Central Pennsylvania History: Ferney Mountain Railroad (Clinton County)

Remnants of the Ferney Mountain Railroad along Ferney Run
Author's Photo

Ferney, Clinton County is a place probably few have heard of and even fewer have actually been to. Hidden away on the north bank of the West Branch of the Susquehanna between Hyner and Farrandsville, Ferney joins three other remote hamlets on that side of the river, Richie, Glen Union, and Whetham.

Today, all of them are mere collections of seasonal camps with few permanent residents. You don't just happen to pass through these places, reaching them requires visitors to leave the safety of paved roads and cell service and navigate a narrow gravel road sandwiched between the railroad tracks and river bank.

All four of these localities are remnants of the region's logging era, when logs still floated down the river and the rhythmic sound of cross-cut saws echoed from the rugged hollows. The earliest recorded logging along the waters of Ferney Run, the namesake of the community, was in 1820 by William Richie. Oxen and other beasts of burden skidded logs from the woods to the river or to small local mills, as was typical of logging during this era. Logging on an industrial scale was still several decades and technological advancements away.

A 1920's topo map of Ferney and Ferney Run
Image Retrieved From: https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/

Over half a century later, the era of industrial logging was well underway. In 1890, Daniel Shepp of Tamaqua, PA arrived at Ferney to remove prop timber from along Ferney Run and its hollows. Much of the more valuable white pine and hemlock had already been removed. Small diameter trees left behind had little use for lumber, but could be utilized for tunnel props in coal mines.

A coal mine with prop timber holding the ceiling

Technology had progressed since William Richie first logged Ferney Run. The iron horse, once confined to the mainlines of railroads, were now wandering the woods and hollows. These new logging locomotives used a series of gears to turn the wheels, providing the necessary torque to climb steep grades with heavy loads, albeit much slower than a standard engine. Timber tracts that were once deemed inaccessible were now within reach of the lumbermen.

Shepp constructed a narrow-gauge railroad beginning near Ferney Station on the Pennsylvania Railroad and continuing along Ferney Run into the woods. Spurs branched out into the steep hollows on either side of the stream. Shepp brought with him a small Shay locomotive, one of the most popular of the geared engine designs. Engine No. 258 is the locomotive believed to have been used. He then established the line as the Ferney Mountain Railroad.

Shay No. 258 before it arrived at Ferney
Image Retrieved From:gearedsteam.com

   Records in several contemporary railroad journals indicate that the line was 21 miles long and connected to Waterville in Lycoming County. It was heralded as a shortcut between the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central whose tracks ran along Pine Creek. Passenger and ticket agents were listed on records to handle those aspect of the operation. However, none of this had any basis in reality. The railroad never reached Waterville and no official passenger service was never offered (or probably ever planned). In all, the tracks stretched about six miles into the middle of nowhere. Establishing itself as an passenger railroad entitled the managers of the operation to receive railroad passes to ride free on any mainline railroad of their choosing. Apparently officials never caught on.

   Logging is itself a dangerous occupation, railroad logging was even more so. An incident on the Ferney Mountain Railroad is a perfect example of the dangers that could befall an unfortunate lumberman. On November 17, 1890, eight lumbermen had just finished the day's work in Dark Hollow, about one mile from the mouth of Ferney Run. To return to the boarding house near the station, the men jumped on a log car and given that the hollow was more than sufficiently steep, allowed gravity to propel them down the hill. To help you imagine how steep Dark Hollow is, the top of the hollow is at 1600 ft. elevation; the bottom where it meets Ferney Run is at a little below 900ft.

   After rolling some distance, the speed of the car began to increase dramatically. One of the men turned the handbrake on the car to the point of locking the wheels, however wet rails from a drizzling rain denied this attempt to check their speed. Their situation became more precarious with every passing second. Meanwhile, Engine No. 258 and its crew were at the bottom of the hollow replenishing the water supply before picking up loaded cars.

   Back on the speeding log car, the men had two choices: ride it out or jump. Half of the men decided to leap for their lives, the rest held fast on the car. Seconds after the men jumped, the log car reached the bottom of the hollow where the engine was sitting. In a tremendous crash, the log car struck the locomotive and splintered into pieces, sending it's occupants flying through the air. Reportedly, the impact was so great that it moved the parked locomotive backwards the length of itself.

A portion of the grade at Dark Hollow looking uphill.
Notice how steep!
Author's Photo

   When everything settled back down to Earth. Two men were dead and a third was fatally injured. The dead men were from the group who had stayed with the car on its journey to disaster. Oscar P. Grugan was the mortally injured man. He had jumped from the car before it crashed but had landed amongst some rocks, fracturing his skull. The rest of men suffered serious injuries and though crippling, were not life threatening.

   Alerting a doctor to tend to the injured required a five mile hike to Farrandsville, as the closest telegraph office was located there. It wasn't until later in the evening that doctors arrived to help ease the pain of the injured. The coroner from Lock Haven was also notified to make preparations for the deceased. The bodies of the two men were shipped back to their homes for burial. Oscar Grugan, who lived just across the West Branch from Ferney, clung to life for a month before passing away on Christmas Eve. He was 24 years old. His body was laid to rest in the nearby Glen Union Cemetery.

   In the logging industry, events such as this were nothing new and happened quite regularly. Death or crippling injury lurked in just about every aspect of the job. For the lumbermen, the reward at the end of the season outweighed such dangers.

   This acceptance was shared by mangers of logging operations. Replacement workers were plentiful and equipment could be repaired. Engine No. 258 was patched up and operations continued. By 1894, the last trees were cut and hauled from the woods. The tracks were ripped up and the equipment sold off. Now out of work, the lumbermen moved on to the next cutting site to begin the cycle anew.

Engine No. 258 was sold to a lumber operation in Northumberland County. Though there is no evidence that No. 258 was considered "jinxed" by crews, what happened after the engine arrived at this new operation puts it in the running for this title.

By design, Shays had all of their gearing exposed along the right side of the locomotive. A man walking too close to the engine could easily have their clothing snagged and thus be pulled into the whirling gears. This exact fate befell a man who was working near No. 258. Luckily, the engine was stopped before he was fatally injured. Other men rushed back to camp to grab tools to free the trapped man. Apparently the engineer thought he could free the man sooner by moving the engine. However, the engineer moved in the wrong direction and before anything could be done, the poor man was pulled further into the gears. He later died from his injuries.

There isn't a whole lot left of Ferney in the modern day; only one house remains. When Daniel Shepp arrived to log the area, Ferney was comprised of a whopping four houses. Little of the Ferney Mountain Railroad remains visible. Like most prop timber railroads, only minimal grading was done. Tracks were usually laid right in the dirt or along streambeds that then erased their existence after repeated seasonal floods. Exploration revealed that grading was still evident in a few spots along Ferney Run and Dark Hollow. Though slowly fading away, the Ferney Mountain Railroad will continue to be an interesting chapter in the lumber history of Clinton County.