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The Oklahoma Central Railroad, (OCR) earlier the Oklahoma Central ''Railway'', was a railroad operating in the U.S. state of Oklahoma from 1907 to 1917. It was formed by Dorset Carter of Purcell, Indian Territory,〔Cammalleri, Joseph A. "Selections From ''Meade's Manual'' Oklahoma Central", http://www.atsfry.com/easternarchive/meades/okcentrl.htm〕 and other business interests in 1904 as the Canadian Valley and Western Railway. On August 19, 1905 the name was changed to Oklahoma Central Railway. Construction was started in Lehigh, Oklahoma, in 1906 and was completed to Chickasha, Oklahoma, in 1908. The route was primarily constructed to transport coal from the mines at Lehigh to Purcell in order to service steam locomotives on the Santa Fe, which maintained a division point at that location. The OCR trackage consisted of from Lehigh to Chickasha that included the stations of Lehigh, Ada, Vanoss, Stratford, Byars, Rosedale, Purcell, Washington, Cole, Blanchard, Middelberg, Tabler, and Chickasha. In addition, a branch extended from a point west of Lehigh into additional coal mines in Coal County. The primary sources of revenue included transport of passengers and express, coal, cotton and cotton by-products, livestock, and building materials. After 1908 trains were operated as mixed trains. ==History== Financing for the OCR was largely provided by investors on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, through a bond issue backed by veteran financial writer Frederik Van Oss. Carter, who was a prominent lawyer, banker, and developer in Purcell, I.T., approached Van Oss through a group of Chicago banking acquaintances and secured an initial issue of $852,000. Construction of the line began in late 1905 at Lehigh by the Canadian Valley Construction Company, which was also owned by Carter unbeknownst to the Dutch financiers. Preliminary cost estimates were quickly shown to be inadequate due to unexpected quantities of hard rock to be removed. The line was constructed with a maximum gradient of 2% and to Class I standards, despite being a short line. Suspecting that a finance scam may have been underfoot, Van Oss sent a representative, Gerrit Middelberg, to Purcell to monitor the construction of the road and operations of the company. Middelberg's colorful letters belie a distaste for the living conditions and cuisine of the frontier, and a deep suspicion of Mr. Carter. In one letter he declares, "it is now apparent that the forces behind the railway and the construction company are one and the same." Van Oss refused to send additional funds, and construction crews camped a few miles west of Blanchard while waiting for additional rails to arrive. The community that developed from this camp was named Middelberg, in an apparent attempt to curry favor with the hard-lined Dutch overseer. In addition to the dummy construction company that was "building" the line, the OCR also involved itself in forced real estate developments. Rather than constructing its road through existing townships, the OCR routed two or three miles (5 km) away from the community. Management would then negotiate with local farmers to purchase land (using bond notes supplied by the Dutch) and then plat a new town around the railroad. The communities were given the option of purchasing the new lots (for cash) or attempting to survive without rail service. This practice was well documented by the Chickasaw News in 1906, a newspaper from McGee, I.T., which was relocated by this process three miles (5 km) to south and is now called Stratford. This also may have occurred at Blanchard. The OCR went into receivership in June 1908 and Asa E. Ramsey was appointed as receiver. Trains were reduced to mixed service (passenger and freight on the same train), and cost-cutting measures were introduced. Unfortunately, the coal-burning steam locomotives of the Santa Fe had primarily switched to fuel oil, and the coal traffic from Lehigh became less profitable. A coal miner's strike in 1911 ended the mines and the OCR lost a major component of its revenue stream. On May 27, 1914, the Santa Fe obtained a five year lease agreement with a $2,000,000 purchase option.〔"Santa Fe Gets Oklahoma Road," ''The New York Times'', Page 10, May 28, 1914〕 Unable to meet its mounting construction debt, the line was sold to the Santa Fe in 1917 for 25 cents on each $1000 bond note, and was merged into the Santa Fe in 1942. Tracks from Lehigh to Ada and Purcell to Byars were removed in 1934, and Purcell-Chickasha in 1941.〔Veenendaal, Jr., Augustus J., Oklahoma Historical Society, "Oklahoma Central Railroad," ''Oklahoma Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/O/OK023.html〕〔Burris, George W., Oklahoma Historical Society, "Reminiscences of Old Stonewall," ''Chronicles of Oklahoma'', Volume 20, No. 2, June, 1942, Page 154, http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v020/v020p152.html〕 The segment from Byars to Ada was operated as a branch until 1971. Chickasha to Cole trackage was removed in 1956, and Cole to Purcell was abandoned in 1964. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Oklahoma Central Railroad (1914–42)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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