Jersey Shore, Pine Creek, and Buffalo Railway Company  stock certificate circa 1882.

Nice railroad collectible. Great vignette of valley industry scene with trains in the background. Unissued and cancelled. Larger format at 9" by 13". Dated 1882 from issued examples.

The Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Railway was a railroad built in the early 1880s to give the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad access to the coal regions around Clearfield, Pennsylvania, USA. It was originally planned as part of a connecting line between the East Coast of the United States and Buffalo, New York.

The railroad was incorporated on February 17, 1870 to run from the vicinity of Williamsport to Jersey Shore, up Pine Creek and down the Allegheny River to Port Allegany, as part of a route to Buffalo. On December 1, 1871, Sobieski Ross, one of the JSPC&B's promoters, wrote to George B. McClellan, extolling the advantages of the route. McClellan was then president of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, which shipped petroleum to New York City over the Erie Railway. The Erie's service was felt to be unsatisfactory, and the A&GW potentially interested in a new partner. The eastern end of the A&GW was at Salamanca, New York, about 35 miles from Port Allegany along the Allegheny River, and could easily be extended along the river to connect with the JSPC&B. At Newberry, near Williamsport, traffic could be routed onto the Catawissa Railroad and then the Central Railroad of New Jersey to reach the New York area.

Ross's letter gives a good idea of the route planned. He says that it would descend on the western side via Mill Creek, which meets the Allegheny River at Coudersport. The closest approach to the Pine Creek watershed would leave Mill Creek to climb along Nelson Run. A summit tunnel 2,300 feet long was planned, which would suffice to carry a line from the headwaters of Nelson Run into Splash Dam Hollow, then down Lyman Run to the West Branch Pine Creek, reaching the main stream of Pine Creek at Galeton.

While grading of the JSPC&B began on June 12, 1873, the Panic of 1873 soon brought a halt to construction. The unfinished line appeared in other grandiose rail schemes: the Gaines and State Line Rail Road, incorporated 1875, would have built north from the JSPC&B at Gaines as part of a line to Hornellsville and Geneva, New York. The remainder of the grading was sold off and the Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad opened on the old grade between the two towns in its name in 1882. The JSPC&B continued construction on the route from Newberry to Stokesdale Junction, which ran through the spectacular Pine Creek Gorge.

The new line began regular service on June 4, 1883 and was opened over its whole length on July 1, 1883. However, the New York Central did not choose to operate the JSPC&B directly. On December 18, 1882, it was leased to the Fall Brook Coal Company from the date of completion for twenty years. The company's name was changed to the Pine Creek Railway on February 6, 1884.