Diverse EMD power on the Allegheny Valley Railroad
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ส.ค. 2024
- Hello everyone! Back with another video, this time showcasing the Allegheny Valley Railroad! Owned by Carload Express (who also owns the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad and the Delmarva Central Railroad), this shortline in the Pittsburgh region runs on 77 miles of track across 3 different lines. It interchanges with 4 railroads in and around Pittsburgh (NS, CSX, Wheeling & Lake Erie, and Buffalo & Pittsburgh) and runs several trains per day. In contrast to many other shortlines in the Rust Belt that are remnants of a bygone era serving the last of "old time" industries (often on poorly maintained track with only a few trains per week), the AVR and other Carload Express operations offer more optimism towards the future of last-mile railroading, with extensive investments being made into track upgrades and new businesses being built and served by the railroad.
The focus of this video is action captured on the W&P Subdivision, an ex-CSX/ex-Baltimore & Ohio line that extends about 30 miles southwest from the railroad's Glenwood Yard to just west of Washington, PA. Once upon a time this line continued west into West Virginia and Ohio, but the line was abandoned beyond Washington in 1989. AVR-3 is the regularly scheduled train on this line, which runs weekdays down to Eighty Four and Washington to service a handful of industries. They also exchange cars with Wheeling & Lake Erie at the Bruceton interchange in South Park. In addition to AVR-3, extra local trains to Bruceton and to Galvtech's facility across the river from Glenwood are run on an as-needed basis.
The highlight of the W&P Subdivision to me is the variety of motive power it sees - one can spend a few days catching trains on this line and see different engines every time. Locomotives spanning a four decade period can be seen on this line, some having been in service since the twilight years of steam while others were only recently retired from modern Class I railroads. While all are painted in the current maroon and yellow paint scheme of Carload Express-owned railroads, it's still cool to see so many different types of power on the same rail line, with a good variety of horns and no GE engines in sight. Unfortunately the trains did not go the entire way to Washington or I was unable to chase them the entire way on the days I went out, instead turning back north in Eighty Four, but that will be something for another day! Enjoy the video and enjoy seeing (and hearing) the trains of AVR!
Motive power featured in this video includes (in order from oldest to newest):
SWP 2003 - Built 1956, Ex-New Haven GP9, rebuilt into a GP11 for Illinois Central Gulf. Acquired by Carload Express for the SWP, but is currently in use on the AVR. Usually I see this engine with fellow GP11 AVR 2007 switching the yard, so it was a pleasant surprise to see both on AVR-3 with this unit leading on the return trip north!
AVR 2007 - Built 1957, Ex-Illinois Central GP9, rebuilt into a GP11 by Illinois Central Gulf.
AVR 4002 - Built 1966, Ex-Western Pacific GP40, later acquired by KCS. Now classified as a GP40-3.
AVR 4001 - Built 1966, Ex-Burlington GP40, later acquired by KCS. Now classified as a GP40-3.
SWP 4006 - Built 1967, Ex-Milwaukee Road, later acquired by KCS. GP40-2.
SWP 406 - Build date unknown, originally a Penn Central GP38. Rebuilt into a road slug mated with 4006.
CLXX 4551 - Built 1989, Ex-Norfolk Southern. One of two GP59's purchased from NS and recently repainted into the Carload Express paint scheme.
CLXX 6001 - Built 1993, Ex-Conrail SD60M.
CLXX 6002 - Built 1993, Ex-Conrail SD60M.
CLXX 6005 - Built 1993, Ex-Conrail SD60M. All of the Carload Express SD60M's were acquired from Norfolk Southern.
As always I hope you guys enjoyed the video! Thanks for watching!
EDIT: At 01:03:36 a small typo was made. Valley View Road is in Nottingham Township, not Peters Township. We all make mistakes!
