Pittsburgh's Montour RR/bike/hike trail sees a re-birth (Update August 12, 2012)

Mike:

 

Thank you for posting this little jolt to my memory!  

 

When I was in college in Pittsburgh back in the mid '70's, I worked at a valet parking lot that served the Pittsburgh Airport.  The lot was located off of Montour Run Road near where it junctioned with the Airport Parkway.  We had to cross the Montour Railroad to get into and out of the parking lot.  

 

Although my attraction to trains and railroading was in a near dormant state at that time, I still always enjoyed seeing the Montour trains running by pulled by 4 or 5 EMD switchers.  I recollect long trains of coal hoppers, both loaded and empty and the occasional caboose hop where 4 engines and a green Montour caboose would run by.

 

I can well remember working one Saturday evening when a train was going by and hearing an unusual rumble and banging.  When we went to investigate, the train had derailed and was blocking the crossing that led into the parking lot and the adjacent Wickes Furniture.  Until the railroad was able to clear the crossing, we had to cut a trail from the back side of Wickes through a field and down to the next road that provided access to Montour Run Road.  It was one of those "endless" nights that I thought I'd never be able to leave work.

 

Curt

Wickes is gone, many years ago.  The Airport park and ride is still there. Also an improved access to the bike trail is here also, Mile marker 5.  I usually park one lot up, what is commonly known as Schmidt's Tavern bike trail lot, I believe from the maps is listed as Cliff Mine Rd., mile marker 6. Interactive trail map.   The construction, Westland Spur, is at mile marker 21 Galati Rd. Westland was a major coal producing spur via Consol Energy.  There is talk of re-opening the mines there in addition to the LNG trains.   

Great post!

 

If they ever open the mines, make it the Champion number 10 first.

Very pleasant reading, both the report on the Montour and Curt's first hand story. I would have loved to hear a consist of EMD switchers in Run-8, pulling Montour's coal. Thanks for posting, fellows.

 

Out on the trail again yesterday. My first 30 mile bike ride of the year.  There are ties on site an the constrution is proceeding.

 

Galati Road crossing is near grade.

 

First break in the guard rail is the railroad, second break is the bike trail

Note that the bike trail has a slag base, The railroad is limestone.  Different colors.

Southview Rd. new bridge.

 

Railroad ties.

 

 

A retention wall is being built where the Westland Spur turns off the Old Montour main.

 

On the ride back, I stopped on the McDonald viaduct, Mile Post 17.5,   An interesting note about the bridge is the resident honey bee nest.  Active again for at least the third year, by my count.   Always good to see these little critters thriving.

 

 

 

Progress on the Westland Spur, May 31, 2012, to the Markwest LNG gas loading station.

Unloading rail, dragging the 1/4 mile long pieces  and stacking them. 

 

Some serious tension.

 

I found this interesting.

 

This really didn't appear to be the way to built a new railroad.

 

 

At the Old Rt. 50 Crossing Bridge.   The bridge was removed by Penn DOT when the Montour RR closed.

 

 

 

 

Bike trail nears completion. They were working on replacing the temporary orange fence with the permanent fence.

 

 

Part of the old Montour Southview Road Bridge.  The Yahoo Montour RR Historical Group is displaying this piece at the Galati Trail parking area.

 

 

Foundation for the bridge beam.

 

One last look

 

200 cars...A DAY? Are you sure about that? That's 3 to 4 trains per day. I think that would be the WLE's largest customer. It will take a 6-track yard at the customer's site to handle that level of traffic.

Here is an interesting U-tube video of the yard.   Looks pretty extensive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeZBW4w-LbM

 

Copied note below the video.

 

"Schematics for the new MarkWest rail-out spur line and facility in Westland, Pa for loading propane onto trains headed onto the Wheeling & Lake Erie RR line west of Pittsburgh. The new rail line is to be completed in 2012 with deliveries eventually reaching 200 railcars per day".

 

Here is a link to the Pittsburg and West Virginia Hi-Line.  A much better job of pictures than what I have.

 

MIKE -

 

VERY INTERESTING LINK-SOMEONE IS TAKING A GREAT DOCUMENTATION IN PICTURES OF THE PROJECT.

 

I LIVE IN ALLISON PARK.

 

DO YOU HAVE A WEBSITE FOR THE WASHINGTON COUNTY BIKE TRAILS YOU MENTION??

