Overview | |
---|---|
Locale | Pittsburgh |
Dates of operation | 1870–1905 |
Predecessor | Monongahela Valley Railroad |
Successor | Mon Line |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
Length | 98.62 miles |
The Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway was a predecessor of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. By 1905, when it was merged into the Pennsylvania, it owned a main line along the left (west) side of the Monongahela River, to Pittsburgh's South Side from West Brownsville. Branches connected to the South-West Pennsylvania Railway in Uniontown via Redstone Creek and to numerous coal mines.
The company was chartered by the Pennsylvania General Assembly as the Monongahela Valley Railroad in April 1867, with the right to construct a railroad connecting Pittsburgh to Waynesburg; it was renamed Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway in February 1870. By November 1872, when the first segment opened from 4th Street in South Pittsburgh (now South Side Pittsburgh) to Homestead, the Pennsylvania Railroad had gained control. The primary purpose of this acquisition was to allow the Pennsylvania to construct a southern bypass around the congestion of Pittsburgh, via a short connection to the Main Line near Turtle Creek. [1] The line was extended to Monongahela in 1873, [2] and in 1874 the company began operating a steamboat beyond to Brownsville. Trains began running into downtown Pittsburgh's Union Station in 1875, crossing the Monongahela on the Panhandle Bridge. The connection near Turtle Creek was completed in August 1878, with the opening of the Port Perry Branch and Port Perry Bridge. In 1879 the Pennsylvania began operating the PV&C under lease as its Monongahela Division. [3]
The railroad was crossed by the O'Neil and Company Incline in West Elizabeth, Pennsylvania. [4]
The railroad was extended further south along the Monongahela River from Monongahela, Pennsylvania beginning in 1879 and reached West Brownsville in 1881. [5]
The Brownsville Railway Company began constructing a line from near Brownsville to Uniontown, PA. The PV&C took over the Brownsville Railway and merged it on May 11, 1880 [3] and finished the construction of its line by 1882. The Brownsville branch was built in 1883 and connected the PV&C's acquired Brownsville Railway to its namesake town of Brownsville, PA. [5]
The Pittsburgh and Whitehall Rail Road Company constructed a line in South Pittsburgh, PA, in 1886. The line ran from S 3rd Street to a connection with the PV&C near S 30th Street Yard. [5] The line was operated by the PV&C starting in November, 1886, and merged May 14, 1888. [3]
The McKeesport and Bessemer Rail Road Company built a line from the PV&C at Cochran to McKeesport, PA, in 1890–1891. [5] The line was first operated by the PV&C in December 1891, then merged into the PV&C November 1, 1894. [3]
The Monongahela River and Streets Run Rail Road Company acquired what was called the Streets Run branch by the PV&C from Richard Coulter, on January 29, 1892. The PV&C acquired the MR&SR later that year and extended the branch in 1902. [5] The MR&SR was merged into the PV&C November 1, 1894. [3]
The Peters Creek branch, near Peters Creek, PA, was built in 1893–1894. It was extended in 1895, 1901, 1902, and yet again in 1903. [5]
The Keister branch, near Waltersburg, PA, was built in 1899–1900. [5]
The Monongahela and Washington Railroad Company built a railroad from Monongahela to Ellsworth, PA in 1899–1900 and a branch to Cokeburg, PA in 1902. [5] The PV&C merged the line July 1, 1904. [3]
On April 1, 1905, the PV&C was merged into the Pennsylvania Railroad. [3]
Currently (as of 2015), the main line of the PV&C is owned by Norfolk Southern and operates as its Mon Line.[ citation needed ]
Brownsville is a borough in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, first settled in 1785 as the site of a trading post a few years after the defeat of the Iroquois enabled a resumption of westward migration after the Revolutionary War. The trading post soon became a tavern and inn and was receiving emigrants heading west, as it was located above the cut bank overlooking the first ford that could be reached to those descending from the Allegheny Mountains. Brownsville is located 40 miles (64 km) south of Pittsburgh along the east bank of the Monongahela River.
Rockwood is a borough in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 850 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, and located due north of Pennsylvania's highest peak, Mount Davis, which significantly constricts land travel routing south of the municipality.
The Monongahela Railway was a coal-hauling short line railroad in Pennsylvania and West Virginia in the United States. It was jointly controlled originally by the Pennsylvania Railroad, New York Central subsidiary Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, with NYC and PRR later succeeded by Penn Central Transportation. The company operated its own line until it was merged into Conrail on May 1, 1993.
The Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern Railway (CL&N) was a local passenger and freight-carrying railroad in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio, connecting Cincinnati to Dayton via Lebanon. It was built in the late 19th century to give the town of Lebanon and Warren County better transportation facilities. The railroad was locally known as the "Highland Route", since it followed the ridge between the Little and Great Miami rivers, and was the only line not affected by floods such as the Great Dayton Flood of 1913.
