Du Bios, Pennsylvania is an important hub on the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad, a G&W owned regional line with over 700 route miles. Originally built by the Baltimore and Ohio as the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh to serve the Central Pennsylvania coal region and connect it to port facilities in Rochester, it was cut loose from the Chessie System in 1988. Today the B&P is known for it's Class 1 style freight trains (if you can catch them) and a number of CTC Islands using the original B&O vintage signaling. One of these CTC islands is centered on Du Bios, PA along with two original B&O interlocking towers, so while on one of my trips through the area I took some time to document everything the town had to offer. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).
FC (Falls Creek) tower might look familiar to Metro North commuters as the poured concrete structure used the exact same design as those built for the New Haven Railroad on much of its system in the same 1910-1920 time period. In the first two decades of the 20th Century, reinforced concrete was cutting edge technology and a number of northeastern railroads, most notably the DL&W, went hog wild pouring buildings and bridges alike. Many of these structures exist today due to the strength and quality of the concrete.
FC tower is located at the crossing
of the PRR's Low Grade line to Driftwood. Today most traces of the
crossing are gone, however the former PRR line is used as far as
Brookville, providing the only currently active rail access to that city
and the associated Brookville Equipment Company that manufactures a
wide variety of mining, transit and railroad rolling stock. Here we can
see the former PRR bridge over Falls Creek from the tower with the
B&P main line track in the foreground.
At the nearby FALLS CREEK interlocking B&O Color Position Light signals from the Chessie Era remain in place along with the original interlocking equipment.
As I was there on a Sunday, not much was going on in B&P's DuBios Yard. Former Conrail GP38 #7803 was hanging out amongst the freight cars.
DU BIOS interlocking, at the southern end of the siding, features a
super rare GRS Model 5D switch machine in addition to the B&O CPLs.
The northbound CPL signal is located next to the old DuBios B&O passenger station.
The CTC island is bracketed by a pair of former B&O CPL automatic signals labeled as distants that do not convey track occupancy information. Total length of the CTC island is 6 miles, although as late as 2002 the island extended C&M Junction south of Du Bois.
C&M Junction is where the old CM tower stands to this day. CM tower was poured in 1913 and you can still see the remains of the old right of way that headed off to the east.
Unlike FC, CM was fitted with an contains the remains of a US&S Style S electro-mechanical machine. The levers are gone, but the locking bed is still in place.
Although only 6 miles away from FC tower and built to the same design, FC was was constructed with an electric interlocking system while CM needed a large hole in the floor and steel support for the lever frame, and penetrations in the concrete for the mechanical pipelines.
On the way home I stopped off at Hancock, WV on the former B&O Main Line. CSX GP40-2 #6060 was idling in the yard.
Along with CSX cabeese numbers 903869 and 900077
These were sitting near the old B&O passenger station. Unfortunately I had just missed the passage of Amtrak Train 29 by a couple of minutes.
For anyone needing additional train content here is a photo of PATCO car #1056 at Mt. Vernon Ave.
That's it for this set. Tune back next week as I join Subtalk's own Kevin Painter for a trip up into Reading and Northern territory.
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