Conemaugh Line

The Conemaugh Line is a rail line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The line runs from Conpit Junction (west of New Florence) northwest and southwest to Pittsburgh,[1] following the Conemaugh, Kiskiminetas, and Allegheny rivers, on the former main line of the Conemaugh Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR).[2] At its east end, it merges with the Pittsburgh Line; its west end is where it merges with the Fort Wayne Line at the northwestern tip of Allegheny Commons Park. The line was used by the PRR as a low-grade alternate to its main line (which is now part of Norfolk Southern's Pittsburgh Line) in the Pittsburgh area.[3]

Conemaugh Line
Overview
TypeFreight rail
SystemNorfolk Southern
StatusOperational
Localewestern Pennsylvania
TerminiNew Florence
CP-PENN in Pittsburgh
Operation
Opened1863 (independent), 1865 (PRR), 1968 (PC), 1976 (Conrail), 1999 (NS)
Closed1865 (independent), 1968 (PRR), 1976 (PC), 1999 (Conrail)
OwnerNorfolk Southern
Operator(s)Norfolk Southern
Technical
Number of tracks1
Track gauge1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Route map

 Fort Wayne Line
 Allegheny River
 Fort Wayne Line
 Brilliant Branch
 Freeport Rail Bridge
 Kiskiminetas River
Saltsburg Tunnel
 Conemaugh River
 Pittsburgh Line
Sang Hollow Extension
Pittsburgh Line

History

A short branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad from Torrance (on the main line) to Blairsville opened in 1851; only a small piece of this at Blairsville is still in use.[4] The Western Pennsylvania Railroad (formerly the North Western Railroad)[5] opened from Blairsville west to Saltsburg in 1863[6] and to Kiskiminetas (Kiski) Junction (near Freeport) in 1864 or 1865.[7][8] The line from Freeport to Allegheny (Pittsburgh) opened in 1866.[9] A new, more direct line east from Blairsville was built by the Western Penn in the early 1880s, meeting the PRR main line at Bolivar.[10] The PRR's Sang Hollow Extension, now only part of the Conemaugh Line west of Conpit Junction, opened east to Johnstown in 1876;[11] the portion east of Conpit Junction was operated as a one-way line for westbound freight.[12] All of the aforementioned lines became part of the PRR through leases and mergers, became Penn Central in 1968, and were taken over by Conrail in 1976. In the 1999 breakup of Conrail, the line was assigned to Norfolk Southern.

Around 1950, a (then double-track) 16.94-mile (27.26 km) portion of the line was relocated to a higher elevation, as part of a flood control project on the Conemaugh River.[13][14][15] The previous alignment (built in 1907)[16] would later become the bulk of the West Penn Trail.

The Conemaugh Line is notable for being the recipient of a variation of the PRR's cab signal system in 1940, which eliminated the wayside signals between interlockings from Conpit Junction to Kiski Junction, requiring operation of trains by cab signal indication only.[17] This system (whose visual NORAC Rule 562), modified by Conrail to operate bidirectionally, continues to be used by Norfolk Southern on this part of the Conemaugh Line; the section from Kiski to Pittsburgh also uses bidirectional signaling, however this section uses wayside signals but is NOT cab-signal energized. As of October of 2017 upgrade work to the Conemaugh Line has begun, and the entire line from Pittsburgh to Conpit will be Cab Signal Only[18] with new Safetran Signals at just the interlockings, with a new Control point being put in around LC 60.0. The entire line is remotely dispatched by Traffic Control System (TCS).[19]

See also

References
  1. the NS Conemaugh Line
  2. http://triblive.com/x/blairsvilledispatch/s_522552.html
  3. "Keystone Crossings: Hobo's Guide to the Pennsy: The Allegheny Valley Railroad". Retrieved 2006-11-30.
  4. "PRR Chronology, 1851" (PDF). (67.7 KiB), March 2005 Edition
  5. Wilson, William Bender (1899). History of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company: With Plan of Organization, Portraits of Officials and Biographical Sketches. Philadelphia: Henry T. Coates & Co. p. 213.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  6. "PRR Chronology, 1863" (PDF). (140 KiB), June 2004 Edition
  7. "PRR Chronology, 1864" (PDF). (109 KiB), June 2004 Edition
  8. "PRR Chronology, 1865" (PDF). (110 KiB), June 2004 Edition
  9. "PRR Chronology, 1866" (PDF). (89.2 KiB), June 2004 Edition
  10. PRR Corporate History: Pennsylvania Railroad Archived January 12, 2002, at Archive.today
  11. "PRR Chronology, 1876" (PDF). (116 KiB), April 2006 Edition
  12. PRR Interlocking Diagrams: Altoona to Pittsburgh Main Line
  13. "Major Line Relocation". Railway Age. 1949-05-28. Retrieved 2018-06-03.
  14. "Report of the Chief of Engineers U.S. Army". 1955.
  15. "The Railway Gazette". October 1947.
  16. http://coalandcoke.blogspot.com/2013/08/off-of-west-penn-trail-conemaugh-river.html
  17. "PRR Chronology, 1940" (PDF). (35.3 KiB), August 2004 Edition
  18. http://position-light.blogspot.com/2017/12/conemaugh-line-cab-signal-expansion.html
  19. "Conrail - Pittsburgh Division - Conemaugh Line Employee Timetable #6 January 15, 1998". Eastern Pennsylvania Rail Page. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
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