Abandoned Railroad in New Bethlehem, PA?

Hello,

I am from Ohio, but now working in CT. My girlfriend still lives in OH until December (when she graduates school), so my only way of seeing her is when I drive back and forth. Since her family is from PA, there is a good Pizza place in Natrona Heights, and I thought I'd surprise her one day, and got her some pizza from this place. Anyways, my GPS had me get off of I-80 west and follow route 28 down through New Bethlehem. I noticed an recently abandoned railroad that nearly paralleled the first half of the route off of I-80. Looking at Google maps, one can see that trackage was in place at the time the satellite photo was taken, but the trackage was not there when I drove through it. The railroad nearly parallels the river that passes through New Bethlehem.

I can't find any good historical PA railroad maps, so I was interested in who operated it, and when he line saw its last train. Also, I noticed on Google Maps, there are two railroads on each side of the river that runs through Kittanning, PA. Are those lines both abandoned?

Thanks

Looking at my SPV atlas, the line was last known as "Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad" listed as out of service according to the atlas. Formally a PRR line.

Good source of historical topo maps is here.

http://historical.mytopo.com/quadlist.c ... r=PA&town=

Mike

Yes, that was part of a "low grade line" that the Pennsylvania RR built to have a route with very few mountains, as an alternative to their main line from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg. The line
ran up the Allegheny River on the east bank from Pittsburgh (as the Allegheny Valley RR , or similar, that the PRR took over), then just east of Lawsonham this low grade line branched from the river and went through Lawsonham, New Bethlehem, Brookville Dubois, and on to meet the PRR line along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River at Driftwood (and then down to Harrisburg). According to the Dec 29 2009 post at http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 0&p=753282 that section of the low-grade line was purchased by the Pittsburg and Shawmut in 1991, which was then taken over by Genessee and Wyoming which (as part of the Buffalo & Pittsburgh RR which it also owned maybe -- as the previous poster mentioned BPRR). The "low grade" tracks in New Bethlehem were ripped up "a few years ago" according to that post.

Regarding KIttanning, that's on the east side of the Allegheny River, the tracks were the PRR mentioned above. Those tracks are long gone, I guess in the Conrail era (someone here will know for sure). Besides the PRR, the P&S mainline originally also included a stretch from Brookville to the Allegheny River, but running a few miles south of New Bethlehem and the PRR, and coming to the Allegheny River at Mahoning . After the P&S hit the river, it crossed it and went down the west bank to somewhere towards Pittsburgh (Freeport?). The part across from Kittanning is still active, now also part of the BPRR.

http://www.gwrr.com/operations/railroad ... h_railroad

JS

The New Bethlehem line was removed in November in 2007 as I shot the rail train pulling the section of CWR out to be transplanted onto BP's either Indiana Branch or the line to Homer City. I don't remember which for sure now. Here is a pic of the rail train shoving back in to the end of the line back in 2007:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 0&nseq=110

The Pennsy line mentioned was actually the "Allegheny Branch" that ran from Pgh's Strip District up through Kittanning, East Brady, Foxburg, Emlenton, Franklin, and ended in Oil City at the Valley Yard. At Valley Yard, Pennsy's Salamanca and Chautauqua Branches split across the Wye Bridge. At RR name of Red Bank (Near Lawsonham at the confluence of Redbank Creek and the Allegheny) is where the actual "Low Grade" started. Both of these line were actually built under the Allegheny Valley Railway in the late 1800's, and then purchased by Pennsy. Sections of both lines are still in service today:

Allegheny Branch:
-Strip District to Arnold is currently owned by today's Allegheny Valley RR.
-From NS's Conemaugh Line to approx. 8 miles or so from the Confluence of the Allegheny and Kiski Rivers is operated today by the Kiski Junction RR, which until recently only served the AK Ludlum Steel plant in Bagdad and ran a tourist operation. I'm not sure if it is in service yet, but Rosebud Mining purchased the KJR and relaid/is relaying the former Allegheny Branch from their base of operations at Schenley north along the river which is included in the mileage that I stated before. In the relay, they used steel ties, and sources have told me that the coal mine is expected to be I think he told me a 30-40 year mine. The same source also told me that Rosebud (still Kiski Jct. RR) plans on still running the tourist trains, and probably even running specials up the "new line".
-From the Wye Bridge in Oil City, the WNYP serves 1 customer on what is their Southside Industrial today. The WNYP serves this customer approx. once every 3 weeks or so.

The Low Grade is still in service today from the B&P's major repair/overhaul center (actually on the old P&S) in Brookville to Driftwood. From Dubois to Brookville, they only serve 1 customer, Brookville Mining Equipment, which the only payload consists of new Brookville locomotives being shipped out when they build standard gauge rail locos. The rest of BEC's product which includes numerous other rail gauges, trolleys, and railed and rubber tired mining equipment are shipped by truck. There are a few "local" customers in the Dubois/Falls Creek area, and a few coal loaders up the line to Driftwood where the B&P interchanges with NS, WNYP, and LVRR/NSHR.

The former Pittsburg&Shawmut is still in service from Freeport to the power plant at Reesedale. I think there is still track across the river so that B&P can store/stage hoppers for the power plant. I'm not real keen on the Brockway area, but I think what is known today as B&P's Brockway Industrial is also former P&S, but don't hold me to it. It could also be former ERIE trackage. Everything between Brockway and Reesedale is removed with exception of the Brookville repair facility which was actually the P&S base of ops, and B&P accesses it using the former Pennsy/P&S interchange track.

For the past Two months, I been doing research on this very line with the help from Google Earth. There is about 40 miles of track left on the other side of the Reesedale bridge and Two tunnels and two other truss bridges. Here are one photo of the line from Reesedale to the end of track. I'll post the other three later when I resize them.

Hope this helps,
Len.

Schuylkill Valley wrote:For the past Two months, I been doing research on this very line with the help from Google Earth. There is about 40 miles of track left on the other side of the Reesedale bridge and Two tunnels and two other truss bridges. Here are one photo of the line from Reesedale to the end of track. I'll post the other three later when I resize them.

Hope this helps,
Len.

Although the Pittsburg and Shawmut took control of the former Pennsy Low Grade ~late 1980s, the line in your pic is a different line. The pic is the actual P&S Main from the RR's start. Both the P&S main in your photo, and the former Pennsy Low Grade line are/were last operated by the Buffalo and Pittsburgh.