Here is where I will gather operational information about the protoype railroads that I will model. I have very little information on how the P&LE, Montour, PC&Y, and others operated their trains and trackage, so all contributions of information are greatly appreciated.What you see below are bits and pieces gathered from individuals, websites, books, magazines, etc. As I find/get them, I place them here categorized by railroad. Every so often, I will take related bits of info and distill it into cohesive prose. Therefore, you will probably see a combination of unrelated facts and some complete pictures below.
I want to thank Matt Adams, Gary Capaldi, Robert Miller, Gene Schaeffer, Richard Shirey, and Larry Stanley for their contributions of information.
The major trains on the P&LE would have been MG & GM, running from McKees Rocks to Gateway & Gateway to McKees Rocks. PC-1 was a train out of Connellsville running to McKees Rocks, it interchanged cars with the Western Maryland. The Norfolk & Western (Pittsburgh & West Virginia) Interchanged via the "West Side Belt Railroad". The N&W would bring the cars down from Rook via the West Side Belt and leave them on the P&LE interchange track. The bridge for the West Side Belt crosses RT51 in the area of the West End Bridge. There were also numerous locals and coal drags. During the mid 70's J&L Aliquippa Works was the largest shipper on the system. The P&LE had to share the J&L south side works with the "P" company.
In regards to train blocking, the old telegraph call letters wer used. For an example: McKees Rocks was KS, Youngstown YO, etc. Leaving KS (McKees Rocks) going west you had Montour Jct. MR, Coraopolis MD, Kendall K, Stoops Ferry SY, Glenwillard GW, South Heights SN, West Economy WE, Aliquippa Q, West Alipuippa QA, Monaca BG, Bridgewater BR, Fallston FA, New Brighton BI, Beaver Falls FS, College CO, Wampum W, West Pittsburgh WP, New Castle Jac. J, Youngstown YO. Trains originating in Mckees Rocks and going to Youngstown were designated MG___ Mckees Rocks to Gateway. As many of those a day as needed were run. They would start with a MG1 then MG2 MG3 etc. A typical MG train would be blocked this way: Q, QA, CO, J, and YO. The reason these trains didn't set off or pickup from those other locations is that they were worked by yard jobs. For example: there was a 2:30PM job out of KS (Mckees Rocks)called the Ivanhoe job which left KS with a cut of cars, switched them in Ivanhoe yard which was across the main tracks from Montour Jct MR, built the coal trains out of Montour Jct. and do any industry work at MD (Coraopolis), to SN (South Heights). Now nothing was set in stone, if the customers at SN where screaming for someting they would cut a crew off what they were doing at Aliquippa to make a move for them. Now sometimes we had special trains if J&L Aliquippa was short on a type of car for some reason, we would run a QA Turn. It would leaave McKees Rocks go to Aliquippa drop the cars and go back to the Rocks lite engines. Trains out of Youngstown were GM____Gateway to McKees Rocks 1, 2, 3, etc., as needed and blocked in opposite order. Our trains stopped at locations only as the traffic demanded. Often we would run ore trains out of Youngstown straight to Becks Run lower ore yard where a yard crew was waitiing to switch it and shove a cut up to the Mon Conn. Then lite engines back to McKees Rocks. Crews were paid extra for going past there home terminal.
Mckees Rocks.
The PC1 train which was bridge traffic train between NYC/PC in Youngstown to WM in Connellsville sometimes kept its WM power all the way into McKees Rocks or Youngstown, depending on what power was availble in Connellsville at the time. Visa Versa, P&LE power would also show up at the Haggerstown yard and be serviced by the B&O and returned to McKees Rocks on run thru traffic.
In 1968, between DX(CP0) and CP3 there were 2 tracks in use, #1 and #4. They were operated as Bi-Directional. Then between CP3 and CP5 there were 4 tracks in use, 1 & 2 were East only, 3 was Bi-Directional and 4 was West only. Then between CP5 and CP10 there was 1, 3 & 4, #1 being East only, 3 Bi-Directional and #4 West Only. Then between CP10 and CP18 there were only 2 tracks, 1 & 4. Also of note, according to timetable 2 dated Oct 27, 1968, tracks are numbered South to North, meaning #1 track was closest to Route 51. Also checkout page 21 of timetable #2, rule 1111-A1, it states there is a controlled siding Between CP18 and CP22, which would be old #3 or #4 main, as it only lists TCS for #1 and #2.
