Wellsville, Addison, & Galeton Railroad, north central Pennsylvania

132 ton, ex WAG, ex Ford, now last remaining of its type in Northeast PA' s train museum

Scott, I have a number of those cars. It was an interesting little shortline known as the WAG also as the sole leather line because itserved a bunch of tanneries.  I believe years back model railroader did an article on it...........Paul

Nothing available in 0 except box cars. Well, there was a GE centercab kit from Chooch/Northwest. I have never seen one of them though. In HO their is a caboose that is close, lots of various boxcars, and very nice F units from Bowser. Check out the WAG site on Facebook. Lots of info and photos there.

The WA&G was operated on trackage that was originally the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad and later owned by the B&O railroad. 

The WAG had a couple exB&S steam engines before they dieselized.

I personally am not aware of any books about the WAG, but there is a book about the B&S that touches on the early times of the WAG. It was written by Paul Pietrak and is simply titled "The B&S". It can often be found on eBay with his other subjects about railroads in western NY and northwestern PA.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/B-S-B...0:g:G9EAAOSwyshcT67G

Tom

I must have read that MR issue because l was familiar with "WAG", and "Sole Leather Line".  Probably also saw HO cars. That "Ford" loco is  pictured in a Boardman book, too. Glad one is preserved: are interesting along with BL-2's, and CRI&P AB-6's.  Is there a book on WAG showing steam? .... seems, thankfully, there is, on most muddy paths with rotten ties.

Great info guys!  Really an interesting railroad with awesome looking F units.  This would be a great smaller  o layout idea, short consists, scenic.

In the 1960's and early 1970's WA&G outside-braced wooden boxcars were commonly seen on Santa Fe freight trains out of Los Angeles, where they were loaded with hides from the slaughter houses.

The cars had built dates in the late 1920's, but were very well-maintained and looked much newer that they actually were, except, of course, for their obsolete wooden sides.  They timed out on the 50 year interchange rule, and were no longer seen after the late 1970's.

I have a pair of Atlas O WA&G outside braced boxcars, purchased from a dealer who had a special run produced.

There IS a book dedicated to the WAG....

Wellsville Addison & Galeton Railroad..".Sole Leather Line" by Edward A. Lewis. The book came out in 1971. It has 40 pages ....loaded with black and white photos.  I  off loaded many of those outside braced boxcars at L.H. Lincoln & Son  a manufacturer of chemicals and other tanning industry materials in Coudersport, PA. As Tom (above) explained, The Buffalo & Susquehanna was the original builder of this road. About 1932 the B&S sold out to the B&O. In 1954 Murry M Salzberg bought a portion of the B&O that had been through some tough economic times due to multiple reasons and formed the WAG. The nickname..."The Sole Leather line" had a double entendre. Sole leather was one of the chief products hauled by the WAG that made money. Also...the WAG was the sole railroad in the country that catered primarily to the leather industry. The northern tier of Pennsylvania was dotted with tanneries tanning hides for all kinds of leather uses because of the plentiful supply of one of the basic needs in tanning leather.....hemlock bark.....from the vast forests provided the tannic acid to make leather pliable.

As far as models available in O scale.....there are few. I had an F-7 painted in the WAG scheme, and will do 2 more this winter. I've had  decals made for the outside braced wood boxcars, and the steel boxcars as well. I've also done a 1/2 dozen gondolas for the WAG. As a side note...there is a group of us who study the B&S...WAG and Coudersport & Port Allegany and share our collective knowledge.There have been 2 B&S Symposiums the past two years and a third is scheduled this August near Buffalo N.Y.  If you want more info, contact me ....my profile has my email address.

TOM -  Very interesting info on this topic. Please post some pics of your work.

RMC ran a comprehensive article on the centercabs back in February 1981. Also Trains published a two part article on the railroad February/March 1972. The WAG has also been covered in a number of other publications eg Pennsylvania Short Lines Vol 2 from Morning Sun; Diesel Era May/June 2014 had an article on the F units; NMRA's Bulletin for January 2014 featured plans of four of the depots.

Unfortunately no commercial models of the locomotives are available. Overland who did the centercabs in HO did announce an O scale version that was cancelled due to lack of reservations, something I found surprising given the interest in this railroad. Even if you were not an O scale modeler one of these locomotives sitting in a display case would look nice - they are afterall unique. In addition to the Atlas cars Crown Model Products and Buffalo Creek Graphics/Train Resources produced models of the outside braced boxcar.