WNYP to lease Meadville to Rouseville line from NS

[bwparker1]

Courtesy of Roc from Railfan.net


Summary of the transaction:
Pursuant to an agreement between WNYP and NSR, WNYP will lease and
operate the Subject Line, which generally extends between Meadville, Pennsylvania
and Rouseville, Pennsylvania. The Subject Line is located in Crawford and Venango
Counties, Pennsylvania. The total distance of the rail line to be leased and operated by
WNYP is approximately 45.25 route miles. The end points of the Subject Line are as follows: the Meadville lndustrial Track between milepost 102.3 and milepost 105.5; the
Franklin Secondary Track between milepost 0.0 (which connects with the Meadville
Industrial Track at milepost 105.42) and milepost 23.0; the Franklin lndustrial Track
between milepost 23.0 and milepost 33.6; the Titus lndustrial Track between milepost
137.32 and milepost 133.8, and between milepost 137.32 and milepost 137.5; and the
Oil City Industrial Track between milepost 0.0 and milepost 2.0, and between milepost
132.25 and the end of track at milepost 129.5.' NSR will retain overhead trackage
rights over the portion of the Subject Line from approximately milepost 102.3 to milepost
105.5. The parties intend to consummate this transaction on or soon after the date this
Notice of Exemption becomes effective.

[railwatcher]

Add another 45+ miles! Now this is gonna make for a real Merry Christmas for the WNYP. What kind of rail traffic already exists on this line. I assume Oil. But does anyone have an idea of what customers depend on rail service here?

Greg

[Matt Langworthy]

Congrats to Messrs. Burt, Blabey, Eaghan et al for their hard work! I am a little confused, though- where is Rouseville? My SPV atlas doesn't show where it is.

[brianpwestgate]

Rouseville is the interchange with Oil Creek & Titusville. WNYP track between Oil City and Titusville is the same PRR line as OC&T.

[railwatcher]

What others are saying- Meadville Tribune


Meadville will be a railroad town again: Railroad companies expanding operations through Meadville

Keith Gushard
12/22/05 —
Meadville’s rail yard will get upgrades and new track worth about $1.5 million as rail traffic through town has increased to as many as 40 coal trains a month passing to and from New York and New England power plants.

The current traffic flow is a far cry from the spring of 2003 when locally-based railroad operations were all but dead as the last Meadville-based employee locked up the Meadville train yard control tower and left. Meadville only served as a dropping-off point for freight cars.

It was a dramatic moment for a community that served as a regional railroad hub for generations. At points in Meadville’s history, the railroad had employed hundreds — from train crews and freight handlers to locomotive builders and freight car repairmen.

The announcement of the rail yard upgrade come as Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad expands its operations through Meadville and into Venango County.

The railroad, which operates 186.5 miles of track from Hornell, N.Y., to Meadville, is leasing 45.25 miles of track from Norfolk Southern Railroad from Meadville to Rouseville in Venango County, according to William Burt, its president and chief operating officer. The lease is effective Dec. 28, but financial terms weren’t disclosed.

“It gives us better level of (operating) efficiencies,” said Rudy Husband, spokesman for Norfolk Southern.

The lease includes three miles of track from where the WNY&P and Norfolk Southern connect near the Spring Street Bridge through the Meadville train yard and then southeast into Venango County including industrial service tracks in Franklin, Oil City and Titusville.

“We’ll be responsible for maintenance and operations,” Burt said. “We’ll be making some changes to the Meadville yard, adding track.”

Additional track in the train yard is needed to accommodate 100-car coal trains that Norfolk Southern has been running from southwestern Pennsylvania to power plants in New York state and New England.

Currently, coal trains have to be split to fit into sidings in the yard.

Adding track in the yard will be done in 2006, though details still have to be worked out, he said. The project is estimated at between $1 million and $1.5 million.

In March 2004, Norfolk Southern was granted operating rights on the WNY&P’s tracks by the federal Surface Transportation Board. It started out with less than two dozen trains per month.

“It’s the corridor for coal,” Burt said of the route through Meadville. “They’re running about 30 to 40 trains a month.”

With the lease, Norfolk Southern still retains the right to run on the three miles of line through Meadville to Norfolk Southern’s connection at French Creek, southeast of the train yard.

Norfolk Southern will keep its terminal building in the yard to accommodate train crews, Burt said. The WNY&P will add a building in the yard for its own crews and will base locomotives in Meadville to provide service to local customers along the line.

