21-07-04 PHOTOS: Tower Urbex

On another 4th of July road trip to Pittsburgh I had the opportunity to hit of a couple of interesting rail locations, unfortunately I was not blessed by much in the way of actual rail movements so this will be a rather short post. If you are interested in the history of AR tower in Galitizin or GLENWOOD JCT tower in Pittsburgh, I will be making posts about those separately. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

So my first stop was the climax of the PRR in Galitizin, PA, 248 miles from Suburban Station in Philadelphia and 2,167 feet above sea level. I stopped off at the little railfan park that hosts PRR N5 caboose #477859.

I was actually on my way out when an westbound NS intermodal emerged from the tunnel with C44-9W #9750, SD70ACC #1829 and C44-9W #9578 in the lead.  

My motivation for the stop was reports of AR tower being prepped for demolition and then additional reports that said demolition plans had been put on hold. Upon visiting AR tower I found the reports to be accurate and took some photos accordingly.

From there I went express to Pittsburgh where I wound up getting some fantastic ice creame at the Page Dairy Mart in the shadow of the PRR's Port Perry Branch, currently used by high clearance NS trains that can't fit on the route via the downtown station and Fort Wayne Bridge.

The beefy PRR viaduct spans Becks Run and Beck's Run Road and was immediately adjacent to the old BECK tower that was unfortunately demolished just a few years ago.

While waiting for my ice cream an eastbound CSX coal train went by on the adjacent former P&LE main line (CSX Pittsburgh Sub) with ES44AC #902 on the front and #741 on the back.

The line was pretty long and I was still there when an eastbound autorack movement followed the coal train with ES44AC #856 behind C40-10W #5426.

Literal signs of Pittsburgh's rail heritage are all over the city like this Norfolk and Western bridge, now operated by the Weeling and Lake Erie, over Liberty Ave adjacent to the Route 47 Overbrook light rail line bridge.

Not much was moving due to the holiday so I had to be content with this photo of the new westbound 2W signal at CP-PITT with dowtown Pittsburgh in the background. 

The next day I stopped by Laughlin Jct to see what remained of the interlocking that was removed shortly after I extensively documented the location in 2009. This is where B&O commuter trains would depart from the old Main Line (P&W Sub) to head to the Grant Street Station downtown. The last trains were discontinued in 1989 and Grant Street Station was razed in 1998 to make room for new office development. Today Amtrak's Capitol Limited continues to run through on the far track.

I was specifically looking to see if an abandoned B&O CPL was still standing in a small patch of trees and the answer was yes, but everything of collectible value had been stripped off.

The old Grant Street Station right of way has been turned into the Eliza Furnace bike trail.

Another bridge logo at the trail head, this time for the Baltimore and Ohio.

The last stop was the GLENWOOD JCT tower near the Glenwood Bridge. Built in 1908, this tower was in operation until 2003 under CSX. Included as part of a lease and then sale to the Allegheny Valley Railroad, the wooden tower is now unsecured and at serious risk of fire.

See my other post covering GLENWOOD JCT for more detailed coverage of its history and interior.

Well that's pretty much it except for the fireworks. I hope you are all having a great summer vacation season.