Lewisburg and Tyrone Railroad - Lewisburg and Tyrone

Lewisburg and Tyrone

For the time being, the controlling PRR saw little prospect of traffic from completing the railroad. The projected western division of the Lewisburg and Tyrone, however, had considerable promise. A line east from Tyrone to Scotia and the surrounding iron ore region held great potential, particularly when Andrew Carnegie invested in the Scotia deposits. The new line left the PRR main line just east of Tyrone, in the Brush Mountain narrows of the Little Juniata River, and followed Logan Spring Run north to Eyer. Ambling up the broad valley between Bald Eagle Mountain and Tussey Mountain, it turned southeast at Marengo to pierce Gatesburg Ridge by the gap of Halfmoon Creek, which it followed to Spruce Creek below Pennsylvania Furnace. Running north along Spruce Creek and then the Beaver Branch, it ended in a station near Fairbrook by 1881, 19.9 miles (32.0 km) in all. No further construction in the direction of State College and the eastern division was undertaken, but the Scotia Branch swung through another gap in Gatesburg Ridge and ran another 5.3 miles (8.5 km) to reach the vast ore pits of Scotia. In 1882, another short line of 2.03 miles (3.27 km), the Juniata Branch, was built off of the Scotia Branch just north of Gatesburg Ridge to reach ore pits of the Juniata Mining Company west of Scotia.

The PRR began to extend the Lewisburg and Tyrone again in 1884, laying rail west from Spring Mills along Sinking Creek and then out across Penns Valley to Centre Hall and Oak Hall, from which the new line followed Spring Creek to Lemont. The new line, 14.52 miles (23.37 km) long, was opened in 1885. However, it was not now intended to reach the western division. Instead of connecting Lemont and Fairbrook, the PRR incorporated a new company, the Bellefonte, Nittany and Lemont Railroad, to build a line from Lemont to the PRR-owned Bald Eagle Valley Railroad at Bellefonte. The new line, from Montandon to Bellefonte (and on to Milesburg via the Bald Eagle Valley) became the Bellefonte Branch of the PRR, while the disconnected western division was operated as the Fairbrook Branch.

Several tributary branches were also built from the Lewisburg and Tyrone where it cut through the mountains. In 1880, a short branch was laid along Poe Creek to reach a sawmill at Poe Mills. After the area had been timbered and the sawmill burned, the branch was removed in 1904.