With the absorption of the other line The Pennsylvania  Railroad became one of the lines through Clermont. To Clermont residents it was always called the “Pennsy”.  A station and a house for the station agent were built immediately. The first station agent for the railroad was W. E. Butts. He and his wife were the first occupants of the house. Ben H. Clark later became agent and also occupied the house. The last station agent and also an occupant was Archie Mencer.

                 1. Station agent's House      2. Odd Fellows Hall

                 3. Decker's Boarding House 4. Pennsy Railroad Station

The railroad approached Clermont from the East following the stream, “ Red Mill Brook”, from present day Colegrove. Two Miles East of the Station a large pond was built known to all as the “Pennsy Pond”.

For many years the pond served as the official swimming hole for the village. It was very deep and a tragedy occurred there on July 4, 1930. Two boys from the Fuller family drown there. One was in danger and the other brother swam out to save him but was pulled under and both drowned.  For many years after that it continued to serve as a swimming place local kids and a few adults. It also was a favorite fishing place for many youngsters with a nice supply of sunfish, bluegills, and bullheads available.

          From here the railroad continued to the village and then developed three branches. One turned to the right and served as a siding for the clay factory. Another went to the right of the present day Alfieri property to Johnsonburg and points beyond. The other branch passed to the left and eventually joined the Shawmut railroad at was known as the “Y”.

                   There were seven sets of tracks just east of the station that served as sidings for storing railroad cars. Beyond these toward the Pennsy pond and across from the famous “Patch” was the turntable used by the line for turning engines around.

          Several important functions were carried out by this railroad. It served as a hauler of both lumber and coal from the Clermont area. The first Buffalo Coal Company mine was located near the WNY and P Railroad station, and opened in 1874. This was the largest and most profitable mine worked in McKean County . Within a short time it was averaging 500 tons daily, and large trains leaving for the Buffalo docks were common.

It also provided passenger service to residents both toward New York State and to Johnsonburg and points beyond.  Furthermore it served the Shawmut railroad as a road for shipping coal from their coal and lumber from St. Marys and other areas. For the loading of lumber from the Clermont area W. E. Butts constructed a place for loading lumber onto the railroad cars. It was known as “Butt’s Dock” and was actually a siding where the logs could be loaded on the railroad cars. It is shown in this picture:

Even in winter the railroad operated in the hauling of coal and logs.  With harsh winters at that time with huge amounts of snow it was necessary to keep the tracks clean.  A train engine was used for this purpose as seen in the next photo.

With the numerous trains that were passing through it was inevitable that some accidents would result. One of these occurred right along side of Butt’s store as shown in the following photo.

With the dwindling supply of lumber and the poor supply of coal the Pennsy withdrew its lines from the area in the early 1930’s.