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PTM's activities were vital to Portland's role as a winter seaport receiving Canadian products from the Grand Trunk Railway for export to Europe. Shipping from Portland declined sharply as Canadian exports were routed via the Maritime ports of Saint John, New Brunswick and Halifax, Nova Scotia following nationalization of the Grand Trunk in 1923. Exports from Portland declined from per year in the early 1920s to per year during the worst year of the following depression. In the decade following World War II, PTM operated on of main lines and branch tracks, of yard tracks, and of industry-owned tracks. PTM was acquired by Guilford Transportation Industries in 1981, and continues as a subsidiary of Pan Am Railways.
Portland occupies an Atlantic coast peninsula between Back Cove to the north and the Fore River estuary to the south. The peninsula is protected from North Atlantic swells by the islands of Casco Bay. Back Cove was too shallow for 20th century ocean commerce. Portland Harbor is the seaward portion of the Fore River estuary.
South Portland occupies the southern shore of the Fore River estuary.
Westbrook is inland of Portland where the pre-railroad Cumberland and Oxford Canal provided transportation for mills using water power of the Presumpscot River.
Grand Trunk Railway from Montreal entered Portland from the north via a long trestle over the mouth of Back Cove. The Grand Trunk yard and wharves occupied the seaward end of the Portland Harbor waterfront along the north shore of the Fore River estuary. This line became the Berlin Subdivision of the Canadian National Railway when the Grand Trunk was nationalized in 1923. Access to the Portland waterfront ended when the Back Cove trestle burned in 1984; and the line to Montreal was sold to a short line operator in 1989.
Maine Central Railroad Portland Division from Bangor, Maine entered Portland from the north inland of Back Cove.
Maine Central Railroad Mountain Division from St. Johnsbury, Vermont entered Westbrook from the northwest paralleling the old canal along the Presumpscot River. The Mountain Division was abandoned in 1983.
Boston and Maine Railroad Worcester, Nashua and Portland Division from Rochester, New Hampshire entered Westbrook from the west. The Boston & Maine discontinued passenger service in 1932 and through-freight service in 1934. The line operated as the Sanford and Eastern Railroad from 1949 until abandonment in 1961.
Boston and Maine Railroad Portland Division Eastern Route from Boston entered South Portland from the south, and was dismantled in 1945.
Boston and Maine Railroad Portland Division Western Route from Boston entered South Portland from the south.
Union Station had eastern and western yards along the Boston to Bangor main line between Rigby Yard and Yard 11. The PTM assembled trains in these yards and added mail and express cars to through trains. Following a 1933 joint operating agreement between the Maine Central and the Boston & Maine, passenger trains from Bangor and points east to Boston or Worcester, Massachusetts, and points south ran through Union Station with pooled equipment like the "Gull" and the "Flying Yankee". Other Maine Central and Boston & Maine passenger trains originated or terminated at Union Station. Grand Trunk trains originated or terminated about east of Union Station without using Union Station. Union Station was razed in 1961.
Yard 1 served PTM Wharf 1 on the Portland Harbor waterfront along the north shore of the Fore River estuary upstream of Yard 2 and downstream of yard 8. Wharf 1 had water frontage of and included a warehouse for handling package cargo interchanged with ships of up to draught.
Yard 2 served Portland Harbor waterfront wharves along the north shore of the Fore River estuary upstream of the Grand Trunk wharves and downstream of Wharf 1. Yard 2 became the local interchange with the Grand Trunk Railway after 1947.
Yard 3 along the original Boston & Maine eastern route served the South Portland waterfront of the Fore River estuary including PTM Wharf 4, the New England Shipbuilding Corporation and the Portland-Montreal Pipe Line terminal.
Yard 4 team tracks and less-than-carload (LCL) transfer facilities inland of Yard 1 and Yard 2.
Yard 5 car storage inland of Yard 8.
Yard 6 served petroleum bulk plants in South Portland north of Rigby Yard.
