The P&WV Hi-Line

[PWVJer]

Clairton Branch news up-date & info from the gang foreman. " The Rush is ON! "
10 A.M. , 11-man (skeleton crew) #1 track gang was busy
pulling all spikes and setting/spiking one new tie every five spaces or so.
This to maintain gauge and safe movement for the Rail & Tie
equipment on the entire branch. Some ROW sections from Pierce to about MP 2 has new ties (12.500. total)
under almost all the old rail.
MOW crews are in very short supply & stretched thin on the WLE.
They hope to have two(2) full crews soon.

Early next week, a Ribbon-Rail-Train will deliver/drop new rail on all the Clairton branch
curves. New-Stick (CWR) will be used on the straight sections.
Four(4) New Switches. one at Pierce, and 3 at Clairton Yard to be installed.
About 30 car-loads of ballast to be surfaced & groomed.
NS to do a lot of Signal/Switch/Turn-out work at the new inter-change block on their River-Line.

Both WLE and AVR (Carload Express are actively vying for this major
inter-change business. WE wants new interchange traffic with NS.
Coke/Coke Bi-Products along with other assorted freight.

...took some pics to post soon. BTW birdie-talk, looks like at some point the entire
East-End main line, Pierce to Connellsville to get CWR as well.
Improvements to better serve the Monessen Plant and increased inter-change business with
CSX and SWP(Carload Express) traffic.

[pitt1292 photography]

I believe the empty rail train left Mingo Jct the other day to get loaded with rail for the branch.
Also as a side note the six axles would be restricted to 5mph on the branch

[PWVJer]

HMmmm... interesting. maybe save some wear & tear on the bridge & curves?
GP-40-3's would be nice, but Hey, the P&WV 101 could create some
great historical image shots as well.

6:30p.m. Clairton Branch, MOW 10ton crane , gon & flat-car and
several additional pieces of track equipment are staged near the
Rt.51 X'ing. Don't think WLE will work the week-end. Monday A.M. should see lots of branch action.

[pitt1292 photography]

When I talked to a crew they said they would be restricted to 5mph because of how tight the curves on the branch, when they ran the tie train back on 4/16 the crew was talking about how that six axle felt like it was going to spread the gauge. Also one last side note, it was also mentioned that NS would want atleast 80 car trains from WLE

[jayrod]

Hmmm... Any ideas on what the interchange traffic would be? Tanks out of Hopedale & Westland? I haven't heard anything from Brewster yet. Certainly wouldn't be coke out of Clairton - NS has their own access to the Clairton Works. NS will have to extend their portion of the interchange quite a bit to fit 80+ cars. All in all, that's a lot of work. And how does Carload Express fit into all of this? Inquiring minds want to know...
_________________
Eric Schlentner
Aka, jayrod