On my garden railway it is always 1960. But what happened before that?
| 1837 | April 4, 1837, a charter is granted for the construction of the Pittsburgh, Kittanning & Warren Railroad along the East Bank of the Allegheny River. |
| 1852 | Construction of the railroad finally
begins at the mouth of Indian Creek near Verona. Progress
northward will continue steadily over the next 18 years. Progress southward is held up by several bitter land
disputes. - A minor mistake by a local blacksmith results in the first of five horse drawn construction cars being delivered in the odd gauge of 42". This leads to a fateful decicision to continue building the railroad to this new gauge On April 14, 1852, the name of the railroad is changed to the Allegheny Valley Railroad. |
| 1853 | The AV takes delivery of it's first two locomotives. 4-4-0 types built by Norris Locomotive Works of Philadelphia |
| 1855 | December 11, 1855, the AV opens for business at the Rosston station. (mouth of Crooked Creek) |
| 1856 | January 23, 1856, the railroad opens for business at the Kittanning Station. |
| 1857 | The panic of 1857 nearly brings and abrupt end to the story before it begins. Construction is halted for several months due to the lack of available credit to continue. |
| 1860 | Kelly Station is built and opened immediately to service the AVRR. |
| 1865 | The Allegheny Valley Railroad extends its tracks to service Monticello Furnace with ore to make iron that is of better quality. A brief oil boom in Armstrong county also leads to increased traffic for a short time. An abundance of natural gas would fuel more sustained growth in other area industries. |
| 1867 | The Allegheny Valley Railroad extends its tracks to the Phillipston, 3 miles north of the mouth of Redbank Creek. Phillipston is to become the main service station for the locomotives along the AVRR. June 25 1867, engine No. 17 is the first engine to make its way to Phillipston. Also William Phillips urges immediate construction on the extension of the AVRR to Brady's Bend . The track is extended and completed to Venango City where it opens for business in December 1867. Arnold station is built in Allegheny County. |
| 1870 | The Allegheny Valley Railroad is completed from Verona to Oil City . Plans to continue south to Pitsburgh are dropped due to still unresolved land disputes. The track opens for use February 2 1870 . |
| 1872 | Standard Oil's rate agreement with other major carriers in the oil region of Venango County leads to increased independent oil traffic on the AV. But by years end the AV would begin to feel Standard's ruthless squeeze, and the board would yield to the inevitable and sign their own agreement with Standard. |
| 1873 | The panic of 1873 would have a lasting effect on the AV. The ironworks at Monticello Furnace closes.The rolling mill and rail works at Brady Bend fails, followed by many other small ironworks along the line. When the economy again improves 3 years later iron and steel production would become concentrated beyond the lower end of the line near Pittsburgh. Coal and coke to supply these mills would become a large source of revenue for the AV |
| 1874 | Redbank Junction is completed. This track branches off the AVRR and travels 5 miles down Redbank Creek to Lawsonham where it then goes northward through Rimersburg to Sligo where it is then called “ Sligo 's Branch”. The Sligo Branch was constructed to harvest the immense lumber and coal resources of Clarion County . |
| 1876 | The reason behind the land dispute becomes apparrent when the standard gauge Pittsburgh and Allegheny is built between Pittsburgh and Verona. It would eventually lay tracks further upriver in an attempt to lure traffic away from the AV as far snorth as New Kensington. |
| 1877 | The Great Railroad Strike in July leads to violence in Pittsburgh against the Pennsylvania Railroad. Traffic on the AV is also severely crippled for nearly a month |
| 1881 | The competing 3 foot gauge Pittsburgh and Western reaches Foxburg. Thomas Kimberly donates the materials for a fine brick station at the village of Coal City, just below Foster. The facility is promply dubbed Kimberly Station. But plans for a larger community fail to materialize. and the station will be little used except as a MoW stop until tourist service begins in 1958 In the fall of the year the Allegheny Valley RR orders 5 identical 10-24E 2-8-0 locomotives from Baldwin to replace their old smaller 1850s engines in freight service. Somewhat similar to class 56s built for the 3 foot gauge Denver & Rio Grande in Colorado, these engines would handle the bulk of heavy traffic into the early Twentieth Century. Dubbed the 'Five Sisters', only #19, which was tranferred to MoW service and renumbered #5 after a 1914 wreck, still survives. |
| 1882-83 | The first two of the 'sisters', #15 and #16 arrive in late 1882. #17 and #18 will follow in mid 1883 |
| 1883 | The 3 foot gauge P&W gains trackage from Foxburg to Mount Jewett after the Pittsburgh Bradford and Buffalo RR fails, leading to further decreases in oil and timber traffic from eastern Clarion County. Only continued financial mismanagement on the P&W keeps it from becoming the dominant competitor |
| 1885 | After a long delay fifth 'sister' #19 is delivered in July of 1885 |
| 1886 | Phillipston's service station among other businesses burn down. Due to the importance of the station, it was quickly rebuilt without hesitation. |
