The P&WV Hi-Line

[PWV101]

Here are some photos taken on July 3rd of track work at the Mifflin and Clairton Branches. New ties and ballast. Many ties are marked for replacement.
We walked about a mile or so on each branch.
Mifflin had lots of new ballast (lite & heavy) on the entire line.
Some surface/tie work started on the curves.
The Clairton images show the work on the new (small) bridge & approaches. As of our visit last Sat.
we saw only new tie replacement marks from about Pierce to just before the Rt.51 grade crossing.
Although it looked as if Hi-Railers have been up & down the entire line recently.

A neat shot of the new "Oiler" @ Longview.

A shot of the old "scales" near the Clairton branch( US Government Minerial Storage Area) from the 1950's.

Enjoy!
JR/JZ.





Some new ties and ballast at Longview on the Mifflin Branch looking west.



Longview Mifflin branch looking east towards Mifflin.



Mifflin local approaches the switch at Longview.













Mifflin local disappears down the Mifflin branch.



Further up the branch towards Mifflin you can the new track work.



Track work looking west towards Longview.



Mifflin branch looking east on the long tangent.



Mifflin branch looking west.



Old oiler connection on the main at Longview.



New oiler on the main looking east.



Close up of the new oiler.



New oiler looking west on the mainline.



View of the track work for the replacement bridge the garbage truck destroyed looking towards Pierce.



Shot of the replacement bridge.



Other side of the replacement bridge.



End of the track work at the bridge approach looking toward Clairton.



Showing some of the new replacement ties on the Clairton branch.



Many ties are marked for replacement on the Clairton branch.



More marked ties on the Clairton branch.



The remains of the US Government scales adjacent to the Clairton branch along Peters Creek.

[PWVJer]

Riding down along Peters-Creek (Clairton Branch) today.
Looks like some recent MOW hi-rail traffic has cleaned-up
a bit of the heavy rail rust. Perhaps rail-gauge & rail joints were
being checked out.
Maybe.... the rail/tie/surface ROW line re-opening project is in the near future?

[Rich_S]

Any new news on the Clairton and Mifflin branch updates? Is there any news on the relaying of the old Montour Westland branch and the connection at George Transfer?

[PWVJer]

We have not been up to the (Southview/George/Westland) area
since about the 1st week of Sept. We saw a bit more brush removal,
and some dozer-clearing near the WE main. No other major ROW work
was observed as of our last visit.

...the Clairton Branch. Well, have not been down the Peters Creek
area since early Sept. as well. Don't know what other fans who visit the BB may
know about these two projects. No one seems to want to talk or share any info.
Or maybe, folks are not as interested or have any progress to report.

Perhaps, ol'e JR/JZ need to make a "boots-on-the-ground" walking tour report.

[Hi-Line Fan]

Crews have been pretty busy working on the passing siding in Hickory. Lots of new ties and ballast in that area.

Is that part of the Westland project? Increase capacity?

[PWVJer]

Interesting, this may be part of an over-all WLE traffic plan.
They are looking at ways to relieve some of the congestion/
traffic load in/out of Rook Yard.
We have had a few fans mention that the Gladden-stub, and
Avella-stub track are at times full of track MOW equipment.

Don't really know what is going on with the FAR East-end.
Seems like a little more traffic going to/from...Monessen/Belle Vernon,
Owensdale & C'ville. It's anyones guess what other business plans
the WLE has in mind. We
have not been out past M.P. 39.8 (Pierce)
since July.

[Rich_S]

Do you know if they plan on relaying Hickory siding all the way to Hickory tunnel? From my understanding Gladden siding had been cut short as well? Are they also relaying this siding? With my current work schedule, etc... It's been years since I've been able to spend any boot time near the old High & Dry :( Just out of curiosity, how may trains a day does the W&LE run over the line between Pittsburgh Jct. and Rook?

Regards,
Rich S.

[PWVJer]

Don't have any info on possible siding extentions (Hickory or Gladden).

Lately, there have been 2 local crews per day, one in the morning (610) and often one in the afternoon (611).
These crews generally work the yard at Rook (and the frac sand and LPG terminals located there) and
handle all local switching east of Rook (including the Mifflin Branch, the AVR interchange, Monessen area customers,
SWP interchange, and the CSX interchange at Connellsville). They also will be used to crew outlawed road trains.

There is what appears to be a daily road train into Rook (212) from Brewster in the early morning, often before dawn.
Its counterpart, (213) is usually called in the late afternoon, sometimes not leaving until after dark.

I don't know if these each run every day (including weekends) or not.

There also have been unit coke trains running from Mingo Jct to Connellsville for interchange to CSXT
...so far about 1 per week (only 2 have run so far). These seem to run just about any time.