Exploring Pittsburgh's Abandoned Brilliant Cut-Off
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- The Brilliant Cut-Off (or Brilliant Branch) was opened in 1904 to alleviate congestion on the Pennsylvania Railroad Mainline through Pittsburgh. It was closed from 1976-1995, then closed again for good in 2019. Currently, its fate is in the hands of Allegheny County. For now, its just a nice walk in the woods.
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Some of those rails looked fairly shiny so I would say it gets at least infrequent use. Track unused for a long time has a lot of thick pitted rust on the rail cap. 20:20 - those are Pandrol clips. Rail is less likely to work loose or "roll over' with clips vs. spikes. Nice mini documentary of an old PRR/PC/Conrail line that is often overlooked.
Very cool! You're correct about the wye on the East Liberty end. It is still used today, most notably daily by Amtrak's westbound Pensylvanian. After dropping passengers in Pittsburgh, they reverse the train onto the wye and spin it so it faces east for the return journey in the morning. The location on the NS Pittsburgh Line timetable is called CP HOME. Where CP HOME is now is where CM Tower used to stand until the early 1980s. CM controlled the crossovers as well as the connection to the Brilliant Branch from the Pittsburgh Line. CM was about where you were standing in the middle of the wye in your final shot. On the Aspinwall end on the Conemaugh Line stood UY Tower. It was in the middle of the wye on the opposite side of the bridge. I have a few slides from that area I've collected from the 70s that are worth checking out simply for the then and now shots. Lots of great railroading history in the Pittsburgh area and even further to the east. I've spent lots of time researching and finding abandoned things in my neck of the railfan woods around Derry, Latrobe and Greensburg. Thanks for sharing!
CM Tower interlocking 1971 - www.flickr.com/photos/adamklimchock/52335906497/in/photolist-2jrK2io-2kbsjnj-2ndhSs2-2nJKcDt-2nK11BL-2nK1pNx-2nK22WK-2phShuj
CM Tower 1971 - www.flickr.com/photos/adamklimchock/52338796074/in/photolist-2jrK2io-2kbsjnj-2ndhSs2-2nJKcDt-2nK11BL-2nK1pNx-2nK22WK-2phShuj
Looking onto the Brilliant Branch from CM 1971 - www.flickr.com/photos/adamklimchock/52338892469/in/photolist-2dj1R5k-2kbsjnj-2nJKcDt-2nK1vgK-2pfboDK
UY Tower in Aspinwall 1978 - www.flickr.com/photos/adamklimchock/46148835775/in/photolist-2dj1R5k-2pfboDK
We were still taking sand trains to the AVR from out at CP HOME. We'd shove them in at HOME toward the AVR's tracks along the Allegheny River. The Brilliant Branch isn't as abandoned as you'd think
AVRR uses tracks to store covered hoppers that have fracking sand in them I walked out route back in 2015 and they had rail cars a plenty. Also you can walk over bridge across Allegheny River I did in 2015 . The switch that was locked is actually live tracks that run along Allegheny River boulevard. Excellent videos thanx for sharing 😊
Google Maps shows a long string of cars on the line in their current satellite photo. I’m guessing that it’s the same cars of fracking sand.
They don’t store cars on it Amtrak uses it daily to spin and ns shoved sand trains down it for avr
This is amazing!
About 7 years ago I was big into exploring Pittsburgh and especially East Liberty. I was at Larimer school one day and decided to take a walk around the neighborhood and ended up at your starting point. All I got to do was check out the bridge and headed back home. I was always curious as to what that area was and why it was abandoned. I wanted to go back, but once the redevelopment really took off I mostly stopped exploring.
I could have looked online, but wasn't really sure what to look up to find out what it was exactly. This video answered all my questions! Thank you!
Also, I think watching this is going to inspire me to take the same walk, really miss exploring this stuff.
Totally enjoyed the walk! Agree with you on using it for a transit connector.