The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, also known as the "Little Giant", was formed on May 11, 1875. Company headquarters were located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The line connected Pittsburgh in the east with Youngstown, Ohio in the Haselton neighborhood in the west and Connellsville, Pennsylvania to the east. It did not reach Lake Erie until the formation of Conrail in 1976. The P&LE was known as the "Little Giant" since the tonnage that it moved was out of proportion to its route mileage. While it operated around one tenth of one percent of the nation's railroad miles, it hauled around one percent of its tonnage. This was largely because the P&LE served the steel mills of the greater Pittsburgh area, which consumed and shipped vast amounts of materials. It was a specialized railroad deriving much of its revenue from coal, coke, iron ore, limestone, and steel. The eventual closure of the steel mills led to the end of the P&LE as an independent line in 1992.
The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, commonly called the Pan Handle Route, was a railroad that was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. Its common name came from its main line, which began at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, crossed the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, and continued west to Bradford, Ohio, where it split into a northern line to Chicago and a southern one through Indianapolis, Indiana, to East St. Louis, Illinois.
The Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway was a railroad in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Wheeling, West Virginia, areas. Originally built as the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway, a Pittsburgh extension of George J. Gould's Wabash Railroad, the venture entered receivership in 1908 and the line was cut loose. An extension completed in 1931 connected it to the Western Maryland Railway at Connellsville, Pennsylvania, forming part of the Alphabet Route, a coalition of independent lines between the Northeastern United States and the Midwest. It was leased by the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1964 in conjunction with the N&W acquiring several other sections of the former Alphabet Route, but was leased to the new spinoff Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway in 1990, just months before the N&W was merged into the Norfolk Southern Railway.
The Mon–Fayette Expressway is a partially-completed tolled freeway that is planned to eventually link Interstate 68 near Morgantown, West Virginia with Interstate 376 near Monroeville, Pennsylvania. The ultimate goal of the highway is to provide a high speed north–south connection between Morgantown and the eastern side of Pittsburgh while revitalizing economically distressed Monongahela River Valley towns in Fayette and Washington counties, serving as an alternative to Interstate 79 to the west, as well as relieving the PA 51 alignment from Pittsburgh to Uniontown.
Transportation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is different than in many other major American cities. A large metropolitan area that is surrounded by rivers and hills, Pittsburgh has an infrastructure system that has been built out over the years to include roads, tunnels, bridges, railroads, inclines, bike paths, and stairways; however, the hills and rivers still form many barriers to transportation within the city.
Union Railroad is a Class III switching railroad located in Allegheny County in Western Pennsylvania. The company is owned by Transtar, Inc., which is a subsidiary of Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors, after being acquired from U.S. Steel in 1988. The railroad's primary customers are the three plants of the USS Mon Valley Works, the USS Edgar Thomson Steel Works, the USS Irvin Works and the USS Clairton Works.
Pennsylvania Route 51 is a major state highway that is located in Western Pennsylvania in the United States. It runs for 89 miles (143 km) from Uniontown to the Ohio state line near Darlington, where it connects with Ohio State Route 14.
Pennsylvania Route 88 is a 68-mile-long (109 km) north–south state highway located in southwestern Pennsylvania. The southern terminus of the route is at U.S. Route 119 (US 119) in Point Marion less than 2 miles (3 km) from the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border. The northern terminus is at PA 51 in Pittsburgh. PA 88 runs parallel to the Monongahela River for almost its entire length.
The P&W Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation, the Allegheny Valley Railroad (AVR), and the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad (BPRR) in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The line runs from Rankin north through Pittsburgh to West Pittsburg along a former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line, once the Pittsburgh and Western Railroad.
The Port Perry Branch is a rail line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The line runs from the Pittsburgh Line in North Versailles Township southwest through the Port Perry Tunnel and across the Monongahela River on the PRR Port Perry Bridge to the Mon Line in Duquesne along a former Pennsylvania Railroad line.
Turtle Creek is a 21.1-mile-long (34.0 km) tributary of the Monongahela River that is located in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Situated at its juncture with the Monongahela is Braddock, Pennsylvania, where the Battle of the Monongahela was fought in 1755.
U.S. Route 40 enters Pennsylvania at West Alexander. It closely parallels Interstate 70 (I-70) from West Virginia until it reaches Washington, where it follows Jefferson Avenue and Maiden Street.In Washington, US 40 passes to the south of Washington & Jefferson College. Following Maiden Street out of town, the road turns southeast toward the town of California. A short limited access highway in California and West Brownsville provides an approach to the Lane Bane Bridge across the Monongahela River. From here, the road continues southeast to Uniontown.
West Penn Railways, one part of the West Penn System, was an interurban electric railway headquartered in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. It was part of the region's power generation utility.
Port Perry was a town along the Monongahela River near Braddock, Pennsylvania and by the mouth of Turtle Creek. It disappeared by 1945, having been gradually replaced by railroad tracks serving the nearby Edgar Thomson Steel Works.
The Mon Line is an 85-mile long Norfolk Southern rail line which runs along the Monongahela River for most of its route.
H.B. Hays railroad.