Oil City's Wye Bridge: The Final Run To Southside

On this day February 1st, 2024, we witnessed the very last train to ever cross the infamous Wye Bridge before shutting down this part line. Located on the Allegheny River in a city that started the first oil boom, Oil City PA. Doing the honors today is Western New York & Pennsylvania C430 #430 as it slowly takes the final trip across this bridge with one hopper from Altium Packaging, formerly known as Continental Plastic Container.
The Wye Bridge got this name because of the unique feature of having a rail line that splits off in both left and right directions, right in the middle of the bridge, which also was over a river. On each leg of the wye was a connecting line on both legs which is where you get a wye formation. Going left was the continuation of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Chautauqua Branch, (Pittsburgh, Pa to Buffalo, NY). Going right was the PRR Salamanca Branch, (Olean NY to Oil City PA). There is only one other bridge like this in the USA and that’s the Keddie Bridge in Quincy, California.
In 1927 the PRR had begun the process to upgrade the original 1870 built rail bridge, to better handle the bigger and heavier trains of the times. Construction of the new bridge was completed on September 29, 1930. In 1962, the Chautauqua Branch received centralized traffic control (CTC), from the construction of the Kinzua Dam. Which forced the PRR to close their Salamanca Branch. The Federal Government provided financial compensation for loss of the Salamanca Branch which some of the funds was used for the CTC. By December of 1970 Penn Central saw that the Chautauqua Branch was redundant and made a new Pittsburgh to Buffalo route, rerouting traffic via Youngstown and Ashtabula, OH and ripped out the CTC system. This CTC explains roughly why for a branch line, it has signal bridges by the Wye Bridge.
In 1984, Conrail abandoned much of the branchline north of Emlenton, PA after an oil refinery closed. With exception for a portion of the line from, Southside, (Oil City) over the Wye Bridge into the city and up to Titusville, PA. The Titusville to Rynd Farm, PA portion became the Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad in 1986. Rynd Farm to Oil City was retained by Conrail which also included the line back over the Wye Bridge to Southside. This was left in place to serve Continental Plastic Containers. In 1998, Norfolk Southern acquired the route from Conrail, leasing it out to the WNYP in 2007 where it has been operated until today, February 1st 2024.
The reason why the WNYP has stopped serving Altium Packaging, was because of the infrequent use of the line and for the unstable nature that the bridge has become over the years of presumably lack of maintenance of the bridge, so they have deemed it uneconomical to do the necessary repairs to keep the line operational to serve Altium. So as of now, the fate of the Wye Bridge is left in uncertainty.