The last owner/operator of the line most likely put in that Bow switch stand, dates from about the 1990s and is easier on the user's back than older designs. Henry Posner III is the president of the Railroad Development Corporation (RDC - no accident, same initials as the Budd Rail Diesel Cars). His company owns railroads in the U. S., Central and South America (Including the Iowa Interstate in the Midwest), and has interests in Europe, being an owner of FlixTrain/FlixBus. He was one of the principals in the acquisition and preservation of the East Broad Top narrow gauge railroad in Orbisonia, PA. I'm sure his proposal for a light rail line for the branch is a serious one. He has a financial interest in the company that builds the battery-powered light rail vehicles you were talking about. He was also responsible for importing several Chinese steam locomotives into the U. S. in the early 2000s that have operated over his Iowa Interstate Railroad, as well as R. J. Corman (videos of said locomotives can be found on YT).
This branch was 4 tracks wide the entire distance between "CM" (now Cp Home) and "UY" (now Cp Sharp). It was Not abandoned in 1976, rather it was still in service the entire distance into the 1980"s. The foundation and hand switch are at the former location of "VI" interlocking which gave access to the Allegheny Valley side of the Conemaugh Division. Norfolk Southern still owns aprox. 1/2 mile at the southern end up to Cp Home. Amtrak uses this to turn w/b train 43 for e/b train 42. The grade going north is very steep downhill and in steam days required the use of retainers. Most southbounds required a pusher.
Kinda funny that you concluded about how having rail transit through the city could help people... even "funnier" that Pittsburgh had exactly that until it started ripping everything out in the 1960s. And only now are some people coming back around with "wait, maybe we shouldn't have done that", now that like 95% of it is gone.
Totally agree. Sadly a lot of people back then fought against the car-centric infrastructure overhaul, but those in power didn’t care. In my perfect world, we would have kept trolleys and interurbans and trains as the primary modes of travel
And since the pandemic introduced us to work from home, downtown is devoid of people who work there and there is absolutely no reason to waste taxpayers money on pipe dreams and things no one will use.
Really wish they were considering using this for an extension of the busway, it makes far more sense than the popup metro idea that one guy is trying to float. It would be so easy to connect right where the busway crosses the old PRR mainline and the right of way is wide enough to support both a roadway and trail. It could really improve transit service and connections to the Allegheny Valley, nevertheless I look forward to the eventual trail. Very cool video.
If we are dreaming, a light rail extension via the busway allowing east end access bypassing I-376/RT28 into town.
Hi, from this area in your video. Those rails are used for rail car storage off and on which explains the sand. The signal and boxes you saw are lit and indicate a restricted approach (yellow) signal. Proceed at minimum speed able to stop the train in half the line of sight. AVR actually invested some money in that whole section of line but I think things fell through. That bridge is totally safe to walk, I do it all the time. The order side of the line used to connect to an old scrap yard and the Norfolk Southern line but again, that was short lived.
The large metal "end" of the bridge you pointed out near the beginning is a through girder. It appears that this was a 4 track railroad and the bridge was designed so that each half was identical 2 track spans. This simplifies the design and construction of the bridge itself. It also minimizes the depth of the structure, since more of the load is handled by the through girder than any stringer below the deck
That makes sense! Thank you for letting me know
It is a shame that the branch hasn't been revitalized into late rail public transit use.
If you use the plats to left you can get across safely. It will pull left to a cut crossing onto old PA Canal.
The rail fasteners you pointed out are "Pandrol Clips" or e clips.
Awesome video. I also wonder why those weird bridge segments appear on the railway - i feel like it maybe could have had a signal or track infrastructure on it - but then again i feel like it would be more obvious if it did.
Super crazy to see all those vines just swallow everything up.
I think the sand piles are likely from a train - its probably just silica or something used in steelmaking / ironworking. According to reddit - train hopper cars are prone to leaking their contents, especially if they're parked for an extended period of time. If i had to venture a guess, maybe a freight train carrying sand was stopped there for whatever reason and neatly leaked the sand into little piles. But i really have no idea.
About the firing range - its been open since the 80's. If you spend enough time by it you'll absolutely hear gunshots. So many that highland park residents have often petitioned for its closure.
I absolutely agree that pittsburgh has far too much rail infrastructure for us to just rip it all up. There are so many existing right of ways that can be made into green transit.
In a perfect world this would be turned into a commuter rail system from Kittaning/Oakmont to Aspinwall, East Liberty, Strip, and Downtown. Maybe relieve 28 congestion.
