 | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Titusville,Pennsylvania |
| Reporting mark | OCTL |
| Locale | Crawford County andVenango County,Pennsylvania |
| Dates of operation | July 18, 1986 (1986-07-18)– |
| Predecessor | Conrail |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)standard gauge |
| Length | 16.5 miles (26.6 km) |
| Other | |
| Website | octrr |
Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TheOil Creek and Titusville Railroad (reporting markOCTL) is atourist railroad that runs fromTitusville to Rynd Farm north ofOil City in theU.S. state ofPennsylvania. TheOil Creek and Titusville Lines (reporting markOCTL) is the designated operator of the railroad, as well as thefreight carrier on the line.
The Oil Creek and Titusville operates over tracks that were originally built as themain line of theBuffalo, New York and Philadelphia Railroad in the 1880s; trackage inTitusville was originally owned by theDunkirk, Allegheny Valley and Pittsburgh Railroad.[1] The Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia was reorganized in 1887 into theWestern New York and Pennsylvania Railroad, which was eventually acquired by thePennsylvania Railroad in 1900. The Pennsylvania was merged with theNew York Central Railroad in 1968 and becamePenn Central. In 1976, Penn Central went bankrupt, along with several other railroads, and was combined intoConrail.
In 1986, the line was acquired from Conrail by the Oil Creek Railway Historical Society, with the first tourist trains running on July 18; freight operations began on September 25, 1986.[1] Briefly, from December 2, 1995 to August 1996, the Oil Creek and Titusville operated over the former Conrail main line betweenMeadville andCorry.[1] The operation and ownership of that line reverted to Conrail before being turned over to theWestern New York and Pennsylvania Railroad.
The OC&T is notable in that it operates the only workingRailway Post Office[2] in theUnited States. For income, it may carry a few freight cars at the end of the passenger cars. The trackage was formerlyConrail and was out of service in 1986 when it was purchased by the founders. The inaugural excursion came in July of that year. The railway travels through theOil Creek State Park on its journey over 13.5 miles (21.7 km) of track. It hauls over 1,000 carloads of freight and 15,000 passengers each year.
Four stations along the line that have been used off and on to present day: Perry Street, Petroleum Centre, Rynd Farm, and Drake Well. It has seven passenger cars converted from powered units and an open-air,gondola car. It has three operating locomotives:MLW M-420 #3568, andAlco S-2's #75 and #85 (theAtlas 50T 00 is not used).
The railway also has acaboose marked O.C.T.R. 10R, plus the Caboose Motel, made up of several cabooses no longer in service.[3]
| Image | No. | Model | Builder | Built | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 3568 | M-420 | Montreal Locomotive Works | 1976 | exSt. Thomas and Eastern Railway[4] exxCanadian National Railway[4] |
_2_(22583309478).jpg) | 85 | S-2 | American Locomotive Company | 1950 | ex South Buffalo Railway 85 |
 | 75 | S-2 | American Locomotive Company | 1947 | ex South Buffalo Railway 75 |
