UNIVERSITY PARK — The Bellefonte Central Railroad carried hundreds of students out of State College for semester breaks and special events each year from 1892 until about 1920, when buses and automobiles became the favored means of travel.
Students traveling by train would take the BFC to Bellefonte, where they connected with a Pennsylvania Railroad train for the longer journey home. The station was conveniently located on campus at the corner of Fraser Street and College Avenue, about where Hammond Building now stands. With an hour and a quarter required to cover the 19 miles between State College and Bellefonte, the train’s pace was leisurely even by 19th century standards.
One day, the good-natured senior conductor, George “Ross” Parker — standing beside the train in the above photograph — attempted to send the train through a deeply flooded section of the line adjacent to Buffalo Run. The engine stalled, leaving everyone aboard the train ankle deep in water, leading the students to coin the name “Parker’s Boat” — which also was apt because the train was said to rock so much on the rails that passengers often became seasick.
Watch this video to learn more about how the BFC connected Penn State with the larger world:
