Re: Warren Silica Then and Now

Torpedo is in Warren County, which is in the heart of the Pennsylvania oil fields. A lot of abandoned RR right of ways survived because they were used to access the oil leases. It wasn't too long ago that a lot of these fields had multiple pumping jacks runnning from a single large hit and miss engine running off of casing head gas. My grandfather ran leases for Kendall in McKean county up into the early 1950's that used this arrangement,and there were some leases that were still using them up into the 1980's. I remember walking the right of ways of the Bradford Bordell & Kinzua (the sections that the B&O didn't standard gauge) and the Mt. Jewett Kinzua & Riterville as a youth.The latter survived untill the late 1930's, the former disappeared for the most part before WWI, portions as mentioned were standard gauged by the B&O.