Brownsville Area Railfanning

Hello All,

I'm planning a trip to the Brownsvile, PA area in a couple of months and had a few questions about operations. First exactly how busy is Brownsville in terms of train movements? I believe CSX has trackage rights on the NS Loveridge Secondary correct? What would be the breakdown between the two RR's in number of daily trains out of the coal mines to the south?

I was reading a bit of info on Newell and how CSX stages strains out of there. Do the NB/EB coal trains somehow connect to Conellsville or do some turn south at Brownsville on the wye after crossing the river towards Fairmont, WV (or whatever locations are south of there)?

I'd also like to make it up to Shire Oaks as I think that's where NS crews a lot of the coal trains from. It sounds like an overall busy area that's worth exploring.

Thanks in advance.

A friend sent me an e-mail with some pretty decent info on the area. About the only thing it lacked was train frequency. One of those things I guess where you just have the scanner on and wait. If the volume turns out to be lacking, I could always head east to Connellsville or north to Jeanette to "fill in the gaps"

I can remeber back in the Conrail days when we would go down there we would usually get 5 to 10 trains on most occaisions. I haven't bben down there in a while but from what I have heard I would say you should be able to get somewhere in the 10 to 15 range.

I believe CSX also runs trains down the Mon line. There are usually at least a couple of coal trains sitting in the yard at West Brownsville. They do some crew changes there. There is plenty of places to park along the road and watch trains coming down the Mon and also across the bridge through the wye. The trains run down the middle of the street in West Brownsville. Makes for some good photo ops. Shire Oaks is bigger, but still just a lot of coal trains sitting around. I think there is also a car shop there.

Thanks guys for helping out. From what little I've discovered so far, CSX trains that go north, route across the river bridge to Newell, PA. I believe these are crewed by NS and handed off there, but don't quote me on that.

It's always nice to find a spot where you can have two different railroads operating and this sure seems like a nice one. The slow moving street running will be a great catch. My experience with former Conrail territories that are now NS, is that crews don't call signals as much as they do on traditional NW/SOU lines. Maybe this place will prove me wrong

These tracks are dark territory so I don't know how much you will hear.

BTW the trains are on channel 50 on the radio.

Thanks RR. Maybe we'll get the NS Mon Line Dispatcher issuing trains blocks instead since there are no signals to call.

It is also not uncommon to see a good bit of foriegn power on the Mon as well. I know that there are a couple of trains that run with BNSF power fairly regularly.

I just found out today, (last minute of course), that I will be working out of West Brownsville for the next week or two. Maybe now I can finally get some good shots of "street running."