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:13 11/7/22 Southbound, Streets Run
00:01:40 Slug set rescue
00:05:57 Leaving Bruceton
00:06:40 11/8/22 Southbound, Streets Run
00:08:00 11/8/22 Galvtech Local
00:09:14 12/16/22 Southbound, Streets Run
00:12:41 SB Finleyville
00:14:38 Valley View Road
00:16:34 Switching International Paper/ProFrac
00:22:24 Northbound, Thomas Eighty Four Road
00:24:36 NB Finleyville
00:26:18 Interchange at Bruceton
00:28:41 NB Streets Run
00:32:22 12/19/22 Southbound, Streets Run
00:36:55 SB South Park
00:37:44 SB Finleyville Depot
00:41:35 Switching International Paper/ProFrac
00:43:53 SB Wylandville
00:44:39 Switching Washington Penn Plastic
00:54:23 Northbound, North Strabane
00:57:12 NB Peters Township
00:58:46 Glenwood Yard
01:00:24 12/20/22 Northbound, Peters Township
01:02:35 NB Bruceton
01:03:43 12/27/22 Southbound, Valley View Road
01:06:10 Switching International Paper/ProFrac
01:08:27 Outro
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Seeing GP11s leading is quite the treat these days
When this was a through line to Wheeling, it saw about 40 freight trains at day during WW2 and numerous passenger trains. Some of the traffic was through trains from Cincinnati. Much of the traffic was between the mills in Pittsburgh and Wheeling, production of the many glass factories in Washington, Pa, and from a number of coal mines along the line. The line was double tracked from Pittsburgh down to around the Thomas tunnel in North Strabane Township. From there until Wheeling it was single tracked with many long passing sidings controlled by centralized traffic control (CTC) which was the first use of CTC on the entire B&O system. By the 1980s, before abandonment west of Washington by CSX, it was down to 2 through trains each way and a local switcher. The W&P Sub was know for its many 2% grades and tunnels. It was considered one of the most difficult lines for train handling on the entire B&O, especially during the steam era. The longest grades were Streets Run from the Whitehall tunnel down to the Mon River in Pittsburgh and the even longer West Alexander grade from the tunnel in West Alexander, PA down to the Ohio River. The longest tunnel is Brady Tunnel in South Strabane Township, which after going up a 2% grade from the village Eighty Four, PA, tunnels under Laboratory Hill and exits into the city of Washington, PA.
Great video! I grew up next to these rails and have very fond memories of walking these rails and an occasional hope on a train. There used to be 2 lines and a lot more traffic when it was a B&O line. Then it became the Chessie System with my favorite Chessie Cat symbol engines. Thanks again for video.
I'm glad you liked the video! Thanks for watching!
22:24 - 32:22 best part of the video hands down
Agreed!
I like their paint scheme . Very sharp . And they seem to take good care of them . I just painted an HO scale GP 35 in the AVR scheme .
Awesome video! I love the variety that AVR offers. I greatly appreciate you showing me around the area for some of these catches. Happy new year!
Happy new year and thanks for watching!
Nice catches and good shots! There’s definitely a lot of different engines on this railroad.
Nice video! Those notch 8 shows sound good! And the horns, too!
I’m glad you liked the video! Thanks for watching!
I live in to Pleasant Hills pa and I see the train all the time it’s amazing
They’re pretty Trainz are amazing
Very good video bro that train company reminds me of the movie Unstoppable where a locomotive similar to this company carried two passenger cars and made a life change just before the AWVR 777 collided with said formation
One of the Carload Express GP11’s was in fact used in that movie, however it is not one of the ones seen in this video. Thanks for watching!
Carload Express are really stepping up to game on how to improve the infastructure. Many wonder how they could've done if contract was awarded on SEDA-COG lines in Central Pennsylvania immediatetly. Only time tells if they win this court battle.
It's definitely nice to see a company of shortline railroads making good improvements to their infrastructure, power, and operations that *isn't* part of the GWI conglomerate.
@@RandomRailAdventures You see lot of them where you from. Track conditions are probably worst. Just look at Kokomo grain derailment that happened in spring last year. Here in Pennsylvania, I sometimes come across B&P (GWI's Class 2 regional). I know there's few GWI shortlines here in Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh & Ohio Central, Wellsboro & Corning, and York Railway. Carload overtime became one of great first/last mile services overall. Maybe even better than any of class 1's.
@@chromediesel444 There's one or two WCOR engines that see service on B&P's trains. The B&P trackage isn't in horrible condition but a few people I know have said some colorful things about it and the Carload Express tracks are definitely in better shape overall. Pittsburgh & Ohio Central's trackage seems to be about as bad as when Penn Central owned the rails there. Meanwhile much of the trackage on AVR and SWP has been upgraded or will be soon, in fact as we speak much of SWP's mainline is being upgraded to welded rail. Interested to see how things progress in the coming years.
@@RandomRailAdventures What GWI is good at is buying trackage, not keeping up to mainline standards, and reducing trackage lengths. York Railway doesn't even run the former PRR line to Hanover and they gave up trying to connect with Maryland Midland (which was also an interesting shortline before GWI bought it). B&P severed the former PRR line between St. Mary's and Emporium thus cutting direct connection between Erie and Williamsport/Harrisburg. But in most surprise, GWI got bought by Brookfield the Canadian company.
@@RandomRailAdventurestheir are actually 3 WCOR locomotives on the B&P #301, 6072 and 6059 I’ve gotten all 3 leading
do you know when the galvtec local runs?
As-needed, so whenever they please. Sometimes you can catch them running over there before or after AVR-3 departs for Bruceton and points south.