The Panama Traction Company was one of the many small railroads that was organized but was never completed or operated. The company was organized in Pennsylvania and in 1916 took over the (non-electrified) Warren County Traction company which operated between Sugar Grove and Youngsville, NY. The company planned to electrify the line and extend it to Jamestown, NY with a branch from Ashville to Panama, NY. Ashville would have given the railroad a connection to other railroads as it was a station on the Erie Railroad Meadville line and was serviced by electric cars from the Jamestown Street Railway and Chautauqua Traction Company.
By 1917 the railroad planned to operate with gasoline-powered self-propelled cars rather than electricity.
The vice-president of the company purchased Panama Rocks, a tourist attraction in Panama in 1916, presumably to use it to encourage passengers on the line.
The company purchased some rails, graded some of the line, and built a few bridges, but little more work was done and the railroad never operated.
Clippings
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- Wikipedia. “List of unused railways“.