Crazy that we once had hundreds and hundreds of trains coming in and out every day. I really hope with some increased attention towards infrastructure and transit we can try to reclaim some of that rail heritage. Hopefully some of PRT's plans to extend trolley service come to fruition as well.
I didn’t even make that connection with the sand and hopper cars. When I look on Google maps, there is a long train parked there last time imagery was taken, so I’m sure that’s the source. Thanks for your comment!
Not abandoned. The rail tops would be rusted. Additionally the ROW has had a 2024 herbicide treatment (likely by NS) up to the one overpass around the 7 minute marker. As other users have mentioned, north of that overpass it also appears that AVR / Carload stores frack sand covered hoppers on portions of the line. The Brilliant bridge at the north end of the line was also out of service for a long time into the Conrail era and was “reopened” by AVR to serve a scrapper on the North Shore that was in operation well into the 2000s but is now completely gone and its land repurposed for public recreation use. AVR can also be seen on Google Earth storing cars on what were the scrap yard tracks west of the wye at the north end of the bridge. I’ll comment that the scrap yard was pretty neat because NS had a lot of its old rolling stock dismantled there! While driving across the Highland Park bridge you could easily see tons of PRR/NYC and other old train cars being scrapped that had been absorbed into Conrail decades earlier.
Abandoned??? Those rails look kinda shiny for being Abandoned
Exactly, when they're shiny on the top they most certainly aren't abandoned.
Amtrack uses that line for a daily turn around.
I take this route on my bike alot. Crossing the bridge over to Aspinwall is really fun if you're not afraid of heights.
Honestly, if I weren’t alone I likely would have. But being by myself, it made me pretty nervous
Not sure if they got all of them out yet, but AVR had a number of sand hoppers sitting on the aspinwall side of the line. It’s pretty rare they go on the line anymore, but it’s not 100% abandoned quite yet
Still there
Storage track. That's frack sand.
Washington Blvd, Not Washington Run Blvd.
I am a local and the vines are probably Honeysuckle not Kudzu. There is also Porcelain Berry vines everywhere too.
The sand I would think would be coming from Stoered rail cars . Frac sand .
They store bulk cars of frackiing sand on that line until they're needed
Definitley fracking sand. aVR uses/ used the top strech of track to hold sand hoppers. You can still occasionaly see the cars held on the bridge crossing Allegheny River Blvd.Thanks for sharing your video!
those are put up by the railroad to confine derailed cars so they can't reach the edge of the bridge and fall off. it's a more extreme measure than those extra rails in the middle of the track on other bridges.
It’s not abandoned. Technically AVR/SWP owns those tracks and uses them to store cars.
Also the wye at East Liberty is used daily by Amtrak to turn around from their drop off at the station on Liberty avenue. They pull into the station, drop off, and then back up to that wye, and turn the train around so the front end faces out/east for the leave in the morning.
This is really cool! I will need to check it out sometime!
Pittsburgh Water Authority is along Old Freeport Road PA 28 across from Waterworks Giant Eagle or AKA Giant Rip off as Giant Eagle is Pittsburgh area most expensive chain.
Great explore! I live right across the river from this in Shaler close to Millvale. Pass by and under this very often and wondered if it had closed or not. Used to see AVR and once in a blue moon Norfolk Southern go across this. I want to walk this now IMMEDIATELY! Thanks for a great video, man!
I'm pretty big into railroad history and train chasing. Get a lot of stuff for Norfolk Southern, especially. Done several videos on the Conemaugh Line across the river and that bridge from you.
If you'd like to explore this again and feel brave enough, I'll totally go acroas the bridge even though I'm scared to death of heights. LOL!
I'm from Pittsburgh and walked line few years back. The line wye is at MP 5.5 out of AMTRAK-Greyhound as PRR's short cut named the Brillant Branch shared 5 Stations with the Pittsburgh Division where you are in East Liberty/Homewood-Brushton had the Allegheny Valley Division with its 19 stops sharing with the Conemaugh Divisions 38 Stations. At PNC Park was the Allegheny City Terminus up to Butler Junction as it picked up the Downtown Canal basin over Allegheny River to reach Brilliant Branch in Aspinwall as the Canal was filled in by Western Pennsylvania Railroad that became the PRR. As from Kiski River at Kiski Junction down both sides of River was the Allegheny Valley RR and the Conemaugh Division.