| 1887 | Ford City, named after owner Capt John Baptiste Ford, is formed as a company town to support Pittsburgh Plate Glass Works No 3. The glassworks would eventually become the largest employer in Armstrong County, and a major customer for the AV. |
| 1891 | Borough of Kensington, later New Kensington is layed out and a public sale of lots is held on June 10, 1891. The first large company was the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, which later became Alcoa. Chambers Glass in nearby Arnold opens the same year. |
| 1892 | A dam collapse above Titusville leads to flooding in Oil City, wiping out much of the town The coal town of Johnetta is established. |
| 1893 | Wm Otto's timely appearance rescues the railroad from near certain bankrupcy. |
| 1894 | A coal miners strike in late spring interrupts coal service for almost 2 months |
| 1897 | The AV acquires business car 'Kimberly' for $1 |
| 1898 | United States Sewer Pipe Co works opens in Johnetta to manufacture sewer pipe, bricks, and refractory products. |
| 1900 | Aug 1, 1900 The AV directors refuse an overture from the Pennsylvania Railroad to take over the line. Instead they choose to dual gauge the trackage between Verona and Ford City to better serve the mills in the area. Clarion County timber hauling revenues collapse due to overharvesting |
| 1902 | The Baltimore and Ohio takes control of the failing P&W. The 3 foot gauge line through Foxburg will be standard gauged by 1911. Serious competition has arrived. |
| 1907 | 6 people are killed and 18 injured near Kelly Station when the southbound express passenger train hits a runaway coal gon at 11:30AM on Aug 6, 1907 |
| 1909 | The oil exchange in Oil City closes |
| 1910 | April 7, 1910 a second purchase attempt by the Pennsylvania RR
is
rebuffed. Pennsy President James McCrea, who was once an assistant construction
engineer on the AV from1868-71, is not amused to be rubuffed by his old bosses in
his plan to acquire a more direct route between Pittsburgh and Buffalo
NY Later in the year modern steel bridges are built over the Kiskiminetas River, Redbank Creek, and Mahoning Creek to carry heavier coal trains. |
| 1914 | #19 is badly damaged in a wreck during a December snowstorm. She will be out of service for months. |
| 1915-16 | Construction of the East Brady Tunnel begins. This tunnel's purpose is
to replace the section of the track that traveled 7 miles around the
bend into East Brady. This tunnel cut off 6 miles of the trip and
avoided the high degree bends of the other track. The East Brady Tunnel is completed and opens on May 28, 1916 Summer 1916 - Poor performance after her rebuild causes #19 to be transferred to wreck train and MoW service. Renumbered as #5, she will continue in that role until the early '60s |
| 1917-18 | Construction of Mallet #5 in the AV shops, intended to cope with wartime traffic surge |
| 1919 | Mogul #12 is delivered in March. Originally built by Baldwin
in 1918 for export, she is immediately put into fast passenger service
between Verona and Emlenton Steel strike in September shuts down steelmakers along the line for several months, coal revenues also fall as a result. |
| 1922 | In April a widespread miner's strike led to all of
Pennsylvania's coal mines being shut down tight for the first time in
state history. The strikes would last into the summer of 1923 July 1, 1922 AV shop men strike in sympathy with their brethren on larger roads due to a cut in wages. The bringing in of replacement workers will affect relations between the shop crews and the management for decades. In August 2-4-0 #3 is delivered brand new from Alco. She will handle mail and dairy service between Kittanning and Redbank |
| 1929 | Mar 21, 1929 A gas explosion at the Kinlock Mine at Parnassus destroys the loading tipple also killing 46 miners. Although rebuilt output never reaches previous levels and the mine eventually closes down in 1935 |
| 1930 | June 5, 1930 The now abandoned borough of Johnetta is formally disolved |
| 1939 | Nov 1, 1939 The AVRR quits dedicated passenger operations. Mixed trains continued to serve the area until 1945. |
| 1941 | December 26, 1941 Mallet #8 returns to service. |
| 1943 | In January ex-Reading standard gauge Camelback 0-4-0 #11 is purchased from a broker in Philadelphia to help switch the heavy wartime traffic at the dual gauge Kiskikiminetas Junction. Despite her odd configuration and other shortcomings, she will remain in service there through the summer of 1960 |
| 1946 | Jan 1, 1946 All passenger operations cease. As a result of unrest suppressed during the war years major strikes occurred in factories and mines. The AV was also caught up in a general rail strike in May resulted in all railroads being briefly nationalized by President Truman to end it. |
| 1952 | Ill-fated AV Centenial Customer Appreciation Special cancelled due to national steel strike |
| 1953 | Narrow gauge rails removed between Verona and Ford City. Line is standard gauged to Kittanning in an attempt to reclaim traffic lost to trucks |
| 1956 | Declining revenues due to increased truck traffic, and aging infrastructure lead to talk of abandonment |
| 1957 | October 1957 Mallet #8 is towed into the shops to be evaluated for rebuilding. |
| 1958 | May 30, 1958 Mallet #8 is once again returned to service. Tourist and fantrip passenger train service begins beween Foxburg and Kimberly on weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day |
| 1959 | July 15, 1959 Another large scale steel strike idles mills along the lower AV for 4 months. |