Trains Around the 'Burgh: Pittsburgh and Western PA Railroads

Trains Around the 'Burgh: Pittsburgh and Western PA Railroads A guy with a flexible day job and a camera who takes pictures of railroads and related industry around Pittsburgh/Western PA.

Drop by to see pictures and video of trains and rail paraphernalia that I snap during my wanderings throughout the region.

Hi Folks. Breaking from my usual geographic discipline to share pics of the Big Boy arriving in Sterling IL (6/3/2026). ...
06/02/2026

Hi Folks. Breaking from my usual geographic discipline to share pics of the Big Boy arriving in Sterling IL (6/3/2026). I was away visiting my mom and saw that X4014 was passing through on its tour east. So…not really ‘around the ‘Burgh,’ but hey…it’s a running Big Boy!

Stopped by Rook Yard this afternoon and saw this oddity. The structures are mounted on gondolas. Anyone know what these ...
05/14/2026

Stopped by Rook Yard this afternoon and saw this oddity. The structures are mounted on gondolas. Anyone know what these are? Not a great shot, but I wanted to post this before ‘it’ moved on (4/14/26).

05/09/2026

A glorious early May afternoon (5/4/26) finds three Union RR SWs hauling a train of empty flats across the Mon River to the USS Edgar Thomson Works.

05/05/2026

Turtle Creek Industrial SW1 #462 heading back to home base at Dura-bond after exchanging car with CSX local on 5/4/26

Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad SW1 #462 exchanging a car with CSX on a sunny early May (5/4/26) afternoon. Hard to ca...
05/05/2026

Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad SW1 #462 exchanging a car with CSX on a sunny early May (5/4/26) afternoon. Hard to catch the unit outside of its confines at Dura-bond. I have some video that I hope to upload soon.

03/01/2026

Crew of Leetsdale Industrial #8705 (ex- MOL-DOK 8705/CR 8705/RDG 1505) running the SW900M through its paces on a mid February Sunday afternoon (2/14/2026). As I mentioned in a previous post it seems like they were either warming it up after a deep freeze or maybe even doing a bit of snow clearing.

NS AC44C6M #4302 and ES44AC #8156 lead a mixed freight past one of the Leetsdale Industrial Park leads on a cool but s...
03/01/2026

NS AC44C6M #4302 and ES44AC #8156 lead a mixed freight past one of the Leetsdale Industrial Park leads on a cool but sunny March 1st afternoon (3/1/2026). Many interesting details in this shot!

During my wanderings, this is one of my ‘go to’ locomotives. If nothing else is moving, I can always stop by and see Lee...
02/16/2026

During my wanderings, this is one of my ‘go to’ locomotives. If nothing else is moving, I can always stop by and see Leetsdale Industrial #8705 in its ’spot.’ But a Sunday afternoon visit to Giant Eagle across from the NS mainline/Leetsdale Industrial lead, brought a nice surprise. After a few NS monstors cleared out, I saw little #8705 moving ‘light’ into the lead track to the industrial park. Nice. Frantically (safely?) clearing the overpass into the park, I caught the two person crew running the switcher through its paces around its usual resting place. Couldn’t tell if they were blowing out the carbon or even doing a bit of snow clearing. Got some video which I’ll post soon!

NS SD40e #6321 leads SD60e #7005, AC44C6M #4539 and an unidentified unit past the Leetsdale Industrial Park towards C...
02/14/2026

NS SD40e #6321 leads SD60e #7005, AC44C6M #4539 and an unidentified unit past the Leetsdale Industrial Park towards Conway on a February (2/14/26) early evening. We’re just coming out of a two week cold snap with plenty of snow and subzero temps. Today the mercury soared to 55 degrees and it’s getting a bit ‘mucky’ out there!

Another entry in the ‘Switchers of Koppel’ saga. NW2 #48 (ex-P&LE #8709 - thanks Ron Stafford!) at rest outside of the...
02/12/2026

Another entry in the ‘Switchers of Koppel’ saga. NW2 #48 (ex-P&LE #8709 - thanks Ron Stafford!) at rest outside of the engine house at Tenaris Koppel Tubulars. Heavy on the February (2/12/2026) gloom here, but I was happy to have a shot without a telephone pole or gondola in the way.

Following Ron Stafford’s generous help verifying #48’s P&LE roots (he matched the frame number during a plant tour), I checked the diesel roster in McLean’s excellent Pittsburgh and Lake Erie RR (Golden West Books, 1980). According to McLean, #8709 was finished on 12/10/1947 as one of a batch of 10 NW2s built for the railroad in December ‘47. Aside from two Fairbanks-Morse diesels built in 1946, these NW2s were among the P&LE’s very first diesels, so this makes #48/8709 one of the oldest P&LE diesel engines…and very likely the oldest survivor in revenue service.

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Koppel, PA
16136

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