I think Norfolk southern need to re acquire this line and partner with Amtrak to see this line in use the only thing is though double stack intermodals couldn’t run due to the bridge being a low clearance
Unfortunately I don’t see this happening due to the money NS is dumping into double stacking the main line through the city
the sand could be due to a hopper car door on the bottom of the car not being perfectly closed.
Washington Blvd. between PA 130/Butler Street and to point PA 8.
Porcelain berry vine not kudzu... yet.
Ah, thank you for the information! I don’t know my plants well
Are you _sure_ that segment's abandoned? It's hard to tell when satellite images on Google Maps were taken, but there are cars in that section of rail on the satellite. I know the rail lines on both ends of the cut-off are in use. It's weird the railroads would just stop using this one segment.
As for your question about sand on rails, trains use sand to increase traction.
AVR stores extra fracking sand hoppers there, the actual Brilliant Branch is abandoned. And you're absolutely correct about locomotives using sand to increase traction, but those piles might also be from leaking hoppers temporarily parked there.
It's wierd to see CSX coal trains going through the downtown passenger station!
Csx coal trains don’t go thru the station that’s Norfolk southern trains
Glad to see Trubisky found something worthwhile to do in Pittsburgh
One of the things to remember about how massive the PRR built their infrastructure is that they did that at a time when everyone traveled by rail. This was 50 years before the national interstate highway was built. But not just long distance but practically all commuting was done by rail. So you had massive numbers of passenger trains mixing in with more freight traffic that we can imagine today. Any delays could mean a massive backup of many trains. Passenger trains had priority because they had strict schedule to adhere to however freight trains provided the most revenue. When the PRR rebuilt their system from (roughly) the late 1880s to the 1910s, it was, mostly, to make freight movements more fluid. Projects included the Trenton Cut-Off, The Atglen and Susquehanna, The New Portage Railroad, The Brilliant Branch and many others that encompassed their "Low Grade Freight Line." The amount of rail traffic, today, is a tiny fraction of what it once was. Without the massive traffic, the need for the Brilliant Branch is gone.
Enjoyed your video very much. Subscribed to watch more.
Still gets sand train shoved down it weekly from ns to avr and Amtrak issues to daily to spin
Does Amtrak use the Wye to reverse their trains that go Phily to Pitts?
If you look at this line right by that firing range on google maps right now, you can see a train on the tracks.
Yeah if you go to Google Earth you will see there was a string of like 100 cars from that cell tower you stopped at, almost to the bridge over the Allegheny River.
Dude the cutoff isn’t abandoned, Amtrak uses the wye at the East liberty side as a turn around every day
I love living here ❤
Vast history, and so many people like me just live here without thinking about it most of the time
I enjoyed your video. In the future please be aware that a heavy dew can make the rail head rusty. Late in the video they were very shiny so clearly they were used regularly. When you visit other tracks use that as a way to tell if it’s used or not and how careful of train traffic you should be.
LOL - you were wrong on just about everything! Better luck next time, kiddo!
Where'd you park, and access it from ?
Westinghouse watch for stray bullets
Great walk and video. Thank you sir.
I would love to see diagrams on all the alternate routes thru trains could take thru Pittsburgh "back in the day." This branch allowed trains coming in on the Conemaugh or AV switch to the mainline and vice versa. The Port Perry area allows more route switching. The bridges west of the point also allowed route switching, especially when the Panhandle was intact. I am sure there were many more and I would love to see them all illustrated.
Send me an email! noles.exploring@gmail.com
I really love your content, but if you could stabilize your footage somehow, the motion sickness would decrease. 🙏🏼
Noted. I’m still learning here an appreciate the feedback!
The tracks are used for storage of cars for the AVR. The sand is from the engines. You will see covered hoppers up there from time to time. I have seen them past leach farm road
Sand from the trains ns shoves down for the avr
Thanks for posting this 🙏👍😎
VI tower was closer to the bridge.
Another great video.
So cool to see you do a video about this place! That big viaduct near Washington boulevard is a hidden gem for urban climbing, I've climbed there a few times (setting up ropes is a little sketchy on those old iron fences). The rail bridges at seldom seen are a much more popular climbing spot, I'm almost surprised you didn't run into any climbers when you filmed there.
