Railroad Forums 

Discussion relating to the PRR, up to 1968. Visit the PRR Technical & Historical Society for more information.
 #550700  by pablo
 
I have a question about a long-ago pulled siding off the main in Warren, PA.

The siding in question is just West of the current switch that makes the main line split in two as the line comes into Warren from Erie. You can see the right of way along Rt. 6 and on some of the streets down by the Holiday Inn.

A check of DAVP/PC track charts show that this trackage doesn't exist on their line. A similar check of the PRR charts I could find don't even cover the city of Warren itself.

There were three lines leaving Warren going west through history, and all were more or less parallel at this point, and of course as PC consolidated things quite a bit, redundant lines went away.

Does anyone know what this was, and is there a track chart that exists for it?

Thanks in advance.

Dave Becker
 #555501  by rnetzlof
 
I'm not real familiar with the Warren area, so I'm probably not understanding your question fully.

There were two PRR lines through Warren. One, built as the Philadelphia and Erie, still exists as the B&P line to Erie. The other was a line of the Western New York and Pennsylvania.

It came up the Allegheny from Oil City. At or near Irvine it joined the P&E, which became double track from there into Warren. Somewhere in Warren, and I'm not sure where, the two separated, the P&E ending up on the south side of the river, the WNY&P on the north side.

The WNY&P line followed the river north to Salamanca, east to Olean and there intersected the WNY&P line from Emporium to Buffalo. When the Kinzua Dam was built, that line was cut back to just east of Warren. I think it is the track that goes into the refinery out along the river in the eastern end of town.

When I say "came up along the Allegheny from Oil City", I'm not sure how close it was to the river, and it may have wandered off into back country somewhere. The old topographic maps at historical.maptech.com would help with this but they're not available right now.

Bob Netzlof
 #606846  by thebishop
 
Dave --

I just came across your question from earlier in the year ... are you by chance talking about the grade that cuts to the south just under the Route 6 overpass? If so, from what I've been told by our property manager, that was a siding put in at some point during ALY years, but actually never used. It ran to the building just behind Holiday Inn, now home to Targetted Pet Treats, an affiliiate of Dad's in Meadville.

If this isn't the siding you're asking about let me know.

Ryan Fischer
 #606904  by pablo
 
This is the siding I was talking about. You can clearly see the grade there, but similarly, you can see that there is no track there today.

So, is that company you talk abotu still there? Do they actually mill grain or filler there for the dog food, or just get the bags and then ship it out again?

Dave Becker
 #607235  by thebishop
 
Dave --

I'm honestly not sure who was in that building back when the siding was put in. The pet treat operation is relatively new and probably too small of volume to look at raw materials by rail. They're also affiliated with a Warren company called Moldsmiths, and I believe were created to use some of the processes used in plastic injection molding to pet treats.

All this being said, they're on my list to call one of of these days.

Ryan
 #742307  by RussNelson
 
Dave, take a look at the historic map: http://www.rutlandtrail.org/mapview.cgi ... =2&dot=Yes
Is that dot on the siding you mean? If so, it's obviously very old (~100 years), so if it ever had new tracks, they were probably new tracks on an old railbed.

There were a bunch of trolley lines in Warren. You can see one of them head north, and another cross just north of the dam (when they were street-running, the street is drawn with a dotted line in the middle.
 #862280  by hayhugh
 
Both the Pennsy, and the NY Central serviced Warren. The Pennsy crossed the Allegheny River to the south of warren and serviced the United Refinery and on to Bradford. The NYC stayed on the north side of the River and serviced both a furniture factory and Anderson's Bakery before proceeding east in the middle of 4th St. then along Conewango Creek and into NY State. The tracks up 4th st are long gone and the furniture factory was torn down and Anderson's Bakery now produces plastic products and does receive pellets from a RR siding. In my younger days I sometimes got to ride on the old Steam Engines when they were switching back and forth making up the train. Wish I could get a photo of those old steam engines that the New York Central were using in the early 40's. Hope I was of some help.
 #869065  by Aa3rt
 
hayhugh wrote:Wish I could get a photo of those old steam engines that the New York Central were using in the early 40's. Hope I was of some help.
While I don't want to take this thread too far off topic, posted at another forum,here's a 1947 photo of a NYC 2-8-0 with a freight train on 4th Street in Warren:

http://forums.railfan.net/forums.cgi?bo ... 1220007500
 #1420180  by roc
 
I believe the siding came off the PRR and served Deluxe Metal, which I believe produced airframes for bombers or transports or parts thereof. My grandmother was a riveter there during the war.

I can only remember the tracks being in, but never remember seeing the switch in place.
 #1425681  by pablo
 
I think at some point Cactus Jack answered this, perhaps elsewhere. In essence, you're right, though I did not get a name for the company in question. It doesn't sound like there was ever any revenue generated.

Dave Becker