Background

I still remember the distinctive screech of the brake retarders on the hump at Pitcairn Yard as the rail cars were slowed before being routed to the appropriate tracks. My earliest memories of railroads were Sunday mornings spent with my father and brother watching action at Pitcairn, a significant classification yard east of Pittsburgh on the Pennsy main line.

My love of trains was further cemented in 1966 when I was eleven. My father, seeing an end to the glory days of passenger rail travel, took our family on a rail vacation from Pittsburgh to San Francisco, then back from Los Angeles via Flagstaff, Arizona and Chicago. Taking in the western vistas and the Colorado River from the sleek streamlined dome car, I was hooked. We rode the great California Zephyr heading west and the famous Santa Fe Super Chief back to Chicago. As a child, what could be better than sleeping in a roomette and eating in a dining car? It was truly a memorable experience.

I don’t have much recollection of Pennsy’s locomotives or rolling stock, and from what I now know, it must have been pretty run down in the waning years of the PRR. Penn Central’s locomotives, in their drab black paint scheme, also did not leave much of an impression on me. In addition, by the late 1960s and early 1970s, trains had taken a back seat as my attention was then focused on the muscle cars of the late 60s and early 70s!

A few years later when I could drive a car, my travels often took me through the Turtle Creek Valley, once a booming center of railroads and associated industries. I was fascinated by the large industrial buildings of Westinghouse East Pittsburgh works, Westinghouse Air Brake (WABCO) and most of all, US Steel’s Edgar Thomson Works. When the sky was clear, we could sometimes see the sky glowing orange at night from tapping the blast furnaces at E-T Works, as it was known in the valley. I often wondered what work took place inside those vast buildings, although I never got a chance to go inside.

The impressive 4-track ex-PRR main line connecting Pittsburgh to Altoona threaded its way through the valley on the south side of Turtle Creek like a ribbon of steel. On the opposite hillside, the Union Railroad traversed the valley on an elevated viaduct and trestle on its way to its interconnection with the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad at North Bessemer. Towering above all this activity was the massive George Westinghouse Bridge, one of the most graceful and beautiful reinforced concrete bridges ever built.

A few years later while I was away at college, the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) was formed on April 1, 1976. My studies left little time for train watching, but upon returning to Pittsburgh after graduation, I could not help but notice Conrail’s freshly painted bright blue locomotives. The menagerie of locomotives that Conrail inherited from its predecessor railroads, as well as newly acquired engines, all wore gleaming blue coats of paint in stark contrast to the black freight diesels of PRR and Penn Central.

I settled near the Turtle Creek valley and I often enjoyed the panoramic view of the valley, with the frequent passing of coal drags, mixed freights and trailer trains pulled by teams of GP-38s and 40s, sometimes with a pair of helper engines on the back. My interest in railroads was reborn, with Conrail on center stage!

Although I did not appreciate this until years later, Conrail also earned my respect as a railroad that started from six bankrupt lines (Penn Central, Lehigh Valley, Central of New Jersey, Reading, Lehigh and Hudson River, and Erie Lackawanna) and became a very profitable, solid Class 1 railroad. So profitable, in fact, that it became a takeover target that was eventually divided up and sold to CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Corporation 22 years later in 1998.

Clairton Coke Works:












Irvin Works:


Port Perry:










Click here for a full size photo of the Norfolk Southern #4270
Click here for a full size photo of the parked Office Car Special in Oakmont for the U.S. Open.
Click here for a full size photo of the parked full length dome Car.

Its not often you see 11 gleaming passenger cars full of VIPs. In addition to the 11 cars, there was a box car turned generator car and 1 F "A" unit loco and two "B" units.
All the cars were painted in dark red with gold trim and bearing numbers "NS-XX." Beneath the car numbers in small letters was the railroad of origin (CR, SOU or NW). The cars were named after states that NS serves. Of the three former Conrail cars in the consist, the full length dome was unmistakably from CR's Office Car Special. The other two former Conrail cars were open platform observation cars.
We chatted with an NS Police Officer (Larry, in for the event from Cleveland) and also the head chef, a Frenchman, who was preparing fine cuisine for the invited guests. The Police Officer invited the kids to get their picture taken in the vestibule of one of the passenger cars.
VIPs spotted include Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, members of Oakmont Borough Council and Borough Manager Roger Dunlap, retired NS Pittsburgh Division Superintendent Max Solomon, and Allegheny Valley Railroad President Russ Peterson. The visiting passenger train certainly added to the festive atmosphere on Allegheny Avenue accompanying the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club.
Photos and story by Andy Blenko, 6/12/2007


Last updated: November 23, 2007
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