Yard 7 served distribution warehouses and light industries along the south shore of Back Cove. Yard 7 was the interchange with the Grand Trunk Railway until the Portland Junction connection was severed during construction of a highway bridge over the mouth of Back Cove in 1947.
Yard 8 served PTM Wharf 3 on the Portland Harbor waterfront along the north shore of the Fore River estuary upstream of Yard 1. Wharf 3 had water frontage of designed for handling bulk commodities from ships and barges of up to draught. PTM #1601-1800 30-foot USRA hopper cars carried coal from this wharf to local industries. The wharf included a storage shed for 4000 tons of china clay transported to the Westbrook paper mill in PTM box cars. Maine Central 35000-series USRA 50-ton, , single-sheathed box cars were repainted PTM #2001-2150 in 1956. Maine Central 4000-series steel box cars were repainted PTM #50-54 in 1966. Wharf 3 was closed about 1970. Yard 8 included the first piggyback ramp served by the Maine Central Railroad.
Yard 9 was the old Fore River Yard on the Mountain Division adjacent to the north shore of the Fore River estuary upstream of the dredged channel. Rigby Yard was enlarged to eliminate most activity in Yard 9.
Yard 10 served PTM's Thompson Point shops adjacent to the Mountain Division upstream of Yard 9. Thompson Point shops built 49 flat cars, 40 box cars, 3 cabooses, a baggage-RPO and a RPO-smoking car for the gauge Bridgton and Saco River Railroad and Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad between 1912 and 1917.
Yard 11 served large grocery distribution warehouses at Deering Junction where the Boston & Maine WN&P division joined the Maine Central main line to Bangor.
Yard 12 served the city of Westbrook including the S. D. Warren Paper Mill. 7,500 carloads originated or terminated in Westbrook in 1973.
Rigby Yard (Yard 13) was built in 1922 at the South Portland junction of the eastern and western routes of Boston & Maine's Portland division. Rigby became the busiest New England rail yard north of Boston as car storage and locomotive servicing facilities were eliminated from older yards in Portland. Maine Central and Boston & Maine freight trains originated or terminated in Rigby Yard. Yard 12 became the interchange point for Sanford and Eastern trains.
Blue Rock Quarry was on the Mountain Division between Westbrook and Portland. Bethlehem Steel delivered 70-ton, 40-foot PTM hopper cars #101-150 in 1956 to replace the old USRA hoppers for coal loading. These cars were used for ballast service as heating oil minimized coal demand. Cars #101-122 were fitted with side extensions for off-line wood-chip loading on the Maine Central Railroad.
The Albany Port Railroad operates industrial trackage at the Port of Albany-Rensselaer located to the south of downtown Albany, NY along the Hudson River. Customers include a large Cargill grain facility. The operation is jointly owned by CSX and Canadian Pacific Railway.
The Alabama Warrior Railway is a terminal railroad in Birmingham, Alabama. The railroad operates within the confines of Walter Industries in North Birmingham. It began operations on August 7, 2009, and is owned and operated by Watco Companies of Pittsburg, Kansas.
The ABWR operates of railroad. Its route dates back to the Marylee Railroad, which was founded in 1895. The Jefferson Warrior Railroad had operated it since 1985. The ABWR began operating on August 7, 2009. The railroad hauls approximately 9,000 carloads annually and interchanges with the CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and BNSF Railway. On June 24, 2014, Caleb Bankston, a former contestant on reality series "" and employee of the railroad, was killed by a derailment in Birmingham.
The Delta Valley and Southern Railway is a short-line railroad headquartered in Wilson, Arkansas.
DVS operates a two-mile line in Arkansas near Wilson with one switch engine.
The line is the former St. Louis-San Francisco Railway branch from Elkins to Deckerville. All but from Delpro to Elkins was abandoned in 1947.
, the railroad operated from its enginehouse at the present end of the line to a connection with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) south of Wilson. The line served one cotton processing plant. Motive power was a GE 45-tonner side-rod locomotive, purchased new in May 1954, GE s/n 32129. The locomotive, DV&S 50, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The locomotive was housed in a single stall engine house built right over the main line of this short railroad, at the end of the line. However, that locomotive was sold in 2009.
