the right bank of Red Bank Creek brings us to Sligo Junction, where passengers leave via Sligo branch for the furnace owned by Lyon, Shorb & Co. and bearing the name of the branch railway, and thence by stage to Clarion. Owing to some disturbance this (4th of May) is the last day for trains to Sligo until the difficulties are settled. We understood that Lyon, Shorb & Co. had not subscribed the money to the railroad and advantages gained by them required and hence this coercive measure. This reminds us of a certain Congressman, in your neighboring county, who could subscribe largely to the building of certain branches provided the cash came from somebody else.
The first town of any size is Bethlehem, population probably 400, and seems to be growing rapidly. Brookville is situated about one mile from the railroad, and as we did not stop we cannot write of this place at present.
Reynoldsville, the next town of any consequence, is quite a new place, and is laid out with a great waste of ink, and beautiful avenues and elegant church edifices – all on paper. The place is improving but can never amount to very much as the railroad will decree otherwise as soon as all the town lots pass into the hands of innocent holders. Falls Creek, some miles up the road, will be the point where the Clearfield road will intersect the Bennett Branch, and at that place the railroad authorities have invested and will improve it.
The North Fork and Sandy Lick form the Red Bank [creek] at Brookville. The road follows Sandy Lick to the top of the mountain where it strikes Bennett’s Branch and follows it down to Driftwood. There are five tunnels on this road. The largest, Summit Tunnel, being 2,000 feet long. These are all made for double track, and except for two, are being arched indeed are nearly completed. The two referred to are cut through solid rock and present a beautiful arch of nature’s own handiwork. The bridges are all double track and of the best masonry. This road opens up a fine country, rich in lumber, minerals and coal, in addition to being the great highway from the oil country to the eastern market, avoiding the high grades of the PRR [Pennsylvania Railroad]. Pittsburgh is thus brought into close and direct communication with the lumbering regions of the Susquehanna and its branches. The distance from our city to Driftwood is 174 miles making only 100 miles of a difference to Philadelphia and New York as compared with the PRR. Richard.
