# Oil Creek and Titusville excursion train



## whistler (Jul 15, 2003)

The Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad

A trip through “the valley that changed the world”

a brief travelogue

http://octrr.clarion.edu/aboard.htm

Consist -

1 - Alco S-2 engine(1947) coloring is rust(color not condition) with yellow lettering.

2 – A cattle car(open standing room only platform car).

3 – 4 or 5 passenger cars, former electric streetcars. Each car named for a character in the history of Oil Creek.

4 – A railway baggage and mail car, The mail car is still certified to post mark mail. You can send a post card from the train.

Experienced running for a train for the first time. We(my father and I) arrived a few minutes before the 1pm parting of the train from the South Perry Street station in Titusville down into the Oil Creek wilderness area. Okay, so I forgot to bring the directions.

We left a few minutes after 1pm and proceeded through the town of Titusville passing through backyards that have seen generations of trains. Our first stop was the Drake Wells station next to the Drake Wells museum( http://www.drakewell.org ) to pickup additional passengers. From Drake Wells we travel to the next station stop Petroleum Centre Station following Oil Creek down into “the valley that changed the world”. If you have ever seen photos of Mt Saint Helen's after the explosion that is the best comparison of the Oil Creek area during the oil boom. Now it is rich with flora and fauna, observed a deer running through Oil Creek. A place for families to enjoy.

The original railroad(1860's) followed the opposite side of the creek which is now a biking trail. Along the way the guide describes how as the telegraph line that follows the railways present location(the railroad was moved I forget when) was being built they encountered a large boulder that seemed ready to slide into the river. They decided as a precaution to string the telegraph wire close to the boulder. A signal was sent down the line each day to see if the boulder had moved. Finally one day the signal didn't make it and when a train crew went to investigate they found that the boulder had slid into the creek, where it is still sits and slowly sinks into the creek. Since the train at that time traveled much faster than the present train an encounter with the boulder would have been very bad. Through out the journey evidence of the past history of the valley lay hidden behind the green of summer and yet entire towns have disappeared from the face of the land. Not in small part because of the oil that saturated the wood and ground around the towns, once small spark could and did level many of the towns that sprang up and died in that valley. In a few places rebuilt examples of the past history could be seen. Whether wooden oil derricks on a creekside hill, a little white house at the end of the line or two of the four stations on the line.

The journey round trip from South Perry Street Station to Rynd Farm Station and back takes 3+ hours with a 45 minute break if you get off at Petroleum Centre Station or a 20 minute break if you continue to the end of the line.


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