Corporate headquarters are located in the company town of Wilson, Arkansas. The corporate office is on the south side of the central business district in Wilson.
No. 73 is a 2-6-0 “Mogul” built by Baldwin in 1916. It has 19" cylinders and 49-1/2" driving wheels. Numbered as 34 by the Jonesboro, Lake City and Eastern Railroad before that line was sold to the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway ("Frisco") in 1925, the locomotive was renumbered to 73 and kept by the Frisco until sold on September 19, 1945 to the Delta Valley and Southern. It is preserved on the Lee Wesson Plantation in Victoria, Arkansas under the Delta Valley & Southern Locomotive No. 73 name with no visible numbers on the cab or tender, but with the original Frisco raccoon-skin-shaped number board and “73” on its nose.
Indiana Southwestern Railway is a subsidiary of Pioneer Railcorp, operator of several short-line railroad companies. The ISW is a Class III railroad, and operated on 17 miles of track from Evansville, Indiana, northward to Cynthiana, Indiana. That track is currently out of service but switching still occurs in ISW's yard and surrounding industries.
The line was originally operated as part of an Illinois Central Railroad line that ran all the way to Newton, Illinois. Illinois Central sold off the line south of Browns, Illinois, to Indiana Hi-Rail Corporation; the line went through a succession of operators, all of which had to contend with the line's ancient bridge over the Wabash River near Grayville, Illinois. The bridge suffered damage from floods on more than one occasion, and one span finally collapsed completely around 1999.
Pioneer bought the line and its Evansville shops in 2000 from the Evansville Terminal Railway. However, when Pioneer stopped shipping grain, the track had to be dismantled and salvaged at the close of 2011. Only the small stretch from the interchange northwest of Evansville to just north of their yard is still used, a distance of about 4 miles.
The dates back to 1881 as part of the Evansville and Peoria Railroad, which then became part of the Peoria, Decatur & Evansville Railway through a series of purchases. The PD&E became part of Illinois Central in 1900. The ISW is currently the only remaining in-service segment of the PD&E south of Mattoon, Illinois.
Birmingham Terminal Railway is a subsidiary of Watco Companies, operator of several short-line railroad companies. The BHRR operates on of track providing switching services in the Birmingham, Alabama area. It began operating in 2012 after acquiring the assets of the Birmingham Southern Railroad.
The Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad is a shortline railroad that operates in southwestern Pennsylvania. The SWP uses rail branches that were acquired from CSX Transportation (originally the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) and Conrail (originally the Pennsylvania Railroad). All of the track used by the SWP is in either Fayette or Westmoreland counties. SWP provides local service to many customers in the area, connecting them to the outside world via interchanges with Norfolk Southern, Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad, and CSX. SWP has been vital in the location of several new industries to Fayette and Westmoreland Counties in recent years.
The main line of the SWP railroad runs as far north as Radebaugh in Hempfield Township. It then passes Greensburg and Scottdale (the location of the railyard) to an interchange with NS and W&LE in Everson. The SWP mainline passes through the coal towns of Owensdale and Broadford, before reaching a junction with CSX. It operates over CSX tracks through Connellsville, where it leaves CSX to run south through Dunbar and Mt Braddock to Uniontown. The route ends after passing through Fairchance and Smithfield. Near the end of the line in Smithfield is a new large fracking-sand facility owned by Hi-Crush Partners, which receives 40 ft covered hoppers.
The railroad features several branch lines. One travels to Yukon (in South Huntingdon Township) to serve a box and packaging facility. Another branch runs from Everson to Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania and New Stanton. Here, the Westmoreland Rail Freight Terminal, a large bulk transload facility, is served. This location also has a new ethanol plant under construction. The Bullskin Branch serves a small coal loadout named Bullskin Tipple which actually is in Connellsville Township, Pennsylvania. It is only used occasionally. Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad's operational headquarters are located in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. The SWP is operated by Carload Express, Inc., which also operates three other shortline railroads: The Allegheny Valley Railroad (AVR) serving the Pittsburgh area, the Ohio Terminal Railway, and the Delmarva Central Railroad.
