Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 1, 2009

The Altoona and Beech Creek Railroad was a narrow gauge railroad in Blair and Cambria counties, Pennsylvania, which operated during the late 19th and early 20th century. It carried passenger traffic up from the vicinity of Altoona to Wopsononock and coal and timber down from Wopsononock and Dougherty to Altoona. Originally constructed to develop coal mines and resort traffic atop the Allegheny Plateau, it became involved in a complicated and ultimately unsuccessful scheme to break the Pennsylvania Railroad's control over the Clearfield Coalfield. Never very profitable, it went through several reorganizations, the last in 1913. Conversion to standard gauge in 1916 did not improve the situation, and the railroad was abandoned in 1921.