Altoona and Beech Creek Railroad
Defunct narrow-gauge railroad in Pennsylvania / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Altoona and Beech Creek Railroad was a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railroad in Pennsylvania that operated during the late ninteeth and early twentieth centuries. It carried passenger traffic from the vicinity of Altoona to Wopsononock and coal and timber from Wopsononock and Dougherty to Altoona.
Originally constructed to facilitate the development of coal mines and resorts atop the Allegheny Plateau, it became involved in a complicated and ultimately unsuccessful scheme to break the Pennsylvania Railroad's control over the Clearfield Coalfield.
Never very profitable, it went through several reorganizations, the last in 1913. Conversion to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge in 1916 did not improve the situation, and the railroad was abandoned in 1919.