The current SWP roster consists of SWP 4006 GP40-2 mated with SWP 406 slug, which in combination are referred to as an HD40-2 by Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad. This combination has 3000 HP, 8 powered axles and two fuel tanks. SWP 4006 was repainted and SWP 406 was rebuilt by Metro East Industries, Inc. of St. Louis, Ill in 2015. Other locomotives from sister railroad AVR are lent to SWP from time to time as needed.
The Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad began operations in June 1995 when Trimax (now Carload Express) was selected to operate of railroad by the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corporation and the Fay-Penn Industrial Development Corporation. In May 2000, the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad started service to the Westmoreland Rail Freight terminal near New Stanton. The railroad began service to the Hunter Panels plant in the Fayette Business Park in Fairchance in 2006. In 2011, the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad commenced service to the Fayette Rail Freight terminal in Smithfield. This facility is now operated by Hi-Crush Partners and serves unit trains of sand for hydraulic fracturing.
The Michigan Southern Railroad , founded in 1989 and owned by Pioneer Railcorp since 1999, operates a portion of the former Michigan Southern Railroad (1846-1855) between White Pigeon and Sturgis, Michigan, United States. At White Pigeon, the line connects with the Grand Elk. Until 2012, the line connected with the Indiana Northeastern Railroad in Sturgis, when Indiana Northeastern abandoned a portion of their line between Batavia and Sturgis.
The main commodities hauled on the line include scrap, paper, coal, lumber, sand, and soybean oil.
The Minnesota Commercial Railway is a short line railroad in the United States.
This railroad operates out of the St. Paul area with service to Minneapolis, Bayport, Hugo, Fridley and New Brighton. It is considered a switching and terminal railroad. It is based out of a roundhouse on Cleveland Ave. in St. Paul just blocks south of the former Amtrak station and its main yard is just to the north of the station.
Its lines consist of one to Fridley, with an interchange with Canadian National Railway and a small yard in New Brighton. The railroad also runs to Hugo and Bayport on trackage rights. It interchanges with BNSF Railway at Northtown yard. It also serves east Minneapolis' grain elevators by the University of Minnesota as well as the grain elevators on Minnesota State Highway 55 adjacent to the METRO Blue Line.
The Minnesota Commercial connects with all major railroads in the Twin Cities including: Canadian National Railway, BNSF Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway, Union Pacific Railway, Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad, and Twin Cities and Western Railroad.
The MNNR's roster consists of mainly Alco and GE locomotives. With over two dozen locomotives, including one from Hamersley Iron in Australia, the roster is diverse and meets the switching and road freight needs. Most units wear a red paint scheme much like that of the Green Bay and Western Railroad.
The line was formerly known as the Minnesota Transfer Railroad. It was privately owned by the major railroads serving the Twin Cities area.
The Minnesota Transfer was purchased by the Minnesota Commercial on February 1, 1987. At the time Minnesota Commercial purchased Minnesota Transfer, the railroad was down to 8,000 revenue units a year. By 2008, the Minnesota Commercial was handling over 46,000 revenue units.
The Kiski Junction Railroad is a short-line railroad that operates in Western Pennsylvania near the city of Pittsburgh. The railroad is based in the small community of Schenley which is situated at the point where the Kiskiminetas River flows into the Allegheny River. The KJR functions as both a freight hauler and a tourist railroad. The railroad is currently mothballed, having suspended all rail operations after the 2016 season.
The name for the railroad is taken from a point on the Pennsylvania Railroad where the PRR's Conemaugh Line (the former Western Pennsylvania Railroad) and Allegheny Branch (former Allegheny Valley Railroad) met. This point was at the south end of the Kiski Junction Railroad's bridge, where the KJR would interchange with Norfolk Southern.
