Allegany County Trolley History

By Ronald G. Taylor

One of the modes of transportation in Allegany County that is nearly forgotten is the Trolley. It was never owned by Allegany County interests, rather provided by investors from Cattaraugus County. To understand the Trolley in Allegany County we must accept a short history of the “Olean Street Railway Co.”

In 1880 street transportation came to Olean, a year later than it had arrived at it’s neighboring city south, Bradford, PA. The horsecar line connected the downtown business district with the Erie Railroad Depot and was only 7,750 feet long. It was built to 3’6” gauge and operated until 1891 when a line was started on West State Street using standard gauge to prepare in advance for electric railway and connected Olean with Allegany. Permission to cross the Erie RR tracks was refused and the track ended opposite St. Bonaventure University. In 1893 the track was laid sufficiently to allow the first electric car to run and permission finally received to cross the Erie tracks and the service extended in 1894 to Allegany.

Three years later, in 1897 an inaugural run was made into Portville. In 1901 the railway proposed to extend this line to Bolivar in Allegany County. In 1902 construction started from Portville to Ceres and on to Bolivar. These extensions made it necessary to gain more electric power than the Olean plant could produce and a second electric generating station was built near Ceres. At this time, steam was furnished by a bank of boilers fired by natural gas. The Ceres plant was located adjacent to a 600 acre natural gas field owned by the railway. By 1908 a new station was built at the Ceres site to use the natural gas supply derived from the company’s wells and piped to the site. Power from this plant supplied direct current for the Bolivar & Shinglehouse branches. It is said that in 1904, service between Olean & Ceres was 40 minutes and 80 minutes to Bolivar from Olean. At this same period, track service was operating between Olean & Bradford by the Olean, Rock City & Bradford RR. That company went into receivership in 1906 and reorganized as Rock City RR. By year’s end, it combined with Olean Street Railway and became known as Olean Street Railway Company. Three days later, on Nov. 17, 1906 this company combined with Bradford Street Railroad to form the WESTERN NEW YORK & PENNSYLVANIA TRACTION COMPANY.

Note: Newspapers reported that plans were being made to extend the line from Bolivar to Wellsville. Those plans never materialized.

With the diminishing lumber & oil resources in the area coupled with the increase of motor vehicles caused the filing of receivership in 1918. In 1921 the railway company was sold and reorganized as OLEAN, BRADFORD SALAMANCA RAILWAY COMPANY. During 1925 the railway company formed a bus line which started replacing the trolley.

The line between Ceres and Bolivar was abandoned in 1926 and in 1927 the balance of the Ceres line with most of the other lines the following year. The OLEAN STREET RAILWAY COMPANY became a separate locally owned company and serviced Olean until 1928.

For additional reading on this subject I recommend the book, “WESTERN NEW YORK & PENNSYLVANIA TRACTION” by Benson W. Rohrbeck; 1991 published by Ben Rohrbeck Traction Publications; 1003 N. Chester Road; West Chester, PA 19380. He provides many excellent trolley pictures and detailed information about the traction systems of NY & PA.

Full credit for any facts & pictures is given to Mr. Rohrbeck. I used excerpts here to entice you to read his book.