23-10-07 PHOTOS: Ohio 251

Starting in 2021 I initiated a side quest to get photos of all of the PRR Position Lights on the lower end of the Cleveland Line between Rochester, PA and Yellow Creek, OH. This line provides an alternate routing between Alliance, OH and Conway Yard and was cobbled together from a mash up of older PRR lines with a majority of the miles being unsignaled territory. However the eastern portion was once the PRR's double track line down the Ohio River and because dangerous through cargo can be sent via the primary Fort Wayne Line, the eastern Cleveland Line is PTC exempt. This means that it's single direction ABS position lit signaling system has survived largely intact. In October 2023 I completed my mission to document all of the vintage signals and once against stopped off at Conway Yard to get some train content for the people who like that. The full set of photos can be found here ( mirror ).

The first stop was in Wellsville, OH, 22 miles from the start of the Cleveland Line at CP-ROCHESTER. The westbound color light mast was installed when CP-YELLOW CREEK was re-signaled.

The second stop was at milepost 19 in East Liverpool, OH where one can get a sense of the priority NS gives this line as some of the rail dated from the 1940's.

The third and final location was at milepost 16 in the town of East End where I saw this little guy enjoying the morning sun.

Heading back past Conway Yard I passed by NS GP33ECO #6726 with road slug #659 near CP-FREEDOM.

Also working the west end of the yard was a sibling set with #6730 and slug #660.

Towards the middle of the yard was GP40-2 #3055 and road slug #751.

There was all sorts of neat stuff in the power storage track near the shoppe complex. This included SD70M-2 #2776, C44-9W #9738, SD70ACU #7269 along with GP40-2 #3056, SD40E #6334, high hood GP38-2 #5244 and one of 5 GP59ECO's #4655.

Upon reaching the EAST CONWAY overlook, I was just in time to catch a full length manifest train shoving westbound into one of the Conway Yard receiving tracks. Power on the opposite end consisted of NS AC44C6M #4231 and ES44AC #8160.

20-07-03 PHOTOS: B&LE

I have some friends in the Pittsburgh area that I tend to visit around the July 4th holiday. In 2020 I was still able to get out there, but due to a variety of factors, first and foremost the elimination of Position Light signals on the former PRR Main Line, I wasn't able to capture as much rail action as I had in the past. In fact I was forced to find a replacement project that came in the form of the Bessemer and Lake Erie, a regional railroad with a main line that runs from Lake Erie to Pittsburgh with the primary goal of transporting iron ore and other materials to the steel mills of the Pittsburgh Area. Unlike the NS Pittsburgh Line, traffic is much more sporadic and while the route features a practically intact 1940's signaling system, I failed to encounter any trains. Still, I was still able to put together a good batch of photos that you can see here ( mirror ).

In what is probably one of the most reliably scheduled moves through Pittsburgh apart from Amtrak, the daily Allegheny Valley Railroad transfer move to the Penn Yard on the north bank of the river makes its way across the Fort Wayne Bridge with AVR SD40-2's #3005 and #3003, sandwitch former NS CLXX GP59 lease unit #4551.

An NS hi-rail pickup truck was also observed inspecting the Fort Wayne Bridge.

The next morning I caught the eastbound AVR transfer move with the same trio of diesels moving from the Penn Yard to home rails at the Bloom connection.



The Highland Ave bridge over the former PRR Main Line was sporting this info board and PRR keystones.

Pittsburgh's floating Tiki bars are definitly something I have to try!

First stop on the B&LE was the defect detector at Milepost 12.9 from the North Bessemer yard near Pittsburgh. The railroad was independent from 1869 through 2004 when it was sold to Canadian National, who continues to run it to this day as was evidenced by a CN high rail inspection truck that happened to roll by.