The section of the Kiski Junction Railroad's line that runs from the former Kiski Junction, across the bridge over the mouth of the Kiskiminetas River, and along the Allegheny River, was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad's line from Pittsburgh to Oil City, Pennsylvania. There's also a branch line that runs southeast towards Bagdad, Pennsylvania. Portions of that line were built over the former Western Division of the Pennsylvania Canal. With the exception of the Bagdad Branch and about a mile of former mainline track, Conrail abandoned the line in the late 1980s, and removed the rails in 1992. The line north of Schenley was purchased by the Armstrong Trail Association, and converted into the Armstrong rail trail. The trail is part of the proposed Erie to Pittsburgh Trail.
In 2008, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell announced that the Kiski Junction would be awarded a state grant of $4 million to extend the line 9 miles north of Schenley to the mouth of Crooked Creek. The line was extended to serve the Logansport Mine (operated by Rosebud Mining Co.) in Logansport. Construction commenced in 2010 and ended in 2011. The line ends just 2 miles south of Ford City. The railroad sees potential in Ford City and hopes to one day link up with the borough.
KJR #7135 is the main locomotive of the railroad. An Alco S-1 type locomotive, 7135 was built for the US Army in 1943. It served military facilities at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland (World War II), and Fort Dix before being turned over to the South Branch Valley Railroad. The KJR purchased the 7135 in 1995.
In 2013 the KJR purchased former Lehigh Valley Railroad #126, an EMD SW900 class locomotive which was being used at Rosebud Mining's Lady Jane Mine near Penfield, PA. After the LV dissolved in 1976 the locomotive served many years as Conrail #8653. When Conrail itself dissolved twenty years later, 8653 found work at the Lady Jane mine where it was repainted but kept its CR number. When the KJR gained ownership of the locomotive, it was given back its original LV number and was repainted back to a "retro style" LV paint scheme while still retaining KJR reporting marks.
The Kiski Junction used modern Norfolk Southern locomotives to haul coal from the Logansport Mine since the train would be later interchanged to NS after returning to Schenley. Plus, the coal train could have been anywhere from 100 to 150 carloads which would have been too great of power for the much older 7135 and 126.
The Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad was the owner of Dearborn Station in Chicago and the trackage leading to it. It was owned equally by five of the railroads using it to reach the terminal, and kept those companies from needing their own lines into the city. With the closure of Dearborn Station in 1971 and the Calumet steel mills in 1985, the railroad was gradually downgraded until 1994 when it became a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Corporation.
Connections were immediately provided with the newly built Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway at 74th Street and Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway at 49th Street, which, along with the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad connection at the south end at Dolton, were the three initial lessees of the line.
The branches to Cragin and South Chicago (the latter east of Hammond Junction only) were leased in 1883 to the newly formed Belt Railway of Chicago, which was also given trackage rights over the C&WI's main line and branch to Hammond Junction. The C&WI continued to operate its main line from Dearborn Station south to 87th Street, where it split into two lines to Dolton and Hammond.
The modest commuter service between Chicago and Dolton was discontinued on July 26, 1963. However, the railroad remained the terminal switcher for the remaining carriers using Dearborn Station.
Dearborn Station closed in 1971 when Amtrak consolidated all long-distance passenger service to Chicago Union Station. All station tracks had been removed and only the headhouse remained by May 1976. The land was later redeveloped as an urban park, and the station was redeveloped as a commercial space. The old C&WI from Alton Junction as far south the junction with Norfolk Southern Railway at 74th Street is now owned by Metra and used by their SouthWest Service. This service is the successor to the single pair of suburban trains operated by the Wabash (and later Norfolk and Western Railroad) over the C&WI. The service moved from the Dearborn Station annex to Union Station in 1976 via a connection at Alton Junction (21st Street) interlocking.
Centralized traffic control was introduced in 1973, combining 40th Street and 47th Street, later 59th Street and 74th Street, a four-tower combination was operated by the train dispatcher located at 47th Street tower after their relocation from Dearborn station. The C&WI also had their own police department, and their officers were designated special agents and police-certified through the Illinois Department of Law Enforcement. The C&WI was one of the first railroads in the late 1940s to completely switch over to diesel locomotives.
