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01) Newell Steel Under Frame Wooden Caboose

This picture taken at Newell, Pa. in the early 1960s shows one of a number of former P&LE 8-wheel wooden cabooses that were sold to a nearby farmer for use as chicken coops. Theses cabooses, less their trucks, survived into the 21st Century before being demolished.

Photo Credit: © Keith Klouse Collection

02) Finlay P&LE wooden caboose

A former P&LE caboose is about to be moved by Benkart Rigging to the Findlay Township Community Center, located along the Montour Trail in Imperial, Pa. The car has been partly restored and sits adjacent to the Trail, one of two known surviving wooden P&LE steel under frame cabooses.

Photo Credit: © Bill Nixon Collection

03) P&LE 200 Series Caboose Card

The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad’s Historical Record Card for P&LE’s caboose No, 238 started life as a New York Central Railroad caboose in 1917. These cards were maintained for every locomotive, freight and passenger car acquired, to supplement the Accounting Department's records.

Photo Credit: © Jack Polaritz Collection

04) P&LE Rox Yard

This 1930s view of the P&LE’s McKees Rocks Yards shows a number of cabooses awaiting calls to service on the Caboose Ready tracks located at the Yardmasters office. At the time, crews based elsewhere in the system stayed in their cabooses during layovers at the Rox until trains were available to take them back home.

Photo Credit: © Jack Polaritz Collection

05) P&LE Wooden Caboose Drawing

The P&LE operated with a fleet of all-wood, four-wheel “bobber” cabooses until the 1920s, when they were replaced with eight-wheel cabins that were constructed with a steel under frame for crew safety.

Photo Credit: © Jack Polaritz Collection

06) P&LE Caboose Hop at Pittsburgh

The eight-wheel, steel under frame cabooses that were not wrecked lasted in-service until the 1960s. This picture from the mid-1950s shows a pair of P&LE GP-7’s and a wooden caboose heading back to McKees Rocks after delivering an ore train to J&L’s South Side works from Youngstown.

Photo Credit: © Bill Nixon Collection

07) copy of original P&LE train order

Office copy of original 2/11/1879 order dispatching the first trains to ever operate over the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad between Youngstown and Pittsburgh. Kahndog Publication’s upcoming book, ENGINE FOR CHANGE, about the P&LE in Beaver County, will provide more details about the railroad’s construction and early operations.

Photo Credit: Jack Polaritz Collection

08) Monessen Southwestern diesel

Pittsburgh Steel’s, (and later Wheeling Pittsburgh’s), Monessen plant was served by the company-owned Monessen Southwestern Railroad, which received and originated all shipments from and to the P&LE and Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railway. Here one of their diesel switchers handles hoppers of iron ore received from the P&LE near the plants blast furnaces.

Photo Credit: © Keith Krouse Collection

09) P&LE train at Ashtabula Ohio

The P&LE finally made it the Lake Erie portion of its name after becoming independent from the New York/Penn Central in 1976. Here a P&LE train passes through one of the numerous at-grade crossings in Ashtabula, Ohio on Conrail’s Youngstown-Ashtabula line over which the P&LE reached the Lake Erie port.

10) Erie PA units

May of 1950 saw a pair of Erie Alco PA units at P&LE Pittsburgh Terminal after having pulled the joint service Erie-P&LE train The Steel King in from Cleveland, Ohio.

11) P&LE 1501 at Pittsburgh

P&LE’s Pittsburgh - College commuter train is made ready for its evening trip back to the Beaver Valley at the railroad’s Pittsburgh Terminal in this cold 1979 view. More about this train will be found in Kahndog’s upcoming book, Engine for Change, which tells the history of the P&LE in Beaver County.

12) NYC Hudson locomotive

While rare, gorgeous streamlined Hudson steam locomotives, such as the No. 5455, ran over the P&LE on joint-service P&LE/New York Central passenger service between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.