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 The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, st ...

s such as CSX Transportation (CSX) and Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), and regional lines such as the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad (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 of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

from an intersection with Norfolk Southern near Panther Hollow, before splitting in the Lawrenceville neighborhood. The AVR uses the P&W Subdivision segment of the line to cross the Allegheny River on the 33rd Street Railroad Bridge 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 is utilized by it as part of its W&P Subdivision branchline from the city to Washington,

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 engines, five

SD40 SD40 may refer to: * Canon PowerShot SD40, a digital camera * EMD SD40 The EMD SD40 is an American 6-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between January 1966 and August 1972. 1,268 locomotives were buil ...

engines ( SD45 Carbodys), five GP40 engines, and now six SD60M (CLXX). AVR has also begun to conduct transloading 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 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. They are disti ...

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 o ...

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 "frac ...

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 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’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 Atlant ...

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