From 80th Street to Dolton, the line is now owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, which also has the former Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad south from Dolton. The former Main Line segment from 81st Street to 110th Street is owned and operated by Norfolk Southern. NS also relocated the former NKP main tracks to the old C&WI right of way from 130th Street to Burnham when the Mixing Center for Ford Motor Company was built on the former NKP right of way. The rest has been abandoned, except for a short piece in South Deering now used by the Chicago Rail Link, and the part used by the Belt Railway of Chicago, now owned by the BRC.
The Massena Terminal Railroad is a Class III terminal railroad operating in the U.S. state of New York. It operates over of track from the CSX Transportation yard in Massena north to the Alcoa plant, the railroad's only customer. It was built in the early 20th century, beginning operations in 1900.
In 2005, the railroad was purchased by holding company RailAmerica.
It was announced on 1 September 2019 Canadian National Railroad had entered into an Agreement to purchase the line from CSX Corporation.
The railroad's traffic comes mainly from aluminum and petroleum products. The MSTR hauled around 4,300 carloads in 2008.
Dutchtown Southern Railroad, L.L.C. is a standard gauge switching railroad in Geismar, Louisiana controlled by Watco Holdings, Inc. that operates a line leased from Illinois Central Railroad Company, part of Canadian National Railway (CN). It interchanges at Geismar with CN.
The Fordyce and Princeton Railroad Company is a short-line railroad headquartered in Crossett, Arkansas.
F&P operates of line from Fordyce, Arkansas (where it interchanges with Union Pacific), to an interchange with Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi Railroad at Crossett.
F&P traffic generally consists of lumber and paper products.
F&P incorporated on February 25, 1890 as a line between Fordyce and Toan, Arkansas. The railroad expanded, then downsized to a mere of switching track near Fordyce. After the liquidation of Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, F&P acquired the line between Fordyce and Crossett, via Banks, Craney, Hermitage, Ingalls, Vick, Broad, Emery, and Whitlow.
F&P was owned by Georgia Pacific from 1963 until March 2004, when it was sold to Genesee and Wyoming.
The Chicago Rail Link is a shortline railroad in Illinois. It owns and operates more than 72 miles of track on the South Side of Chicago. It is owned by OmniTRAX.
The Buffalo Southern Railroad is a class III railroad operating in western New York.
The BSOR is locally owned and operates in the Buffalo area. It should not be confused with the South Buffalo Railway which is a separate railroad.
The BSOR operates on 32 miles of track owned by Erie County, New York and leased from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency. The line runs south from Buffalo, New York to Gowanda, New York servicing the villages of Hamburg and North Collins along the way.
It interchanges with Norfolk Southern Railway, CSX Transportation, Canadian Pacific Railway, Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad and the New York and Lake Erie Railroad. The rail line intersects Norfolk Southern at a diamond in the village of Blasdell near Lake Avenue.
BSOR traffic includes animal feed, fertilizer, propane, lumber, scrap metal, cement, aggregates, brick, and paper. The annual tonnage hauled is 50,046 using 556 carloads per year. Trains operate on demand, typically several times per week.
The company offers services such as car switching, car unloading, and locomotive leasing and servicing. It operates the Buffalo Creek yard in Eden, New York and has locomotive maintenance facilities in Hamburg, New York.
BSOR locomotives are painted green with yellow trim.
The Augusta and Summerville Railroad is a railroad in Georgia.
It was chartered in 1866 and operated until 1888 using horses to pull rail cars over a 7-mile route. Eventually the horses were retired and the A&S ended up operating a 3-mile railroad to provide connections between other railroads.
Between 1897 and 1900, the A&S was sold jointly to the Southern Railway, the Central of Georgia Railway, the Charleston and Western Carolina Railway and the Georgia Railroad.
The A&S is currently operated as a switching line jointly owned by CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway.