In the time frame from 1979 typically the Montour operated 5 "Road" jobs and 3 "Champion" Yard Jobs ever 24 hours. Usually 4 of the road jobs worked the mines with the 5th doing "short" work. Working Montour Jct. yard, working the few industries, cleaning up an outlawed road job. One point, you could never say which crew would do this "Short" work. It could be the first road job or the last. Most often they only started out their day with one unit.
Engineers on road crews were given a turning point when called which usually was Westland, B&O, Mifflin etc. If you changed the destination of a road crew/engineers side after they went on duty, another penalty.
The three Champion Jobs were like everything else in transportation, advertised "jobs". Typically, the first Champion crew was called for duty at 7:30 a.m.. However, union rules allowed for a call as early as 5:30 a.m. through, I believe 9:00 a.m. The second Champion typically was called for 9:30 a.m. and could be called up until 12 noon or something. The third Champion times escape me, however they were called for duty around 4 p.m. Champion crews were "guaranteed" 9&1/2 hours pay versus the standard 8 for road jobs. So if the Champion job only worked 5 hours, they received 9 &1/2 hours pay. Typically the 1st Champion worked the west end (raw coal-empty yard) of the Preparation Plant. The second CHampion worked the east end (loaded yard) and the third Champion relieved the first Champion Crew. The 3rd Champion crew usually worked the west end of the plant till it shut down at 10:00 p.m., then cleaned out the loaded yard. Normally they moved coal to Montour Jct. Sometimes they delievered coal to McDonald. Champion jobs were allowed to move loads and empties to and from Champion, only as long as the cars were being used at Champion.
In this time frame, the Montour never blocked coal delivered to the P&LE. P&LE's Ivanhoe crew did the switching at Montour Jct. However, there was occasions when unit trains routed to the P&LE were moved as one block to the P&LE. This occurred once or twice a year!
The Union connection was active. The Montour kept a standing order with the Union for 100 empty hoppers every week. The empties would arrive via Mifflin Junction and usually were B&LE "battleships". From Mifflin Junction the empties went to Montour #10 or #4 for raw coal loading. From the mine the B&LE cars went to Champion for unloading. After unloading they were usually reloaded with clean coal and routed back to Mifflin Junction for Ontario Hydro (1970).
The B&O, via the Library Branch was active although interchange was on a limited basis. The 2 interchange tracks could hold about 35 cars each. Montour crews to the B&O alwasy "shoved" down the branch to this interchange.
There were 2 interchanges with the PC. One at McDonald and one at Hills Station. Hills Station was the delivery point for all empty hoppers used in the raw coal movement. Usually a couple hundred empties each week along with occasional loads of lumber etc. Montour locomotives going to Conway for wheel work were routed via Hills Station. Montour crews utilized three tracks at Hills Transfer, the Hill Track, the Creek track and PC's "Boyce" siding for interchange. The PC at McDonald was very busy. Usually one or two crews each days delivered coal to the PC via Montours 1 mile "McDonald Transfer". Also the GSCX unit empties came via McDonald, were loaded at Champion and usually returned 24 hours later back to McDonald. Usually two 75 car trains of unit empties each week.
The N&W had 2 interchanges one at Southview and one at Salida. Not a tremendous amount of interchage during the 1970s'. Box cars of lumber, tank cars. Misc freight to Montours few non coal customers. Also the 2 N&W interchanges were used often to detour crews around derailments.
Usually during my time on the Montour, all coal to the P&LE was switched at Montour Junction and built up as a "pick-up" for a westbound roadcrew. Small blocks of coal were probably switched at Youngstown.
Since the early 1970's when I was hanging around the Montour, all empties coming to the Montour were delivered to Groveton #1 or #2. Usually a P&LE crew out of Youngstown had a train of 100 hoppers for the Montour and would back them off at Groveton. Groveton #1 and #2 were located under the present I-79 overpass. Occasionally shop cars coming out of McKees Rocks shops would come to Montour Jct. via the Ivanhoe job and interchanged to the Montour via the Lower Yard (near the Neville Island Bridge).