The Port Perry Branch is a

rail line Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...

owned and operated by the

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 ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

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, ...

. The line runs from the

Pittsburgh Line The Pittsburgh Line is the Norfolk Southern Railway's primary east–west artery in its Pittsburgh Division and Harrisburg Division across the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and is part of the Keystone Corridor, Amtrak-Norfolk Southern's combine ...

in North Versailles Township southwest through the Port Perry Tunnel and across the

Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in North Cen ...

on the PRR Port Perry Bridge to the

Mon Line The Mon Line is an 85-mile long Norfolk Southern rail line which runs along the Monongahela River for most of its route. History The predecessor of this line is the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway. The northern portion (Pittsburgh to ...

in Duquesne along a former

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 ...

line.

History

The

Main Line Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to: Transportation Railway * Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system * Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...

of the

(PRR) was originally constructed with the goal of providing a rail link from the Eastern Seaboard to the waters of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

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 ...

. By the 1870s, however, Pittsburgh was not just an endpoint; it had become a gateway through which all the PRR's lines to the Midwest passed. With the tracks in the city becoming increasingly more crowded, the PRR sought to bypass some of its traffic around the city. Moreover, all the traffic bound for the

Panhandle Route The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, commonly called the Pan Handle Route (Panhandle Route in later days), was a railroad that was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. Its common name came from its main line, whi ...

needed to pass through the Grant's Hill Tunnel in downtown Pittsburgh, limiting and slowing traffic through the city. Therefore, in 1871, the PRR planned a connection – later to be known as the Port Perry Branch – between its Main Line and the main line of a subsidiary, the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway (PV&C, today's

). This connection would contain new trackage, a tunnel and a bridge. Together, this would provide a bypass via which traffic from the Main Line (today's

) bound for the Panhandle Route, and vice versa, could skip the heavy congestion in the city and avoid Grant's Hill Tunnel. In 1877, the branch was complete between Brinton's Station on the Main Line and

Port Perry Port Perry is a community located in Scugog, Ontario, Canada. The town is located northeast of central Toronto and north of Oshawa and Whitby. Port Perry has a population of 9,453 as of 2016. Port Perry serves as the administrative and commerc ...

on the north bank of the Monongahela River. The river bridge between Port Perry and the PV&C opened the following year, completing the alternate route around the congestion of the Main Line and the passenger station complex in Pittsburgh. For some time, there was also a link from the Port Perry Branch to the main line heading westwards. This consisted of a curved bridge over Turtle Creek at Brinton, and was known as the Brinton "U". The PRR leased the PV&C in 1879 as part of its Monongahela Division.

Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

Conrail Port Perry Bridge, Spanning Monongahela River, Port Perry, Allegheny County, PA
/ref> The branch passed to

Penn Central Transportation The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central Railroad ...

in 1968,

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 ...

in 1976, and was assigned to Norfolk Southern in 1999. In the 1990s, Conrail began to use the Port Perry Branch, together with the Mon Line to Pittsburgh (including the former PV&C main line, a small portion of the Panhandle Route, and the Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge) as a double-stack high clearance route. It continues to be used as such (as of 2019).

References

{{Pittsburgh Metro Area Norfolk Southern Railway lines Pennsylvania Railroad lines Rail infrastructure in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Railroad Through-freight Lines Railroad cutoffs Railway lines opened in 1877 1877 establishments in Pennsylvania

History

See also

References