Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad

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Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad
Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad logo.png
BPRR 203 in the snow 105635575.jpg
A train on the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad in 2006
Overview
Headquarters Rochester, New York, U.S.
Reporting mark BPRR
Locale Northwestern Pennsylvania, U.S.
Dates of operation1988 (1988)
Technical
Track gauge 4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length729 miles (1,173 km)
Other
Website www.gwrr.com/bprr

The Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad( reporting mark BPRR) is a Class II railroad [1] operating in New York and Pennsylvania.

Contents

The BPRR is owned by Genesee & Wyoming. Its main line runs between Buffalo, New York, and Eidenau, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. Here, connections are made to the city center via the Allegheny Valley Railroad. The system runs largely on former Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) lines. The entire BPRR system is 728 miles (1,172 km).

Major commodities carried include paper, petroleum products, chemicals, coal, steel, and sand.

Main line

The Buffalo-Eidenau main line passes through Salamanca, NY, Bradford, PA, Johnsonburg, PA, DuBois, PA, Punxsutawney, PA, and Butler, PA.

Principal rail yards are located at Butler, Punxsutawney (Riker), and Buffalo, with support yards for local industry at other locations.

B&P initially used the direct former B&O/BR&P main between Buffalo and Salamanca, but during the 1990s a failing bridge at Springville, New York forced the railroad to detour its trains north of Ashford Junction via the former Rochester & Southern track to Machias Junction, New York, thence north on Conrail's/Norfolk Southern's ex-Pennsylvania Railroad Buffalo Line to Buffalo. Buffalo & Pittsburgh now is the sole user of the ex-PRR south of CP-GRAVITY in Buffalo.

BPRR operates two key secondary lines. One runs between Erie and Johnsonburg along the former Allegheny & Eastern Railroad. Another is made up of former Pittsburg & Shawmut Railroad tracks, running from the Armstrong Power Plant in Reesedale, Pennsylvania to Freeport, Pennsylvania. The B&P also operates on the Low Grade between DuBois and Driftwood that was formerly used by the Pennsylvania Railroad, then Conrail. A portion of the former B&O Northern Subdivision is used to provide access to Petrolia, PA.

There are many interchanges in BPRR. The Canadian National Railway has interchanges at Buffalo, New York and Butler, Pennsylvania. Canadian Pacific Kansas City has an interchange at Buffalo, New York. CSX Transportation has interchanges at Buffalo, New York, Erie, Pennsylvania. and New Castle, Pennsylvania. Norfolk Southern Railway has interchanges in Buffalo, Erie, Driftwood, Pennsylvania, Freeport, Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh.

Rochester & Southern Railroad and Buffalo Southern Railroad also each have one interchange at Buffalo, New York. Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad have one at East Salamanca, New York. Allegheny Valley Railroad also has one, located in Allison Park, Pennsylvania. Lastly, Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway has one in Bruceton, Pennsylvania. [2]

CSX Transportation leases the P&W Subdivision to the B&P between Allison Park and the New Castle Yard in West Pittsburg, just outside New Castle, PA. Though the B&P ends in Allison Park, the railroad rarely traverses the line down to the borough. Instead, it transfers its goods to the AVR either in Evans City or Bakerstown depending on the amount of freight it has. Other owned and operated branch lines travel to Homer City, St Marys, and Brookville, Pennsylvania, as well as to the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York. [3]

History

Indiana subdivision RR through Indiana PA.jpg
Indiana subdivision

Operations began in 1988 over mostly former Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (formerly Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway) lines. In the early 2000s, the BPRR merged other GWI railroads into it. These lines include the Allegheny & Eastern Railroad (ALY), Pittsburg & Shawmut Railroad (PSR), and the Bradford Industrial Railroad (BR).

Around 2005 the Indiana Subdivision, which had been out of use, was rehabilitated to serve the Homer City Generating Station. Shortly after this, the Ridge Subdivision, which had seen a Norfolk Southern coal train run-through to Shelocta was sold off to NS. In 2006, the railroad was honored as the Regional Railroad of the Year by Railway Age magazine. [4]

Fleet

The BPRR fleet, as of November 2020, consists of the following. [5] Almost all locomotives were manufactured by EMD between the late 1950s and early 1970s.

NumberTypeBuiltNotes
21 EMD NW2 1942Small switching locomotive.
33 EMD SW1200 1960Small switching locomotive.
44 EMD MP15DC 1975
51, 2000-2003 EMD GP38 1967-1971
101-102, 104, 3020–3021, 3050, 3100–3103, 3106–3107, 3120-3121 EMD GP40-2 1966-1969101-102, 104, 3100–3103, 3107, 3120-3121 are the variant GP40-3, rebuilt by CSX in 2014.
202-210, 626, 874, 879, 886-887 EMD GP9 1955-1959
305 EMD GP35 1964
450-463 EMD SD45 1966-1970All are the variant SD45R, rebuilt by Southern Pacific between 1979 and 1989. #463 was scrapped in September 2012.
922, 926 EMD GP18 1959
1002 EMD SW1001 1973Small switching locomotive.
1400-1401 Genset 2010Custom-built by the Brookville Equipment Corporation.
1506-1515 EMD SW1500 1969-1972Small switching locomotives.
2004, 2030, 9425 EMD GP38-2 1979-1982
2470 Santa Fe CF7 1953Originally an EMD F7, almost completely rebuilt by AT&SF in 1974.
3000-3001, 3032, 3062, 3111, 6410, 6416 EMD GP40 1966-1968
3063-3064, 3301–3302, 3323, 3328, 3330–3332, 3342-3343, 3346, 3396 EMD SD40-2 1967-19713301 through 3328 are SD40T-2. Remainder are SD40-3, rebuilt by CSX in 2011.
3880-3885, 3889-3892 EMD SD60 1993-19943880-3885 are SD60I, with insulated cab. 3889-3892 are SD60M, with full-width short hood.
4528, 4813, 4823, 4827, 4830, 4851, 4868, 4885, 4923, 4933, 4941, 4973 GE C44-9W 1998-1999All are ex-BNSF locomotives purchased from Wabtec.
5018-5020 EMD SD50 1986All are variant SD50-3, rebuilt by CSX in 2009.

