Dear Old State: Taking the train 'home for the holidays'

Editor's note: This story was originally published in 2014 and features a video with Michael Bezilla, author of "Penn State: An Illustrated History" and now-retired University historian.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Bellefonte Central Railroad (BFC) carried hundreds of Penn State 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.

The station was conveniently located on campus at the corner of Fraser Street and College Avenue, about where Hammond Building now stands.

Students traveling by train would take the BFC to Bellefonte, where they connected with a Pennsylvania Railroad train for the longer journey home. 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.

'Parker's Boat'

One day, the good-natured senior conductor, George "Ross" Parker — who was very well-liked by students — 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, marooned for several hours, leading the students to coin the name "Parker’s Boat" — also an apt moniker because the train was said to rock so much on the bumpy, winding rails that passengers often became seasick.

"Parker's Boat" wove itself into the fabric of Penn State history and traditions — and students' poetry, such in this excerpt from the 1913-14 volume of Froth magazine, author unknown:

I love the sound of the big bass drum,
And the tune of the brass cornet,
I love the sighing of the wind,
And the college yell. You bet!
But the sweetest sound to my welcome ears,
And a far more pleasing sound,
Is the toot, toot, toot of old Parker's train,
When the boat is homeward bound.

Video: Trains were the first step in making Penn State accessible

Learn more about how the Bellefonte Central Railroad connected Penn State with the larger world in this video: