The Allegheny Valley Railroad is a

class III railroad In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$5 ...

that operates in

Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...

, and is owned by Carload Express, Inc. AVR acts as a feeder line connecting its many and varied customers to

Class I railroad In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$ ...

s such as

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

(CSX) and

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...

(NS), and regional lines such as the

Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad The Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad is a Class II railroad operating in New York and Pennsylvania. The BPRR is owned by Genesee & Wyoming. Its main line runs between Buffalo, New York and Eidenau, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. Here, conne ...

(B&P) and the modern Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway (WE). The AVR's mainline travels northward through

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

from an intersection with Norfolk Southern near

Panther Hollow Panther Hollow is a small, somewhat isolated neighborhood at the bottom of Joncaire Street in Junction Hollow that runs along Boundary Street and is located in the Central Oakland section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The neighborhood was settle ...

, before splitting in the Lawrenceville neighborhood. The AVR uses the

P&W Subdivision The P&W Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation, the Allegheny Valley Railroad (AVR), and the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad (BPRR) in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The line runs from Rankin north through Pittsbu ...

segment of the line to cross the

Allegheny River The Allegheny River ( ) is a long headwater stream of the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York. The Allegheny River runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border northwesterly into ...

on the

33rd Street Railroad Bridge The 33rd Street Railroad Bridge is a truss bridge that carries the Allegheny Valley Railroad on the P&W Subdivision over the Allegheny River that connects downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Herrs Island, Pittsburgh, United States. History The A ...

to interchange with the B&P in Bakerstown and/or

Evans City Evans City is a borough in Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,833 at the 2010 census. Geography Evans City is located in southwestern Butler County at (40.769310, -80.061409), in the valley of Breakneck Creek. It is ...

. The other segment serves industries along the railroad's namesake valley between Pittsburgh and Arnold. The

Glenwood B&O Railroad Bridge The Glenwood B&O Railroad Bridge is a truss bridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which carries Allegheny Valley Railroad's W&P Subdivision over the Monongahela River. The span was constructed in 1884 and upgraded in 1915. It served the busy Wheel ...

is utilized by it as part of its

W&P Subdivision The W&P Subdivision is a rail line between Washington, Pennsylvania (formerly ran until Wheeling, West Virginia), and Hazelwood, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Formerly operated by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and later CSX Transportation, this line ...

branchline from the city to

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. A short spur line is the newest addition to the AVR's portfolio; it links the Allegheny Valley line with Sharpsburg via the

Brilliant Branch Railroad Bridge The Brilliant Branch Railroad Bridge is a truss bridge that carries Allegheny Valley Railroad's Brilliant Branch across the Allegheny River between the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Highland Park and the borough of Aspinwall, Pennsylvania. History ...

. Before this section opened in 2003, the bridge and stretch of track had sat unused since 1976. The AVR owns the Glenwood Yard in the Hazelwood neighborhood of

. They operate two

GP11 The EMD GP11 is a four-axle diesel locomotive rebuilt by the Illinois Central Railroad's Paducah shops. It is very similar in appearance to the GP8 and GP10. The Illinois Central Railroad began its GP11 rebuilding program in 1978. All units wer ...

engines, five

SD40 SD40 may refer to: * Canon PowerShot SD40, a digital camera * EMD SD40, a diesel-electric locomotive * South Dakota Highway 40 * SD-40 alcohol, ethanol denatured by adding denatonium benzoate Denatonium, usually available as denatonium benzoate (u ...

engines (

SD45 The SD45 is a six-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between 1965 and 1971. It has an EMD 645E3 twenty-cylinder engine generating on the same frame as the SD38, SD39, SD40, and SDP40. As of 2022, mos ...

Carbodys), five GP40 engines, and now six SD60M (CLXX). AVR has also begun to conduct

transloading Transloading, also known as cross-docking, is the process of transferring a shipment from one mode of transportation to another. It is most commonly employed when one mode cannot be used for the entire trip, such as when goods must be shipped in ...

operations within Glenwood Yard itself, handling

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

unit trains A unit train, also called a block train or a trainload service, is a train in which all Railroad car, cars (wagons) carry the same commodity and are shipped from the same origin to the same destination, without being split up or stored en route. ...

and also

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...

for

fracking Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "frack ...

History

The current company, established in 1992 is a separate entity from the original Allegheny Valley Railroad, which was established in the 1850s. That line, affiliated with the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

system, followed the present company's tracks to Arnold and continued beyond, along the right upstream (southeastern) bank of the river to Oil City. The original Allegheny Valley Railroad transported

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

from the vicinity of Oil Creek and Titusville. On February 20, 1861, ''The Pittsburgh Post'' printed "The Allegheny Valley Railroad (Extracts from the Eighth Annual Report, which is important for the light thrown on the transportation of oil)." On February 5, 1862, ''The Pittsburgh Gazette and Commercial Journal'' published "Allegheny Valley Railroad—Annual Meeting of Stockholders." In October 1995, the Allegheny Valley Railroad began operations when Trimax (now Carload Express) acquired

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

’s Valley Cluster in the Pittsburgh area. The railroad began interchanging with CSX at the Glenwood Yard in Pittsburgh in 2001. In December 2003, the Allegheny Valley Railroad expanded by leasing and operating of track from CSX, consisting of the P&W Subdivision and the W&P Subdivision. In 2004,

Hurricane Ivan Hurricane Ivan was a large, long-lived, Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread damage in the Caribbean and United States. The cyclone was the ninth named storm, the sixth hurricane and the fourth major hurricane of the active 2004 Atlan ...

caused $3.2 million in damage to a section of the P&W Subdivision, which the railroad repaired and restored. In 2006, the Allegheny Valley Railroad restored and began interchanging with the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway in Bruceton. The railroad began a $10 million renovation of switching operations at Glenwood Yard in 2008.

Positive train control Positive train control (PTC) is a family of automatic train protection systems deployed in the United States. Most of the United States' national rail network mileage has a form of PTC. These systems are generally designed to check that trains a ...

began being implemented along the railroad in 2014. On May 15, 2019, the Allegheny Valley Railroad acquired of track from CSX that it had leased and operated since 2003. Under this acquisition, the Allegheny Valley Railroad gained ownership of the Glenwood Yard, the W&P Subdivision, the Tylerdale connecting track, and the P&W Subdivision.

References

External links

Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allegheny Valley Railroad Pennsylvania railroads Predecessors of the Pennsylvania Railroad Defunct Pennsylvania railroads Railway companies established in 1852 Railway companies disestablished in 1891 Switching and terminal railroads Spin-offs of Conrail Companies operating former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad lines Companies operating former Pennsylvania Railroad lines Transportation in Pittsburgh 1852 establishments in Pennsylvania