 

I MIGHT LIKE TO TRY THEM OUT - I'M ONLY A NOVICE AND LIKE THE FLATTER TRAILS IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.  THANKS

 

FREIGHTRAIN (JIM STACK)

Montour Trail Map   You are also accessing the Pandle Handle trail in excellent condition form Carnegie, PA  to Burgettstown, PA Old PRR.  The Montour and Pandle interconnect at McDonald, Pa. just before the McDonald Viaduct.  There are two tunnels on the Montour Trail, Enlow and National.

 

The Montour trail is also part of the Great Allegheny Passage Map. Sections (5) and (6)

 

The Montour Trail Group owned full rights to the abandoned Montour Westland Spur. Most of the improvements to the trail in the last two years are due to the agreement between the trail group and Markwest Corp.  There is continuing construction on the trail toward McKeesport.   

 

 

 

great thread and photos.  what is the weight of the rail that is being installed? 

Michael,

 

Great photos!  The courthouse here in Mercer has been jam packed with the gas companies doing title searches.

 

Sounds like you are back in training for the summer.  I started this week in preparation for the Mercer ride on the 16th.  I hope you can make the ride!

 

Thanks for the posts.

 

Dave

Dave:  

Street talk is that the well on the Cheeseman Farm, McConnell's Mill State Park area, Lawrence Co.  is a really, really good well.  Couple that with Western PA is double layered pretty much all the way to Sommerset County, Marcellous Shale and Utica Shale deeper, which extends into Ohio.  It is exciting to see all this happening after living here and seeing economic growth go away in the early 1980's.   The Shell Oil Cracking Plant in Monaca, PA  is another huge investment in an area running pretty lean after many years. Who would have thunk??     The Grandkids will be around and working here, that is so great.  

 

From Cliff Mine Rd. Parking area to the Galati Parking area, where the construction is, 16.5 miles.  A great longer ride on a pleasent day.   I had Micah, my bike buddy, Grandson, on the Montour Monday, Memorial Day.   His first 5.5miles uphill.  A couple of breaks before we reached the Boggs parking area and he was all smiles, Downhill, and he loves the Enlow tunnel. I'm a little ahead of last year with good weather in April and May. We should get together for a longer ride.

 

Mike

The W&LE Main and new switch is 136 # rail. The rest is 132# CWR (Contiuous Welded Rail) used.  Information from Gene P Schaeffer, Montour RR. Historical Society forum.

Correction on the rail.   Used rail manufactures 1967, 45 years ago.  It appears to be 140# rail. Correction posted on the Montour RR Yahoo forum by Gene P Shaeffer.

Gene's picture.

A beautiful summer day here in Western PA, yesterday June 25, 2012.  My first Montour bike ride in some time, I ventured off trail at Gilmore Junction and rode into the hamlet of Westland where the new LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) loading yard is. I took pictures on the ride back, beautiful Western PA farm country.
You can access my Photobucket Montour Westland Spur file, best viewed as a slideshow.

I rode back a concrete drive that lead to a beautiful house about a year ago.

 

Picture of the huge home January 2011.

 

The elevation of the new yard is at least 20 ft higher than the old Montour Westland Coal loading yard.  The house was here.

I counted at least 4 tracks after I crawled up the grade.

The old yard was at the level of my bike.

One of the interesting points of discussion on the Montour RR Historical forum is "Cow tunnels". There were two on the Hutchison farm.  It appears there is still one.

 Pictures from January 2011.  One of the two existing cow tunnels.

 

 

The Hutchison Barn.

 

 

Jean Hutchison, still living here,  has given the Montour RR Historical Society some picture on the original railroad contruction in the 1920's. They should be available on the Montour yahoo website.

 

Two of the noted problem areas of the Montour Westland Spur were the grade out of the yard and the Johnson Rd. cut.

Johnson Rd. cut much improved.

 

There had to have been a bridge here at one time.

 

 

 

Soon to be Rte 50 crossing.

 

Southview Rd crossing.

 

I managed a shot of a W&LE train at the Galati Trail parking area.

 

Once off the Montour trail, there is about a 1.25 mile ride on Rte 50 which I wouldn't recommend to anyone due to heavy traffic. Hornhead Rd, to the left off 50 into Westland, which parallels the Railroad is very bike friendly.  There were a couple of cows loose, out side the fence, near the Hutchison farm.  

thanks for sharing, nice road trip.

I visited the site yesterday as well after chasing the Pittsburgh & Ohio Central from Peters Township southward, and found a trackmobile moving a section of weld rail presumably towards Route 50 for installation of the new crossing there.



