I live in Pittsburgh,Pa and we still have a high level bridge once used by this railroad along with tracks intact and a small staging yard. Does anyone know if this line is still being used? when i ever i pass this area by which is frequent i never see any trains but still imagine what it was once like and still hope to try and see an old ghost train go by. is there a way to find out track history i want to do a small scale model of this.
a “staging yard” is a behind the scenes yard on a model railroad used to simulate off line traffic. It’s not a prototype term. Although given some recent “staging” of revenue by major corporations(Enron,ect.) maybe UP et al should consider this…
The yard may have belonged to the Pittsburg,West Virginia RR.You might get more answers if you post question on the Pennsylvania forum,on the forums at www.railroad.net/
Here is some simple questions you can asked yourself if a given track in in use.
- Is there any cars in the yard? look for off road (non NS) cars.If there are,are the wheels shiny or rusty? Rusty from being stored.
2)How rusty is the track? you can tell a lightly used track as it will not be as rusty as a no longer used track. - Any signs of activity? Cars/trucks parked by the buildings?
Remember this yard may be service by a local that can run any time of day or night.
While asking questions is always good,there is somethings you can learn on your own by observation.A while back a question was rised on another forum if any of the old T&OC (NYC) track was still used in Bucyrus Ohio,most of the answers was no all the track is gone.This is not the case.Indeed a part of the T&OC is still being used by CSX(ex CR) to serve a stone quarry and the old yard and engine shop is now a frieght car rebuilder.But if you look at the branch going to the stone quarry,you can see it is lightly used.So,sometimes it is better to check for yourself.I urge you not to take this the wrong way.It is meant to help you in checking a given track.