Others come for new experiences – graceful white tail deer crossing the trail or grazing in fields, a rush of wings from turkey or grouse, pastures and clover in the morning, new mown hay in the afternoon, cool shady quiet in the evening. Some were born here and come to remember, reconnect and recharge. Visitors come to experience the quiet, the nature, the ease of a country bike ride or a calm stroll through the countryside. Neighbors might stroll from Lucinda to Snydersburg to visit, or bike from Leeper to Crown. Cross country runners train, others take brisk walks for easy exercise. The trail is used by the people who live along it, and by those from elsewhere seeking serenity in rural landscapes. It stays on the ridges the railroad builders avoided the slopes and hollows, winding through the countryside to keep the grades as gentle as possible. The Rail 66 Country Trail is a different experience. Many rail trails follow river valleys, and they have their charms. The property includes the original Lucinda Railway Station, which had been preserved by Gene Lander of Lucinda with help from history teacher Terry Moore and students from North Clarion High School. Headwaters then put Rail 66 in charge of the 24 miles of the Clarion County trail. Last year, the Headwaters Charitable Trust purchased all 74 miles of the rail line in Clarion County, Forest, Elk and McKean Counties to Kinzua Bridge State Park. That group is now Rail 66 Country Trail Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The people of the neighborhood liked the trail and soon a community group formed to support and further develop it. The line was purchased by the Kovalchick Corporation and the rails and ties were salvaged.Īl Lander of Lucinda leased four miles of the rail bed property from Kovalchick and paved it through the Lucinda-Snydersburg area for easy hiking, jogging and bicycling. After a tornado toppled a section of the Kinzua Bridge in 2003, the Knox and Kane ceased operations.
Jewett to the Kinzua Bridge, one of the highest railroad bridges east of the Mississippi. When these industries declined, the Knox and Kane Railroad acquired the B&O right of way.īeginning in 1982, the Knox and Kane took tourist excursions from Marienville through Kane and Mt. For most of the 20th Century the B&O shipped coal, lumber, and freight from mines, forests and local glass factories. That line became the standard-gauge Northern Division of the Baltimore and Ohio, and ran from Pittsburgh to Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y. The Rail 66 Country Trail follows the path of the narrow-gauge Pittsburgh and Western Railroad, built in the late 1800s. From there it will roughly parallel Route 66 north through the villages of Lucinda, Snydersburg, Leeper, Crown and Vowinckel to become part of a 74-mile trail to the famous Kinzua Bridge. When finished, it will start at a place once called Clarion Junction, west of Clarion in the village of Marianne. The Rail 66 Country Trail is Clarion County’s part of that trail project.
Instead, the old B&O is finding new life as the region’s newest rail trail. As the age of rail was ending in Northwest Pennsylvania, entrepreneurs and communities tried to keep the B&O Northern Division alive as a railroad, but it was not to be.
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