The Brilliant Branch, also known as the Brilliant Cutoff, was a railway line in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

and

Aspinwall, Pennsylvania Aspinwall is a borough on the Allegheny River in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population was 2,916 at the 2020 census. History In the mid-1880s, the area which is now Aspinw ...

. It was opened by the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

in 1904 and abandoned in 2024. It connected the

Pittsburgh Line The Pittsburgh Line is the Norfolk Southern Railway's primary east–west artery in its Pittsburgh Division and Harrisburg Division across the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and is part of the Keystone Corridor, Amtrak-Norfolk Southern's combine ...

to the Conemaugh Line and to Allegheny Valley Railroad's Allegheny Subdivision. There are plans to convert it into a

rail trail A rail trail or railway walk is a shared-use path on a Right of way#Rail right of way, railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed but may also share the rail corr ...

History

The

built the Brilliant Branch as a cutoff to avoid the busy

Union Station A union station, union terminal, joint station, or joint-use station is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway company, railway companies, allowing passengers to connect conveniently bet ...

and its yards. The northern end was on the north side of the

Allegheny River The Allegheny River ( ; ; ) is a tributary of the Ohio River that is located in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York in the United States. It runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border, nor ...

, where it connected with the line of the Western Pennsylvania Railroad. It then crossed the Allegheny and connected with the main line of the Allegheny Valley Railroad. Finally, it continued south to connect with the main Pittsburgh–Harrisburg line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The line was built with four tracks at a cost of $3.6 million. It opened on November 27, 1904. The Pennsylvania Railroad and

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

merged in 1968 to create the

Penn Central Transportation Company The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals, the Pennsylvania Railroad, ...

. The Penn Central entered bankruptcy in 1970, and the Brilliant Branch was conveyed to

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busine ...

in 1976. Conrail activated Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) on of lines in western Pennsylvania in 1978, including the branch. Conrail sold the branch to the Allegheny Valley Railroad in 1995, aside from the southernmost wye section. The segment south of the Brilliant Branch Railroad Bridge was used as AVRR's main link from the

to its Allegheny Subdivision along the south shore of the

. The Brilliant Branch Bridge was subsequently repaired and was used by AVRR to access the AZCON scrap yard on the north side of the river. In 2003, a segment of the P&W Subdivision was leased by AVRR and became their main link between the Pittsburgh Line and the Allegheny Subdivision, leaving the Brilliant Branch to be used for local traffic only. In 2015, the AZCON scrap yard, the last remaining customer on the line, closed. In 2016, the line was used as a detour from AVRR's usual route over the P&W Subdivision between the Allegheny Subdivision and the Pittsburgh Line while a trestle on that route was repaired. The line was to be used as a detour again during another phase of the trestle repair in 2019.

Rail trail

The Allegheny Valley Railroad abandoned the line in 2024 and sold it to the Redevelopment Authority of

Allegheny County Allegheny County ( ) is a county in Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the state's second-most populous county, after Philadelphia County. Its county seat and most populous city is Pit ...

in 2025. The county plans to turn the former right-of-way into a rail trail.

Notes

References

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External links

{{commons category, Brilliant Cutoff
The Engineering Record, Building Record and the Sanitary Engineer, Volume 51

PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD, BRILLIANT CUT OFF, SOUTH WYE
Pennsylvania Railroad lines Pennsylvania Railroad Through-freight Lines Railroad cutoffs Railway lines opened in 1904 Railway lines closed in 2024

History

Rail trail

See also

Notes

References

External links