“We’ve been a growing business the last couple of years,” he said. “It gives us the opportunity to concentrate resources in Meadville.”

In addition to the work in Meadville, the WNY&P plans to do track surface improvements on the line to Rouseville. Much of that line has a 10-miles-per-hour speed restriction now.

The WNY&P will invest its own funds and will seek some state grants for the work as well, Burt said.

[railwatcher]

What others are saying: Railpace


SHORTLINE ACQUISITION: Effective at 12:01 a.m on Wednesday, December 28, 2005, the Meadville Line between MP MI 102.30 (MEAD) and MP MI 105.50 (FRENCH), Franklin Secondary Track, and all associated industrial and side tracks will be operated by Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad. Verbal permission of the WNYP Train Dispatcher is required to occupy all tracks between MEAD and FRENCH. The WNYP Train Dispatcher must be advised when the movement is clear of the above tracks. Speed of all tracks between MEAD and FRENCH: Restricted, not exceeding 10 MPH. WNYP Train Dispatcher in Falconer, NY may be reached as follows: Via Saegertown Radio Base AAR Channel 34. Norfolk Southern will still maintain and control Meadville Yard office as a crew reporting location. (Conrail Technical Society E-mail Update - posted 12/22)

[Matt Langworthy]

Rouseville is the interchange with Oil Creek & Titusville.

Thank you.

WNYP track between Oil City and Titusville is the same PRR line as OC&T.

WNYP did not acquire the line between Oil City and Titusville. That will remain an OCTL operation.

[brianpwestgate]

Matt:
The OC&T north of Rouseville is the same line as the WNYP south of there into Oil City; it's the same PRR line, just under two operators, thanks to our friends at Conrail, Rouseville being the division point. I never said WNYP would take over OCTL. I'm not sure, but that line may have been built by the Allegheny Valley RR.

[isaksenj]

Posted this to the NY State group, thought it pertinent here, too.

Most all transactions with the Surface Transportation Board get posted to the Web, and are searchable. For point of reference, the general search page URL is:
http://www.stb.dot.gov/filings/all.nsf/ ... e?OpenView


Here's the filing for the expansion of the WNYP:
http://www.stb.dot.gov/filings/all.nsf/ ... 215383.pdf

[Matt Langworthy]

Matt:
The OC&T north of Rouseville is the same line as the WNYP south of there into Oil City; it's the same PRR line, just under two operators, thanks to our friends at Conrail, Rouseville being the division point. I never said WNYP would take over OCTL. I'm not sure, but that line may have been built by the Allegheny Valley RR.

I wasn't trying to flame you, but rather to clarify that OCTL will remain independant. A few folks (not you, Brian) have been agitating for WNYP to take over OCTL, and I wanted to make it clear that the two operations are separate, albeit symbiotic.

According to a recent issue of Railpace,the origins of the line date back to the Oil Creek RR, finished in 1862 to connect Corry and Petroleum Centre. A second line, the Farmers RR, was completed in 1867. The two lines merged in 1868 to become the Oil Creek & Alleghany Valley RR (OCAR). This line ran along the west bank of Oil Creek. OCAR built a second line along the east bank of Oil Creek in 1870. By 1887, both lines had come under the control of the Western New York & Pennsylvania RR, which connected Buffalo and Rochester with New Castle, PA. By 1900, the oginial WNY&P (not to be confused w/today's WNYP) had come under control of PRR.

The line along the western bank of Oil Creek was removed in 1933. Its counterpart on the eastern bank survives today, under the split control of the current WNYP and OCTL.

[sallenparks]

It does seem to fit with this post but according to this months issue of RailPace the WNY&P has talked with NS about takeing the rest of the Meadville line over to get them into Ohio which makes since seems how NW didn't want the ERIE and I'm still not conviced that NS wants it either.

[isaksenj]

First, I have to plead ignorance in my WesternPA/Ohio rail geography. In looking at the STB filing and its associated graphics, I have to wonder what sort of western connections are available to the WNYP even with the acquisition of the additional mileage. Most of the seemingly-useful routes appear to be abandoned.

Can somebody give a clearer picture of the existing connections and how they might work?

[isaksenj]

Interesting website with Erie MOW track maps, with most updated to 1961:

http://www.railsandtrails.com/TC/EL/

(Requires installation of a DjVu ActiveX plugin, which allows for an Adobe Acrobat-like document; link is available at the bottom of the page)