That solves a curiosity of mine- I’ve seen little metal hooks at Seldom Seen, and now I know why. Thanks for you comment!
Where do you park at to walk?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,good educated commentary.....................There are so many ways to describe emotion when experiencing a crossroad between today and the lost past of generations ago.........great short trip ; made me feel like a boy scout again ; though that is a trait not lost in me................
Nice hat! I haven't thought about Heritage in a long time
Haha thank you! That’s my adventurin’ hat
Great content. Thoroughly enjoyable and informative. Looking forward to more of your adventures. There is a channel that you may enjoy: 'Downie Live' - he's a young Canadian that flew to Pittsburgh, just to ride the incline. He brings friends with him to share his adventures. He's ridden trains across Canada & the USA. He was invited by private railcar owners to have a ride on their private train from [if memory serves] from Chicago to West Virginia; great stuff.
Brillian Branch was used as short cut during rush hour. When WPRR used Conemaugh Division from Johnstown to Saltsburg to along old PA 28 WPRR filled in PA Canal Western Division that ran through the JFK Park crossing Main Street to wye to new section from Canal Street near Super K. 2. Heinz Company helped create current WPRR Conemaugh Division to go up to Kiski Junction.
The brilliant Ave branch was built by the Pennsylvania railroad in the early 1900s until the demise of the Penn central in 1976 when conrail took over that year they abandoned the line until Norfolk Southern took over operations in 1999 they sold that part of the line to the avr
Access Road to left leads down to Washington Blvd. as at the Old Penn DOT building is now Police Dept. and Pittsburgh Fire training building.
The sand piles are from the "sandboxes" on the railroad cars. The cars have a mechanism to stuff stand on to the rail just in front of the wheels to give more friction and grip. But sometimes they tend to dump a bunch of sand in one place if the car is sitting still.
It’s not. They’ve been storing 2-bay sand hoppers on that line off and on over the last few years. There’s a transload facility in New Ken for fracking. Sometimes those 2-bay cars don’t seal so great and leak out over time
Those are from sand-filled covered hoppers that have probably been stored on the line at various times. "Sandboxes" are only on locomotives, and when those leak it just leaves a pile of sand around the rail. Additionally, it only happens when an engine is sitting for a while, such as on a service or "pocket" track.
We have those mid supports at various spots on the enola low grade as well. Also a PRR project.
That was most likely Westinghouse High School.
Maybe the deer, like the fawn, are grazing on the greenery when it's not as overgrown.
Road reaches Leech Farm historically.
I thought of that scene in Stand By Me when I saw the deer cross the tracks.
20:43 Hate to break it to you, but that's PA Route 130 you crossed over, not Route 8. Route 8 doesn't go onto Allegheny River Blvd, as it turns at the traffic light before you get to the bridge.
Good catch! Thank you
Thanks for taking us along on this walk. I'm really bummed that they are going to tear out the tracks. I think that this could 100% be a part of the rebirth of rail travel through and around Pittsburgh. It would be a great way to get people from the northeast part of the Pittsburgh Suburbs into the city, and it's sad to see it abandoned.
That being said, the rails where the tracks align toward to Oakmont sure looked shiny as if they have had traffic on them at some point fairly recently. Most of the rail in the middle of the branch is rusted on top, but the tracks where the switch takes you to the AVR line to Oakmont seems shiny. I wonder if that is where they bring cars for additional storage over on the Aspinwall side of the line.
If you're in the mood to look at some cool urban industrial architecture, I recommend looking at the iron work around Brilliant Avenue on the Aspinwall side of the bridge. The ironwork is exquisite on that abandoned trestle...
In case you haven't kept up, since the pandemic rental rates and business occupancy rates have plummeted in the downtown area. If you go downtown you're far more likely to meet a homeless person than a worker.
Like it or not, Pittsburgh produces nothing that can't be produced cheaper somewhere else. It is a city that has outlived its usefulness and the current political efforts to turn it into a socialist paradise are doomed to failure.
Basic videography: you need to pan slowly. Your rapid camera movements cause nausea and are difficult to watch. Also, your audio level is low. I have to turn my computer sound up all the way to hear you.
Otherwise its a good video.