Railroad will auction everything it owns

The Kinzua Viaduct bridge was damaged by a tornado and never repaired.

KANE, Pa. (AP) — A northwestern Pennsylvania railroad that carried passengers over what once was the highest and longest railroad bridge in the country is selling off its entire inventory, from steam engines to lanterns, next month.

The Knox & Kane Railroad opened in the early 1980s and started carrying passengers over the 301-foot high, nearly half-mile-long bridge in 1987.

Business was damaged badly by a tornado that knocked down bridge supports over Kinzua Gorge in July 2003. The bridge, known as the Kinzua Viaduct, was never rebuilt, and after the storm, the railroad took passengers only to the gorge and not over it.

“We ran the tourists until October of 2004, but for the two years after the bridge closed, the number of riders declined by 75 percent,” said Teri West, whose father, Sloan Cornell, owns the railroad. “We were just losing way too much money.”

The railroad plans to sell its wares as part of a rolling auction Oct. 10-11 that will stop in Kane, Nansen Junction and Marienville.

At first, the railroad planned to sell most of its wares for scrap. But the items have drawn interest from some smaller railroads, so some of the items will likely continue to be used.

“I’ve had people from Vermont, West Virginia, Maryland and even Vancouver, Canada, contact me about some of the items in the auction,” said Mike Peterson, whose auction and realty company in Jamestown, N.Y., is running the sale.

A tornado packing 94 mph winds ripped apart the viaduct in 30 seconds when anchor bolts gave way and 11 of the bridge’s 20 triangle-shaped support towers were ripped from their brick foundations.

The state decided not to spend an estimated $45 million to rebuild the bridge, about 110 miles northeast of Pittsburgh but has preserved what remains of the structure and plans an interpretive center and museum at Kinzua State Park to tell the story of the rise and fall of the bridge.

The Kinzua Viaduct, originally built with 1,552 tons of iron in 1892, was rebuilt with steel in 1900 to accommodate heavier trains. The last freight train crossed the bridge in 1959, but it remained a draw for about 140,000 tourists a year.

The bridge was destroyed before a construction company could stabilize it for more lasting repairs. The ruins have been taken off the National Register of Historic Places because the bridge was not rebuilt.