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pittsburg and Shawmut Railroad</span> Railway line

The Pittsburg and Shawmut Railroad, also known as the Shawmut Line, was a short line railroad company operating passenger and freight service on standard gauge track in central and southwestern Pennsylvania. Since 2004, it has been operated as part of the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad, which is owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pittsburg, Shawmut and Northern Railroad</span>

The Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern Railroad also known as the Shawmut Line, was a Class I railroad company operating passenger and freight service on standard gauge track in central Pennsylvania and western New York. The line was financially troubled for its entire life span and declared bankruptcy after just six years of operation. It would spend the remaining 42 year of its existence in receivership or trusteeship: one of the longest bankruptcy proceedings in American railroading history.

The Genesee Valley Canal Railroad was a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system in western New York. It was built on the former Genesee Valley Canal alignment.

The Allegheny and Eastern Railroad was a shortline railroad operating in Pennsylvania, owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. It is now operated by the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rochester and Southern Railroad</span> Short line railroad in the state of New York, United States of America

The Rochester and Southern Railroad, a subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming Inc., is a class III shortline that runs from the city of Rochester in Monroe County to Silver Springs, NY. The RSR started in 1986, when the B&O sold off its Buffalo and Rochester branches. The trackage was purchased by Genesee & Wyoming Inc., and split into two railroads, the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad and the Rochester and Southern Railroad. The Rochester branch was scrapped from Silver Springs south to Machias, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">P&W Subdivision</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allegheny Valley Railroad</span> Class III railroad that operates in Western Pennsylvania

The Allegheny Valley Railroad is a class III railroad that operates in Western Pennsylvania, and is owned by Carload Express, Inc.

The Northern Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad (BPRR), which is owned by Genesee and Wyoming Industries, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The line is one of the oldest in Pennsylvania, and at one time, stretched all the way from Callery, to Mount Jewett, Pennsylvania. Today, more than half the line is gone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad (2001)</span>

The Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad is a short-line railroad that operates freight trains in Western New York and Northwest Pennsylvania The company is controlled by the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad, with which it does not connect. It started operations in 2001 on the Southern Tier Extension, a former Erie Railroad line between Hornell, New York and Corry, Pennsylvania, owned by the public Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany and Steuben Southern Tier Extension Railroad Authority (STERA).

The Allegheny Railroad was an American railroad company operating in northwestern Pennsylvania.

The Rochester and State Line Railroad was a 19th-century railroad company in New York state.

The Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh Railway was one of the more than ten thousand railroad companies founded in North America. It lasted much longer than most, serving communities from the shore of Lake Ontario to the center of western Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Youngstown Belt Railroad</span>

The Youngstown Belt Railroad is a part of the Ohio Central Railroad System, which was bought by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. in 2008, serving the area northwest of Youngstown, Ohio. It began operations in 1997, mainly on ex-Erie Railroad trackage owned by the affiliated Warren and Trumbull Railroad (W&T), which acquired the "Lordstown Cluster" from Conrail in 1996. It also leases a short ex-Baltimore and Ohio Railroad segment from CSX Transportation, formerly operated by the W&T.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren and Trumbull Railroad</span>

The Warren and Trumbull Railroad is a part of the Ohio Central Railroad System, which was bought by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. in 2008, operating three lines in and near Warren. It began operations in 1994 on a line formerly operated by CSX Transportation, and expanded in 1996 on two ex-Conrail lines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbus and Ohio River Railroad</span> Railroad in Ohio, United States

The Columbus & Ohio River Railroad is a railroad in the U.S. state of Ohio owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc.

References

  1. Surface Transportation Board, GENESEE & WYOMING INC.--CONTROL EXEMPTION--COLUMBUS AND GREENVILLE RAILWAY COMPANY, THE CHATTOOGA AND CHICKAMAUGA RAILWAY COMPANY, AND LUXAPALILA VALLEY RAILROAD, INC., May 15, 2008
  2. "Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad – A Genesee & Wyoming Company".
  3. "Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad – A Genesee & Wyoming Company".
  4. Railway Age (2006). "Railway Age Announces Short Line and Regional Railroads of the Year". Archived from the original on 2006-10-07. Retrieved 2006-08-14.
  5. "Buffalo & Pittsburgh Roster". www.thedieselshop.us. 30 November 2020. Archived from the original on 2004-12-12. Retrieved 2021-01-31.
Preceded by Regional Railroad of the Year
2006
Succeeded by