Re: NNG? - early, major railroad abandonments?

Miles and miles of track was abandoned in the mid-1890's when the extensive network of three foot gauge railroads serving the pioneer oilfields in southwestern New York and northwestern Pennsylvania collapsed just 10 or 15 years after being built. The lines included the Tonawanda Valley & Cuba, Olean, Bradford & Warren, Allegany Central, Kane & Elk, Bradford, Eldred & Cuba and several others. Almost nothing remains to mark the passage of these little railroads save the EBT parlor car, "Orbisonia", built for the Bradford, Bordell & Kinzua RR.

Following the demise of the oilfield rail network, the Pittsburgh, Shawmut & Northern used portions of some of the narrow gauge alignments when it built its standard gauge route. The PS&N was itself abandoned in 1947, after years of bankruptcy.