Lewisburg and Tyrone Railroad - Later Years and Abandonment

Later Years and Abandonment

The Lewisburg and Tyrone Railroad continued to operate as a PRR subsidiary. On June 16, 1913, it was again foreclosed on, and reorganized on December 30, 1915 as the Lewisburg and Tyrone Railway. However, in just over a year, on April 30, 1915, it was merged into the PRR. The two divisions continued to operate as the Fairbrook Branch and the Bellefonte Branch. The Juniata Branch was removed before 1920, and the Fairbrook and Scotia Branches were abandoned in 1927. The Bellefonte Central Railroad received permission to take over the Fairbrook Branch, building down from State College along the likely route of the unbuilt middle division of the L&T, but the PRR's manipulation of rate divisions ensured that the Bellefonte Central could not operate the branch except at a loss. It was embargoed in 1933, and rail was removed in 1941–1942, after a long series of unsuccessful legal proceedings by the Bellefonte Central.

Between 1923 and 1945, there was one significant addition to the former Lewisburg and Tyrone line: the Laurelton Branch was built north from Rutherton Station to serve Laurelton State Village, a state home for the mentally retarded. In 1970, Penn Central abandoned the middle of the Bellefonte Branch from Mifflinburg to Coburn, a section by then bereft of traffic potential. It has since become a rail trail. Further damage by Hurricane Agnes in 1972 resulted in the abandonment of the line from Lemont to Coburn. The remaining segment, from Montandon to Mifflinburg, was operated by Conrail until 1981. In 1983, Conrail sold it to the West Shore Railroad. (It was not sold to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as some have stated.) In 1988, the West Shore bought part of the old Reading line across the river, including a bridge at Milton and abandoned the now-redundant line from Lewisburg to Montandon. However, service ended on the line in 1997, and damage from Hurricane Floyd in 1999 rendered it impassable. Its acquisition for a rail trail in 2008 marked the end of railroading on the Lewisburg and Tyrone. Construction on the Buffalo Valley Rail Trail began in March 2011 and the first phase of construction, from Lewisburg to Mifflinburg, was completed at the end of November 2011.