21-10-10 PHOTOS: EAST CONWAY

It's getting harder and harder to track down genuine PRR position lights these days, but after a major bout of resignaling wiped out the PL's on the former Conrail Fort Wayne Line west of Pittsburgh, a quirk of NS's policy of disinvestment somehow managed to preserve a stretch of ABS Rule 251 signaled track on the Cleveland Line in the Ohio River valley west of Rochester, PA. These signals had the benefit of also being located near the PRR's premier classification facility, Conway Yard so while in town for another event I took the opportunity to hit two birds with one stone with visits to both EAST CONWAY and the Milepost 2.7 intermediate signal location in Beaver, PA. The full gallery can be found here ( mirror ).

First stop were the milepost 2 intermediate signals located at the west end of the municipality of Beaver, PA. It is located in the shadow of the Interstate 376 bridge over the Ohio and across from the new Shell Oil Ethelene cracking plant that uses local frack gas to produce plastics. The eastbound signal can display Approach Slow for the slow speed route at CP-ROCHESTER. The former Conrail Cleveland Line takes an alternate routing to Alliance Ohio via the Ohio Valley and Yellow Creek. With local industry in decline, most through traffic travels via the Fort Wayne Line before switching over to the Cleveland Line at CP-ALLIANCE.

The next stop was the confluence of the Beaver River and the Ohio River that features two beefy steel age bridges built to take the weight of late steam age mega-locomotives. The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie cantilever bridge over the Ohio River is now part of the CSX Pittsburgh Sub on that railroad's Washington to Chicago service lane. One level below, the smaller PRR truss bridge over the Beaver River is still very impressive. The local waterfront is now a park overlooked by a new apartment block.

Previously part of CP-ROCHESTER, the logical triple junction between the Conrail Era Fort Wayne, Cleveland and Youngstown Lines, the 2019 re-signaling project split off the Cleveland Line single to double track switch into CP-BRIDGEWATER located on the west end of the Beaver River truss bridge.

Conway Yard in its current form was a post-war PRR project to increase efficiency on its primary east-west freight market. After its rebuild Conway had the distinction of being the world's largest from 1956 to 1980 with separate classification humps for both eastbound and westbound trains. Although one hunp was removed in the early 2000's (and sent to Enola Yard), Conway is still a major component of Norfolk Southern's New York to Chicago market. Conway Yard is largely paralleled by PA Route 65 from which I was able to get photos of a road slug set with NS GP40-2 #3091 and RP-E4C slug #745 along with AC44C6M rebuild #4233 in the DPU position at the rear of a coal train.

Beginning with the 1956 rebuild, rail traffic around Conway Yard was controlled by a Union Switch and Signal N-X type interlocking machine within EAST CONWAY tower. The tower survived both the coming and going of Conrail, ultimately being closed in the 2010's by NS.

The vehicle bridge over EAST CONWAY interlocking is a popular railfan spot, unfortunately the pneumatic switch machines were replaced in the 2019 resignaling project.

Trains can be frequently found waiting at either end of EAST CONWAY and on my trip NS AC44C6M #4340 was shifting cars in the westbound receiving yard and C44-9W #9856 waited at the 4-track westbound cantilever for a lineup into the yard.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to score any actual train movements at this location before I had to head back to my event, but I am able to fill out the post with some Amtrak and SEPTA content from subsequent NEC travel. First up is Amtrak Acela Express power car #2036 at the BWI Airport Rail Station.

NJT Atlantic City Line Comet V cab car #6006 on 30th St Station's lower level.

SEPTA Silverliner IV #133 at 30th Street Station's upper level.

SEPTA Silverliner V #817 and Silverliner IV #110 at Market East.

PATCO rebuild car #1030 at Haddonfield.

More SEPTA Silverliner's V led by #877 at Market East.

Finally some PRR pedestal signal signal action on the ramp up to 30th St Station's upper level with a Clear on Track #43 and a Medium Clear on Track #3 westbound.

Hope you enjoyed the photos. Next time I'll be off to The West for some national park action.