P&LE Chartiers Creek bridge accident.

A derailment caused by a broken axle on a Pennsylvania Railroad gondola car collapsed one of the single-tracked P&LE Railroad bridges over Chartiers Creek, located between the City of Pittsburgh and McKees Rocks, Pa.

Photo Credit: Jack Polaritz Collection

C&P Beaver River bridge

An 1884 view of a temporary reconstruction of the C&P (Pennsylvania Railroad) bridge over the Beaver River between Rochester and Beaver, Pa. replaces the original structure which was carried away in a spring flood. Kahndog’s upcoming book ENGINE FOR CHANGE will tell about the resulting problem that this collapse created for the P&LE.

Photo Credit: Charles Townsend Collection
 

 P&LE Ohio River bridge view from Beaver, Pa.

Opened in 1910, P&LE’s giant Ohio River bridge located between Beaver and Monaca, Pa. was the largest structure on the railroad. It still exists today, serving on what is CSX's main line between Baltimore and Chicago.

Photo Credit: O. C. Hage photo

PC&Y. Bridge No. 1

This 1920s view of Pittsburgh Chartiers & Youghiogheny Railway’s Bridge No. 1 over the P&LE at McKees Rocks, Pa. also shows the Little Giant’s locomotive coaling and sanding facilities.

Photo Credit: Jack Polaritz Collection

PC&Y Mess Hall front view

A number of construction projects taking place on the PC&Y Railway in the early Twentieth Century saw the railroad building a number of structures for housing and feeding workers hired for the tasks. A frontal view of a company mess hall for feeding construction workers located in the “Bottoms” section of McKees Rocks, Pa. is presented in this picture.

Photo Credit: Jack Polaritz Collection
 

PC&Y Mess Hall back view

A rear view of the PC&Y’s Extra Gang Mess Hall in the McKees Rocks “Bottoms” shows that it had a call box located on the back of the building, connecting it to the railroad’s dispatching office.

Photo Credit: Jack Polaritz Collection

 B&O RDC Cars

An eastbound passenger train, made up of Baltimore & Ohio Railroad RDC self-propelled passenger cars, approaches its entry point to the P&LE’s Mon Valley Division’s main tracks at Braddock, Pa. This equipment operated over the P&LE both in interstate passenger service, and on Port Authority of Allegheny County commuter trains operated by the B&O.

Photo Credit: Robbie Beck photo
 

Sidney & Lewisburg RR No. 91

Former P&LE Railroad U-3J class 0-8-0 switcher locomotive was sold to the Sidney & Lewisburg Railroad in Canada, becoming their No. 91.

Photo Credit: Jack Polaritz Collection

 Pittsburgh, Allegheny & McKees Rocks No. 26

P&LE built this 0-6-0 switcher locomotive at its McKees Rocks shops as their No. 9062, which was ultimately sold to the Pittsburgh, Allegheny & McKees Rocks Railroad as their No. 26 in 1951.

Photo Credit: Howard Davis photo

P&LE Alco PA-1 at Stoops Ferry

P&LE Alco PA-1 unit No. 4204 heads an interstate passenger train westbound past the railroad’s Stoops Ferry, Pa. station in route to Youngstown and Cleveland, Ohio.

Photo Credit: Homer Newlon photo
 

NYC diesel locomotive

While the P&LE RR’s parent New York Central Railroad operated many different types of F-units, “covered wagon” type freight power, the P&LE never purchased for itself, nor operated any NYC equipment of this type in this service. The only A and B type cab units operating over the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie’s tracks in freight service were B&O’s between New Castle and McKeesport, Pa., and Western Maryland’s between Connellsville and Dickerson Run.

 Sy Herring PHOTO
 

P&LE retirement photo

Once upon a time there was such a thing as retirement, and even a big-time celebration for a P&LE locomotive engineer completing their last run.

Photo Credit: Bill Strickler Collection