Founding and acquisition by Pennsylvania RR: 1886-1982.
At its peak the Turtle Creek Branch extended from Westinghouse's facilities in Trafford all the way through Saltsburg, and its primary cargo was not gas but coal. Passenger service to and from Pittsburgh and points west was also popular, first served by steam engine trains and later by a single car diesel vehicle known as the Doodlebug. Vehicles made stops in North Trafford, Blackburn, Saunders, Murrysville, Newlonsburg and Export. At its peak, an average of 1000 passengers each weekend would ride this rail line down to Pittsburgh, but passenger service eventually declined, ultimately ending in 1936. Coal shipments declined as well as mines closed, and businesses located along Old and New William Penn Highway became the railroad's only customers.
In 1968 the owner of the Turtle Creek Branch, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, merged with New York Central Railroad and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad to form Penn Central, which declared bankruptcy only two years later. A new company, Conrail, was formed to take over the freight lines of the short-lived Penn Central; it renamed its "Branches" as "Industrial Tracks", giving the Turtle Creek railroad its penultimate name: The Turtle Creek Industrial Track. In 1980, Congress passed the Staggers Rail Act which deregulated the rail industry, permitting carriers to sell-off unprofitable lines. Subsequently, Conrail announced that it was looking to was looking to abandon several lines, and its Turtle Creek Industrial Track was among them.
To defray some of the start up costs, Dura-Bond received a $313,240 grant from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Governor Dick Thornburgh, who traveled to Export for the newly acquired railroad's opening ceremony, justified the grant, remarking that the rail service would preserve more than 700 industrial jobs in Westmoreland County. The Westmoreland County Industrial Development Authority also backed the project with low interest revenue bonds. The purchase price of the line would be $125,000, but this relatively low number reflected something all of the parties in the deal knew: the track was in very poor condition. Dura-Bond secured a bank loan to help pay the additional costs that it knew would soon come.
A Norris family engineer summarized the company's key to its plan for turning the railroad to profitability, "Conrail needed a seven man crew to run the line. We do it with two men and a dog." In addition to the engineer's pit-bull, the TCKR employed 4 people, nominally two engineers and two brakemen. These employees would do everything including driving the trains, keeping the railroad's 1940s era locomotives running and maintaining the track. They also had the skills and equipment to re-rail minor derailments, as well as replace damaged rail ties using only hand tools if need be.
End of service and conversion to rail-trail: 2009-2019.
A few sections of TCKR track remained in place after this rail trail section was completed. About of the railroad track was not part of the original sale to Westmoreland county. A portion of this lies at the end of the line in Export, where Dura-Bond maintains its facilities. The other major segment is of track at the beginning of the line in Trafford; this portion of track was not owned by Dura-Bond but was retained by Conrail, which handed it down to one of its successors, Norfolk Southern. Westmoreland County has expressed interest in acquiring a portion of this track to extend the rail-trail to the Trafford business district.
Data logged with the Federal Railroad Administration showed that service on the Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad was steady from 1987 through 2008. (Data prior to 1987 are incomplete.) Given that the track distance between Trafford and Export is in each direction, the total train miles reported per year are consistent with the "three to five trains per week" cited in the 1991 documentary. The drop-off in miles logged as a result of the June 2009 flood is apparent. Regular train service halted in June 2009, and after a three-month pause, a final 64 train miles were recorded in October. Employee work hours continued to be logged each month through July 2010.
The Flats Industrial Railroad is a Class III railroad that provides short-line commercial/industrial switching service in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, primarily with CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway.
Trains have run in the Cuyahoga Valley since the 1880s. In 1880, the Valley Railway began operations, transporting coal to Cleveland, Akron, and Canton from the Tuscarawas River Valley and providing passenger service along the way. After a decade of operation, the Valley Railway became part of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. In the 20th century, competition from automobiles, trucks, and buses caused the decline of both freight and passenger service.
Right-of-way ownership shifted over the years from Valley Railway to the Cleveland Terminal & Valley Railway (CT&V), to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, to the Chessie System.