Welcome To The Pittsburg & Shawmut Railroad
February 6th, 2010
Welcome to the Pittsburg & Shawmut Railroad of western Pennsylvania. This is a personal site not affiliated with the former Pittsburg & Shawmut Railroad Company or Genesee & Wyoming, Inc. present owner. This site was created to share history, memories, and photos of the P&S RR.
The GWI corporate site is at: www.gwrr.com
The P&S RR Historical Society web site is at:
http://home.comcast.net/~shawmutline
Mail to the P&S RR Historical Society may be sent to:
For the Pittsburg, Shawmut, and Northern Railorad see the link below.
I can be reached at dlswpfl@aol.com
Dennis Snyder
Winter Park, FL (formerly of Dayton, PA)
———————-VIDEOS————————–
Enjoy this short clip of a Mountain Laurel train at Falls Creek with a P&S and MNL power.
www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DFc_ntZ5_MCo
Here is a short clip from Rick Tonet’s Shawmut adventures in the late 1980s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUriMK_wsok
Here is a clip of my HO scale P&S layout here in Florida.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhT520dIQRo
———————-FEATURE PHOTO——————-
[NOTE: Click on the photo for a bigger image, then click "full size" for an even bigger image. Use your "back" button to return to the site]
Above are two more of David Baer’s photos as we continue our journey northbound along the Pittsburg & Shawmut. In March 1992 David was at East Branch Viaduct to catch this light move with Mountain Laurel engines 13 and 12 teamed up with Shawmut Line 1776, 1775, and 1866 along with a classic caboose, I think this is P&S 197. This is the same photo, just a cropped closer view and the normal view.
[This site began 11/5/08 and was last updated: 2/6/2010
ABOUT THE OLD WEB SITE - AOL discontinued all member sites October 31, 2008 so the original P&S site which started May 16, 1997 is gone. All of the information and photos were saved. Special thanks to Mike Cyr of Tampa, FL for hosting this new site for us Shawmut fans.
EARLY HISTORY - The Pittsburg & Shawmut Railroad (P&S) was being planned in 1903 and was constructed over the next several years. Originally named the Brookville and Mahoning Railroad, it was renamed Pittsburg & Shawmut in 1910. The line ran basically southwest from Brockway, PA to Freeport, PA to connect with the Pittsburgh, PA area as an extension of its parent railroad Pittsburg Shawmut and Northern. (In the late 1800s Pittsburgh was spelled without the “h” and both railroads used the older spelling.)
In 1916 the P&S broke away from the PS&N becoming a separate railroad. The PS&N had financial problems through its entire history and was abandoned in 1948. The P&S was completed from Brockway to Freeport in 1917 (88 miles) and continued to operate for nearly 100 years and although it struggled at first, eventually did quite well.
The during the last half of the 1970s and first half of the 1980s business was booming on the Shawmut. Unit trains of coal loaded at places like Dora, Colwell, Reddco, Brockway, and other loaders and found their way to power plants in the northeast as well as to the power plant at Reesedale.
RECENT HISTORY - During the last half of the 1980s business on the Shawmut Railroad began to fall off. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the company expanded by purchasing around 110 miles of track from Conrail. This was the former Pennsylvania Railroad “low grade secondary” from Lawsonham to Sligo and Lawsonham to Driftwood and included the former 25 mile long New York Central branch from Rose to near Clarion known as the Piney Branch. The lines were operated as the Red Bank Railroad from Lawsonham to Sligo and the Mountain Laurel Railroad from Lawsonham to Driftwood. However, business continued to decline on all the lines over the next few years.
In April 1996 the P&S RR, along with the Red Bank and Mountain Laurel Railroads, were purchased by Genesee & Wyoming, Inc. (GWI) and received the reporting marks PSR. Note that the neighboring Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad (formerly BR&P then B&O) is also part of the G&W system. All PSR operations were absorbed into the Buffalo & Pittsburgh (BPRR) in 2004.
TODAY - Today the former P&S mainline from Freeport to Colwell remains in operation by the BPRR as does the tracks from Dellwood to Crenshaw at the glass plant including Brockway yard. The locomotive and car repair shops at Brookville remain in operation. The former Mountain Laurel section of the low grade east of Brookville is being operated by BPRR as well. Coal is being loaded at Rose Bud Mining operation at Penefield on the former Mountain Laurel as well as at the newer Rose Bud loader at Clinton on the former Shawmut. Coal and other commodities are sometimes loaded at Brockway Yard and coal is also loaded at Bridgeburg. The power plant at Reesedale still recieves coal by the railroad. Several other smaller businesses are served by the railroad today as well.
GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN - The Pittsburg & Shawmut mainline from Brockway to Brookville, from south of Rayard to Mahoning, Red Bank Railroad from Lawsonham to Sligo, and Mountain Laurel from Lawsonham to Brookville (including the Piney Branch) have all been abandonded and removed. This includes the Widnoon and Conifer branches off the original P&S mainline.
PHOTOS AND INFORMATION - Some of the information and photos from the old site are being relocated to the Shawmut yahoogroup. You can join this group by creating a free Yahoo account, then by sending an email to the address below.
shawmut-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Another Yahoogroup for the Buffalo and Pittsburgh (BPRR) covers present day operations of the former P&S and MNL and can be joined by sending an email to the address below.
BPRR-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Many thanks to everyone who helped with photos and information during the eleven years the previous site was active. We hope this new site will be even better as it progresses. With this new effort the home page feature photo will be replaced often, usually weekly, and previous feature photos will be moved to the file storage area of the Shawmut Yahoogroup. Previously with the AOL site, there was no extra space so new feature photos couldn’t be kept without deleting others. We are in a much better situation now!