The crossing signals were also installed in place at Galati Road.



Can't wait for trains to starting rolling along to Westland!

It was interesting to note how they were moving the 1/4 mile long pieces of rail. Over filling the ballast was part of the technique.  This was the second piece of rail moved on Monday, both to be used for the Rt. 50 crossing.

Mike H.: The workmen had just finished lunch and were completing installing the rollers when I was there.

 

Two men, one was the operator of the Pettibone above used these rollers.

 

The first piece of rail.

 

I walked the bike off the trail here to Southview Rd. When I got back from Westland the first piece of rail was there.

They move the rail horizontally with this attachment.

The Rt. 50 curved crossing is very long and has to be done in concrete.

 

Some issues moved the railroad very close to the east bound lane of Rt. 50 after the crossing.  Where this truck and excavator are is where the railroad will be.

 

The old Southview Rd. bridge beam was installed at the Galati Trail Parking area.

This may be the first train on the Old Montour.  A Gene P. Schaeffer photo posted on the Montour RR Historical Society yahoo forum.

 

The Bike Ride Tuesday July 10 saw progress on the completion of the Rt 50 crossing and preparation to move the remaining track to complete  the Four miles to Westland.
Westland Spur file.  Best viewed as a slideshow.
Rt. 50 crossing


Track to be moved near the W&LE switch. Approximately  40 pieces

 

Mike

 

I was just down around there last evening getting ice cream at the little place on 50.  This is pretty cool news!  Thanks for the photos!

Out on the Montour yesterday. Construction continues, by this time next month, there is a good chance we will see trains moving on the Westland spur.

Westland Spur file.  Best viewed as a slideshow.

Loaded mini-rail transport.  Each CWR(Continuous Welded Rail) is .30 miles, 1,584ft(482.8meters) I was able to measure with my bike cyclocomputer.



The other end of the CWR

 

Another view of the loaded mini-train.

There are (20) CWR remaining, including the (9) pieces loaded.  A total of 31,680 ft, 6miles/3miles of track. 

The rail laying on it's side is dated 1966.

 

Work was being done installing underground power to the crossing gates at Southview Rd. and Galati Rd.  The work crew was preparing to bore under Southview Rd.

Boring Machine and underground junction box or transformer base.

 

Backhoe is digging a hole where the boring machine will be located to cross under Southview Rd. Hopefully the bore will come out somewhere near the existing PVC conduit.

 

 

A very nice Gene P. Schaeffer photo of Progress on the Westland LNG loading yard.

 

From the Yahoo Montour RR Historical site.

Mike, Thanks for sharing all the GREAT PICTURES. Keep us up to date on the progress. This looks like very good news for the area.

Long ride on the Montour Wednesday August 8, 2012.  Spending Marcellous Shale Gas money, there are new bridges on Morganza Rd., and Georgetown Rd.  This accesses the lower Montour for us upper Montour riders.   What a beautiful Old railroad.  50 pictures in a slide show, click on the underlined phrase to link.  This Arizona sunshine is rare in Western Pa.  It was also a very hot day.  
I got lucky with this shot of a Pittsburgh and Ohio Central SW 15 (#1547) from a Montour bridge near Greer tunnel.


New Westland spur is nearing completion. West Penn Power was completing work at the Galati Rd. Crossing gate.  Gate crossing need to be connected to the rail trigger sections.




Trail maintenance work at the Primerose Cut (Once a tunnel)  This well maintained backhoe dates to the 1960s.

I don't know how I missed you Mike!  I was out on Wednesday also.  I decided to start at the Hendersonville parking area, then went north to the McDonald Trestle.  The good folks at the Primrose cut were on lunch break when I came through.  For me it was a great day & not hot at all.  My wife hates that I enjoy hot days (I don't perspire much).  My regret is that I should have gone two more miles east to the Greer tunnel.  Maybe next time.  I will be that way again.

I stopped at Hendersonville and talked to a sweet lady tending to the plants.  She said she maintains (4) planting areas.   The watermellon was her center piece for the day.



I put-in at Cliff Mine Rd. and did all three tunnels.  The two new bridges really add to the trail.  I can easily do a 50 miler with my Boy Scout Group.
Morganza Bridge.

Georgetown Bridge.

Old Georgetown Bridge.

Mike. I know we had to have passed each other!  I also talked to the lady tending the flower beds. I guess we are not recognizable wearing our helmets.