Coal Goes to War Excursion
July 28, 2013

The excursion was scheduled to leave Pittsburgh’s Amtrak station at 8 a.m. on Sunday, with boarding to begin at 7:30 after Amtrak’s “Pennsylvanian” departed for New York. Rick and I arose around 6 a.m. and drove to Chuck Weinstock’s house, about 10 minutes east of downtown, arriving before our planned 7 a.m., so we parked Rick’s van at Chuck’s and rode downtown with him. He dropped us off and parked nearby on the street, and we went ahead and boarded.

I now will interrupt this narrative to quote lengthy portions of a trip report on the excursion sent around by mileage-collector friend Reg Mitchell of the D.C. area, who was a customer of Iowa Pacific’s Clark Johnson in the cars ahead of Bennett Levin’s.

“Monongahela is the name of a river, the name of a small city on that river, and the former name of a railway that ran next to the river and to inland places. (It is also the name of a large National Forest and an incline railway, but those are not relevant to this account. Locals just call everything “Mon” or “the Mon.”)

Reg provided these web links in case anyone wants to research background:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monongahela_River

http://www.cityofmonongahela-pa.gov/General_Info.htm

http://www.cityofmonongahela-pa.gov/History.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monongahela_Railway

http://www.american-rails.com/monongahela-railway.html

“The maps in both of the above links are incorrect. The SPV Northeast volume has a correct one. We verified its accuracy with field research on board.

“We departed Pittsburgh's ex-PRR Amtrak station at 8:11 a.m., July 28, 2013, backing out of our stub track past the old Conrail “PITT” tower to gain the main line and head west.” Amtrak had provided, as requested, a “Heritage” unit, and it turned out to be #145, which hauled us on the lengthy “Southwest Explorer” a year ago over BNSF and UP from St. Louis to Tulsa, Fort Worth, El Paso, Pratt, Kans., and Kancas City.

“Behind 145 our consist eight PVs: “Mount Vernon,” “Babbling Brook” (round-end obs running backward), Iowa Pacific’s “Caritas” (open platform forward), “Silver Quail” (all-bedroom sleeper, ex-CB&Q), “Cimarron River” (14-4 sleeper, ex-SLSF), Iowa Pacific’s “Prairie View” (full-length ex-GN Great Dome), Levin’s “Warrior Ridge” (parlor car), and his “Pennsylvania 120” (business car). We proceeded west from the station to the Ohio Connecting (Island Avenue) bridge and east along the south bank of the Ohio River on the Port Perry Branch, then along the “Mon,” providing great views of the downtown Pittsburgh skyline, to CP Perry, MP 16.1. Most of us had this line from the "Farewell to Conrail 1" trip and other trips so the new milwage started at Perry. The line from here to West Brownsville Junction was former PRR; from there south was the Monongahela Railway, now operated by Norfolk Southern with CSX rights. We saw more than a dozen NS coal trains, and one CSX empty on our return. CSX accesses the line via a bridge across the Monongahela at West Brownsville Junction.

South of West Brownsville Junction the line goes down the middle of the street in West Brownsville. This summer all the street trackage and street were rebuilt, as were other parts of the line in a several-week maintenance blitz coinciding with the annual miners’ holiday. Our speed was generally in the 25-30 MPH range south of West Brownsville Junction, except on the street running. At Ten Mile Run Junction our line headed inland away from the Mon River. The line twisted and turned through the woods accompanied by much flange squealing from the 85-foot cars. There was also a short tunnel. Just west of Waynesburg at CP Man, MP 85.7, the fairly new (opened 1968) Waynesburg Southern began (MP 1.0) next to a large mine tipple/loadout. The other fork in the (rail)road at this point is the even newer (1980s) Manor Branch, which ends at the massive Bailey and Enlow Fork mines. According to "Trains Railroad Maps" and other sources, these are the largest underground coal mines in the country with production around 10 to 11 million tons of “steam coal” per year each. It is among NS’s most productive and active coal-loading areas these days.

The Waynesburg Southern also has one tunnel and more woods. There are also open areas, a large rock cut, and impressive fills. We reached CP Clif, MP 22.5, at 12:36 and the train was turned on a wye there for the return to Pittsburgh. We departed Clif at 12:56 and reached the Amtrak station at 5:28 PM. The spelling of Ciff seems to vary, with one or two “f’s.” Our total “new” miles from Perry were 91.1. Our weather was mostly sunny with some clouds and moderate temperatures. That plus open Dutch doors made for good photography opportunities.

The trip booklet had color pictures and maps, plus a line description. The theme was illustrated by a modified painting of PRR’s 1944 calendar with one of Levin’s PRR E8’s substituted for a J1 2-10-4, against a background of PRR coal cars and blast furnaces. In the handout booklet the “Coal Goes to War” theme referred to not only WWII but also to the coal industry's current fight against the Obama Administration and his EPA's war on the American coal industry. The largest underground coal mines in the country are on these lines, with total on-line production in the 30 million tons per year range, which works out to six or seven 130-car trains every day, which matches what we saw. That is a lot of energy and also a lot of miner and railroader jobs.

Continental breakfast, and lunch, were offered via a buffet served in the lower level of the dome car. Dessert was served later and continued the Coal Goes to War theme with a sheet cake with that slogan on the top. The two-layer yellow cake contained a "coal seam" between the layers. This was a dark chocolate frosting containing tiny chocolate bits representing lumps of coal!

We all thank Bennett, wife Vivian, and son Eric Levin, Clark Johnson of Iowa Pacific’s High Iron Travel Corp., Amtrak, and Norfolk Southern for providing an enjoyable and well-run trip to this far southwest corner of Pennsylvania.”—Reg Mitchell.

Now, on to some photos. First, three trackside views sent around by Bennett Levin, sent to him by a friend of a friend of his – one on the West Brownsville street-running and two on our return over the OC Bridge in Pittsburgh.