PRR grade crossings?

The Topic Cops are gonna get me if I don't talk about something besides maps. So here 'tis. I don't actually know anything about railroads, but I do like to watch trains go by. So I charge down to Gallitzin at least once a year, and hang out at Horseshoe Curve for a day or three. While there, I've ventured 10-20 miles west of HSC and haven't encountered a grade crossing. So I have three questions. First, what's the longest stretch of the ex-PRR main line without a grade crossing? Second, if there was a grade crossing elimination campaign, when did it occur? Third, if there was a campaign, did something specific trigger it?

The only place, that I know of, where there has been a real crossing elimination program on former PRR territory is the Northeast Corridor, which I believe is now crossing free from end to end. I think Amtrak has closed their last one on Keystone between Phila. and Hbg., too.

Out in your neck of the woods the crossings are fewer/farther apart because it's rural, redneck, backwoods territory. Heck, some places out there you can't even use a cellphone! (not that there's anything wrong with that. )

Go east from HSC and you'll find one by Slope just west of Altoona. Going west, I think there's one in Johnstown, with plenty o' them from there west.

Au contraire, mon brave. There are several places (Latrobe, Huntingdon, Mt. Union, New Florence, Blairsville) where grade crossings were eliminated in the first decade or so of the 20th century.

At Latrobe, for instance, the tracks were raised about 20 feet on an embankment, in part to eliminate a dip through town, in part to get them above street level to eliminate grade crossings.

At New Florence and Huntingdon, a main street was routed under the tracks in an excavation in order to pass under th etracks. At Blairsville, the tracks were rerouted into a cut so as to pass under the town's streets.

In Mt. Union, the tracks were relocated a hundred yards or so, off ground level and onto a fill, so as to cross streets on bridges.

In addition, there are a number of places outside of towns where even today a rural road runs up a steep earth ramp to get to a bridge. Millwood and just east of Donohoe are two such. I suspect many of those were once grade crossings.

So, there was a lot of work done to eliminate main line grade crossings, but it was done a century or so ago, so everyone supposes "it's always been like that".

Thanks for the expanded perspective, Bob. Indeed I was thinking in much more immediate terms.

Municipalities, as they developed and expanded, often put pressure on railroads to eliminate rights-of-way through their midst. In the early 20th, PRR expended huge sums to realign their routes for more efficiency and capacity -- often eliminating many of the at-grade intersections and street railroad. New York Central did this as well in many places.

In modern times, however, the NEC (including the Keystone route) is the only example of former PRR lines with an actual grade crossing elimination program, I believe. The main purpose for that project was to completely avoid conflicting public vehicle movements for higher speed trains.

There are still 2 active grade crossings between Altoona and Johnstown on NS.....The Brickyard Crossing at MP 238, 2 miles West of Alto, and Carneys Crossing at MP 253.2, near Lilly, Pa.....both are protected by gates, lights and bells. Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown

While not in PA there was a grade elimination project involving the PRR in and around Elmira NY in the 1930s. While most of this project involved the Erie and DL&W there was some on the Elmira branch of the PRR and much more on the Erie line that the PRR had trackage rights on for ~8 miles.

West of Johnstown there are several grade crossings.

At Huff (across the river from New Florence) on the Sang Hollow Extension.

Lockport (between New Florence and Bolivar). I'm not sure about this one. I was there once, a long time ago. I think there was an underpass under the main line and a grade crossing on the Conemaugh Division track(s).

Yes! My memory is still working! Look at:
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T ... =11182&W=2

Gray's Station, west of Torrance
Hillside, west of Gray's Station
Ridgeview Park, just east of Millwood. This one may be a private crossing.
Burd's Crossing, just west of Derry.
Wegley Crossing. Somewhere down in the Irwin/Larimer/Ardara area, but I'm not sure where.

I think that's it for the section Johnstown to Pittsburgh.

There used to be a private crossing just west of Torrance, used by the Torrance State Hospital to get to some fields on the opposite side of the main line. The hospital farm has been shut down for decades. I saw the crossing in, I believe, 1953. Sometime between then and 1988, the crossing was removed.

joshuahouse wrote:While not in PA there was a grade elimination project involving the PRR in and around Elmira NY in the 1930s. While most of this project involved the Erie and DL&W there was some on the Elmira branch of the PRR and much more on the Erie line that the PRR had trackage rights on for ~8 miles.

Actually it was about half of that- 4 miles or so in the '30s, involving the busy crossings at Church and Water Streets. The northern section (i.e. Elmira Heights) was actually elevated when I was kid circa 1975, after the PRR had become PC.

For the record, as of 9/1/05 there are still at least 3 active grade crossings along the "Keystone Corridor" (Phila-Harrisburg). But track crews are putting in concrete ties and welded rail at a good clip, so I imagine the crossing closures are next after the trackwork is done.

Once the PRR reached Elmira in the early 30s. it had to make a elevated line to reach the ERIE tracks going through Elmira. at Pennsylvania Ave & the tracks (NS owned now) you can see the remains of the old PRR line meeting/separating from the Erie. The elevation project was 1933-35 for there to be less traffic through downtown with more trains running. Trains would block the streets as far as a mile long. I remember reading about people being late for work, church & car accidents with the trains going through down town.


(Im from Elmira)
Heres a pic of the elevated tracks next to the fire dept headquarters summer 2011, They are blasting the paint CR added when they owned it.:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater
ERIE still on the bridge. You can see it better then ever:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater

When I click on your links I'm getting a "content unavailable" message from Facebook.

LCJ wrote:The only place, that I know of, where there has been a real crossing elimination program on former PRR territory is the Northeast Corridor, which I believe is now crossing free from end to end. I think Amtrak has closed their last one on Keystone between Phila. and Hbg., too.

Out in your neck of the woods the crossings are fewer/farther apart because it's rural, redneck, backwoods territory. Heck, some places out there you can't even use a cellphone! (not that there's anything wrong with that. )

Go east from HSC and you'll find one by Slope just west of Altoona. Going west, I think there's one in Johnstown, with plenty o' them from there west.

On the NEC, there are no grade crossings between Washington, DC and New Haven. There are still some crossings in the Providence, RI area but speeds are low as there are some significant curves and all trains slow for the station stops. I believe there may also still be a couple crossings in northern CT, all protected with lights, bells and four quadrant gates.

There are (as of last count) two crossings still left on the high speed section of the Keystone Line between HAR-PHI, including Irishtown Road near Ronks.

Grade crossing avoidance goes back almost to the beginning of the Main Line, 14 years before there was a Pennsylvania Railroad. The Huntingdon, Cambria, and Indiana Turnpike (old U.S. Rte. 22) skew arch bridge over Plane 6 of the Allegheny Portage RR. portion of the Main Line still stands today, even though the Morris Canal in New Jersey had already shown that highway grade crossings with inclined planes were possible.
http://www.nps.gov/alpo/historyculture/skew-arch.htm