Product Details
| Company |
Huntingdon & Broad Top Mountain Railroad & Coal Company
|
| Certificate Type |
Common/Preferred Stock
|
| Date Issued |
March 29, 1933 (grey)
March 27, 1930 (orange, green) |
| Canceled |
Yes
|
| Printer |
Franklin-Lee Divison of the American Bank Note Company
|
| Signatures |
Hand signed
|
|
Approximate Size
|
11 1/4" (w) by 8" (h)
|
Product Images
|
Show the exact certificate you will receive |
|
Authentic
|
Yes
|
| Additional Details |
Issued to - but not signed by - Charles D. Barney
|
Historical Context
The Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain Railroad and Coal Company was chartered on May 6, 1852, and organized on January 10, 1853. The purpose of the line was to provide a rail link from Huntingdon to Bedford, and to provide a competitive alternate route to local coal producers to break the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's monopoly on coal that was being shipped from the Cumberland, Maryland, area. The existence of high quality semi-bituminous coal in the Broad Top Mountain region was known since colonial times. Before the railroad, wagon or pole barge was the only practical method of bringing the coal from the remote region to market.
The 31 mile portion of the main line from Huntingdon to Hopewell, via Saxton and Riddlesburg, was completed in 1855. On February 3, 1859, the Bedford Railroad Company was chartered to provide a railroad connection for Bedford, and was incorporated February 19, 1859. This company, with financial assistance from the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), built a line from Mount Dallas to Hopewell in July 1863, connecting with the H&BTM. It was merged into the H&BTM on August 17, 1864. Total track mileage at the company's height was just over 72 miles.
Coal Branches
A number of branches were built to serve the Broad Top coal fields, beginning as soon as the railroad reached the area in 1853–1855.
Shoups Run Branch — from Saxton to Broad Top City via Coalmont and Dudley. It was extended to Barnettstown, near Dudley, in 1856. Passenger service was operated on this branch between 1859 and 1917, from Saxton to Dudley only.
Coalmont Branch — from Coalmont to Hickory Hill
Miller's Run Branch — from Shoups Branch between Coalmont and Dudley to Kenrock and beyond along Miller's Run. It was built in 1908.
Six Mile Run Branch — from Riddlesburg to North Point via Defiance and Coaldale The branch was opened to Defiance in 1862 and subsequently extended.
Shreeves Run Branch — from North Point to Finleyville
Sandy Run Branch — from Hopewell to the Garlick Mine via Langdondale
Long's Run Branch — from Langdondale to Kearney. The branch was opened in 1883.
Kimber Run Branch — from south of Hopewell at the confluence of Kimber Run and the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River up Broad Top Mountain. This branch lasted only a few years at the beginning of the 20th century.
Interchanges
The H&BTM connected with the PRR at Huntingdon, and with the Bedford and Bridgeport Railroad at Mount Dallas. It operated the B&B via lease in 1871, however the PRR, which had provided the majority of financial backing for the B&B's construction, took over operation of the B&B the following year. The H&BTM would continue to operate passenger service via trackage rights to Bedford over the B&B until 1953, but from 1872 onwards, its southern freight terminus was at Mount Dallas. The B&B was under complete control of the PRR from 1872 onwards but was separated from the contiguous PRR system until 1910, when they completed their Bedford Division between Cessna and Brookes Mills. The H&BTM served as a PRR bridge line for traffic between its two end points until that time. After 1910, the majority of bridge traffic was shifted to the PRR's Bedford Division.
The H&BTM also supported some minor industrial lines, mostly logging railroads and iron ore, as well as the coal-hauling Juniata and Southern Railway, which connected at Marklesburg. Glendale, the terminus of the Sandy Run Branch, originally was an interchange with the narrow gauge Reichley Brothers logging railroad, which operated near Wells Tannery in Fulton County. When the branch was extended from Glendale up Broad Top Mountain in the early 1920s to access the Garlick Mine, the Reichleys abandoned their right of way on the western slope of the mountain and moved their interchange point to the community of Reichley, the location of the brothers' sawmill.
Though similar in name, there was no formal interchange connection or business relationship between the H&BTM and the narrow gauge East Broad Top Railroad. Through the Juniata and Southern Railroad, a physical connection existed at Jacobs, but its doubtful that any cargo was exchanged between the two railroads.
Later History
The railroad was at its height in the last decades of the 19th century and the pre-World War I period of the 20th century. The completion of the Bedford Division allowed the PRR to divert most of the lucrative through traffic from the Cumberland area away from the H&BTM. The decline of the Broad Top Mountain coal fields, the maturity of construction bonds, and many ill-advised right of way improvements and equipment purchases took their financial toll. The Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain Railroad declared bankruptcy on October 11, 1953, operated its last passenger train in November 1953, and ceased operations on March 31, 1954.
The Everett Railroad took over the southernmost four miles of H&BTM trackage, between Tatesville and Mount Dallas on April 1, 1954. They operated until 1982, when they closed due to Conrail's abandonment of the remainder of the Bedford Division, by then known as the Conrail's Bedford and Mount Dallas Branches. The trackage was removed in 1985.
The railroad's trackage in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad. The PRR and its successors Penn Central (PC) and Conrail (CR) operated the track as a means of accessing an industrial park in the Smithfield portion of Huntingdon. Though the northern portion of the trackage remains, it has not been used since the late 1990s.
Related Collections
Charles D. Barney
This piece is issued to - but not signed by - Charles D. Barney.
Barney was a member of the Huntingdon Valley Country Club and for a time served as the club's Treasurer.
Barney was born in Sandusky, Ohio, the son of a grain merchant. Barney attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan when the American Civil War broke out. Barney's older brother was killed and at the end of 1862, Barney was permitted by his family to enlist in the U.S. Army. After the war, Barney worked briefly as a clerk at a bank in Sandusky.
After two years, Barney moved to Philadelphia, where he married Laura E. Cooke, the daughter of prominent Philadelphia financier Jay Cooke, joining the firm of Jay Cooke & Company Following the collapse of his father-in-law's Philadelphia banking house, in 1873, Barney reorganized the firm as Chas. D. Barney & Co. Barney's brother-in-law, Jay Cooke, Jr., joined the new firm as a minority partner.
Barney retired from day-to-day control of the firm in 1906 but remained involved through the 1930s. In 1938, Charles D. Barney & Co. and Edward B. Smith & Co. merged to form Smith Barney & Co.
Barney died in 1945 at the age of 101 at Elkins Park, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia. At the time of his death, Barney was among the oldest living veterans of the American Civil War.
Barney was a director of the Union League of Philadelphia.
