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During this time the Pittsburgh and Western railroad was experiencing financial and managerial problems. C.R. Gricold was brought into the P&W railroad as an advisor. Seeing where the railroad was heading, C.R. Gricold and investors from Oil City, Pittsburgh and Butler purchased the P&W railroad. The P&W railroad became owned by a holding company known as the PBOC Group. The PBOC group maintained controlling interests of the P&W and L&GL railroads.
During the 1880’s the L&GL built from Leeper and continued toward Fryburg. This new branch, known as the Fryburg Branch, would add numerous industries to the logging railroad. The new branch was completed by 1890. Along this line, near Strobleton, a Wood Chemical plant was added. This allowed Gricold to ship out more finished goods rather than raw materials.
By WWI the L&GL railroad completed another expansion of the railroad to Elmo, where a connection to the New York Central was made. This connection would be a much shorter and lesser graded line, thus eliminating most of the need to move freight to Brookville. In addition, lines were laid to complete a connection to the Sheffield and Tionesta Railroad in Nebraska. The S&T Railroad started shipping a number of products to Oil City from their line, over the L&GL.
During the Great Depression, hard times fell on many local railroads. P&W and L&GL were no exception. The PBOC group formed a holding company called FCF Inc. This company would now manage the assets of the PBOC group. PBOC sold all assets of P&W and L&GL to FCF Inc, except for a number of logging branches that were to be abandoned. FCF Inc, renamed the old L&GL trackage to the Frills Corners and Fryburg Railroad. PBOC Group filed for Bankruptcy of the L&GL, and was sold to cover outstanding bills.
FCF Inc. talked with many of the local railroads on how to manage the depression and stay solvent. The S&T railroad and the Tionesta Valley railroad were both in financial trouble. A proposal was made to the railroads by FCF Inc. Both railroads would be sold to FCF Inc, where they could be merged into one railroad. Both railroads initially baulked at the proposal, but within a year the S&T was sold to FCF Inc, and 1 year later the Tionesta Valley was sold. The New railroad was known as the Blue Jay Southern, named after the Creek the S&T followed for some of its trackage.
By WWII all trackage owned by FCF Inc was standard gauged. P&W regauged its line to standard gauge by 1900, FC&F RR was build standard gauge, and the BJS completed the change of gauge shortly after it joined FCF.
Things remained status quo for many years. Locomotives were rebuilt or purchased to replace the aging steam fleet. The entire Railroad system was dieselized by the mid 1950’s.
In 1960, J.R. Gricold who was the grandson of C.R. Gricold Jr. took control of FCF Inc. J.R. Gricold’s plan for the railroad corporation was to expand the railroad as much as possible, to service many new customers. By the mid 1960’s, NYC and PRR were talking merger. In these talks, some of the less used branch lines were being abandoned and removed. J.R. Gricold saw this as the railroads opportunity to expand. In 1966, FCF Inc leased the Valley Branch of NYC from Titusville to Dunkirk. This lease was maintained for five years until the railroad was bought in 1971. This new railroad was named the Warren Central railroad. This practice continued for many years, the WC added the PC Chautauqua Branch and Secondary to it’s mainline in 1975, the Reno Branch of CR was added in 1983, and the JF&C branch in 1988. With the addition of all these lines, the Warren Central now connected Ashtabula OH to Buffalo NY. This was accomplished over the shared mainline with Nickle Plate from Dunkirk to Buffalo.
FCF purchased a number of other branches during this time. In 1981 and 82, the Wheatland Secondary and Castle Secondary (Former PRR) were purchased from Conrail. This extended the WC to New Castle. In 1983, FCF purchased the Mountain Division of MEC to from New England Rail. In 1985, two more branches were purchased from MEC, the Rockland Branch and the Calais Branch.
FCF Inc also purchased a few railroads during its history. The first was the Cheswick and Harmar railroad. The CHH was owned and operated by Duquesne Power and Light Company. Duquesne Power and Light sold the railroad when they closed their mine along the CHH. The CHH was served as a staging ground for the Allegheny region switching services. The CHH shops were upgraded to service a number of locomotives (mostly switchers). The CHH served in this capacity for a number of years. The CHH made numerous runs from it’s mainline to some of the major industries in Springdale and Cheswick to perform switching services. The CHH also performs local switching (by contract) for the NS/Conrail
FCF and PCJ companies started a partnership in 1968, when they jointly purchased the Chicago Great Western railroad; PCJ fronting most of the capital for the project (55%), while FCF only invested 45%. This partnership worked well for the two companies, until 1982 when the FCF sold its 45% ownership to PLW.
Another railroad purchased was the Delaware & Hudson railroad in 1984. Norfolk & Western at one time owned the EL and D&H railroads. N&W disbanded the holding company that maintained EL and D&H in 1976. EL was merged into Conrail, and the D&H was left to survive on its own. This was successful until 1984. At that time Guilford industries and FCF Inc were looking into purchasing / merging with D&H. Guilford offered $30,000 to take the D&H, and FCF not only offered more dollars, but the company maintained as a separate entity of FCF Inc.
The C&I Railroad was going through financial hardship when a number of industries closed over its line. When its last industry on the line closed, Mine 33, the line was shut down. All motive power was transferred to other railroads under Bethlehem Steel. In 1994, FCF Inc purchased the C&I Railroad as a tourist line, operating a number of historical locomotives that were preserved through the BCBS foundation. This brought in enough cash flow to stabilize the railroad for a number of years. With the merger of PLW/FCF, much of the area around the CI was available for development. An Intermodel facility was placed near the mainline, thus supplying the Clearfield Connecting Railroad intermodel traffic. A number of other facilities were opened along the line, thus increasing the traffic to a respectable level. Excursions are still held on a regular basis, and a number of historical locomotives are put into regular service daily along the line.
In 1995, J.R. Gricold retired from FCF Inc. New management was elected from within the company, but this management did not have the same philosophies as the old CEO did. FCF Inc started to loose significant money, revenues dropped and costs skyrocketed. The new CEO decided, in an effort to reduce overhead, to sell a number of less profitable lines. The Bradford Southern was sold in two sections. The first part from Foxburg to Kinzua was sold to a private company in Punxatawney, and the second was sold to the PLW Group. In addition, two branches were sold to PLW at a large cash profit. The Chautauqua Branch and Secondary (formerly WC, CR, PC, PRR) was sold to the Allegheny River Valley Railroad. In this transaction the Warren Central would maintain ½ ownership of the railroad from Titusville and Oil City, and also the line from Dunkirk, where it connects to the Valley branch, and Buffalo. This mainline was a shared double track with the Norfolk and Western Railroad. In addition the NYLE railroad was sold to the Meadville Northern, to allow them access to Buffalo.
A number of Stock holders lead by J.R. Gricold attempted to oust the current CEO, but to no avail. The second option was to sell their stock to another company who could take over the railroad. Puttman Locomotive Works purchased enough stock from the Stockholders of FCF Inc, to take over the company. All operations were assumed by PLW by 2001. A. Hartle was placed in charge of the Chautauqua division of PLW. A. Hartle had formerly been J.R. Gricold’s chief operations director.
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