The P&WV Hi-Line

[Longview Station]

Its been nearly 2 years in the making, Friday afternoon while traveling out of Pittsburgh via the West End Circle and Route 51 South, two large crane booms were spotted down on the West End Branch that finally has brought closure that the West End Branch...aka the Little Saw Mill Run Railroad...has been sold to the State of Pennsylvania to make room for the West End Circle reconstruction project.

This Sunday Morning I took a somber walk along a small section of the West End Branch, mainly where the construction cranes are located so as to see for myself another End of a Historic Era of P&WV Railroading.

This short section of West End Branch according to the History books was part of the Little Saw Mill Run Railroad that extended just over 3 Miles from Temperanceville to Banksville (near where I grew up prior to 1965).
The Little Saw Mill Run was merged into the West Side Belt...then later mergerd into the P&WV...part of the N&W/NS and W&LE.

Ten or so years ago, I had a bad feeling when construction crews undermined the West End Branch along Saw Mill Run just above where the construction cranes are currently located, causing the roadbed to disappear into the creek below. A year or two later, the Branch was finally put back together...but traffic to and from CSX via the former P&LE never returned.

I was fortunate just over a year ago, a contractor was painting the PATransit overhead bridge near the Liberty Tunnels and the railroad flagman called to protect their work had to remove his truck from the right of way to allow a train crew through...so he relocated to the siding, but to do so he ran down to the West End Circle to set on...and along I went for my last ride over the Little Saw Mill Run...West Side Belt trackage.

This Morning in my short walk, through all of the high weeds and overgrown trees, I was able to photograph a piece of rail on the only remaining side track on the branch, just above those tall cranes
that read "CARNEGIE ET 1902".

I don't know when the bridges on the West End Branch will be removed, its all a guessing game of time...

VW

[PWVJer]

Yes, that is sad news. I thought it would happen soon...
I can't remember the last time I saw a WE movement.
We have a few very old West-End original direct contact prints from 1905-09'??
Dale Elder collection. These are very rare! Maybe we will do an Historical up-date with these images.
We think very few have ever seen this stuff.
JZ.