The Gateway Yard of the

Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad (P&LE; ), also known as the "Little Giant", was formed on May 11, 1875. Company headquarters were located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The line connected Pittsburgh in the east with Youngstown, Ohio, in the ...

, located in

Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, 11th-most populous city in Ohio with a population of 60,068 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Mahoning ...

, opened in the fall of 1957 and remained in operation until

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

took over the P&LE and closed the yard in 1993. Gateway served as a place to

classify Classification is the activity of assigning objects to some pre-existing classes or categories. This is distinct from the task of establishing the classes themselves (for example through cluster analysis). Examples include diagnostic tests, identif ...

and sort

freight car Goods wagons or freight wagons (North America: freight cars), also known as goods carriages, goods trucks, freight carriages or freight trucks, are unpowered railway vehicles that are used for the transportation of cargo. A variety of wagon types ...

s as well as an interchange with the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...

and the

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 ...

. Most of the cars that entered the yard were destined for Youngstown's

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-fini ...

History

The yard itself was built on over of land and stretched for more than covering the distance from the Center Street Bridge to

Lowellville, Ohio Lowellville is a village in eastern Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, along the Mahoning River. The population was 996 at the 2020 census. Located about southeast of Youngstown, it is part of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area. Geo ...

. The yard included a

classification yard A classification yard (American English, as well as the Canadian National Railway), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, and Australian English, and the former Canadian Pacific Railway) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway y ...

, office complex,

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is con ...

servicing facilities, and

car A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

repair facilities. The yard tower and yard office are housed in the same building. It is rather large and resembles an aircraft

control tower Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled a ...

. Running in front of the tower is the yard's hump that is used in the sorting freight cars. The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Historical Society website includes a list of yard structures including their blueprints. Items include: * The Gateway Yard at work * Cars being sorted over the Hump * 1993 photo showing the rear of the tower Today the Gateway Yard sits mostly empty after being closed in 1993. Most of the tracks have been removed. However, most of the structures still stand including the yard tower and office building. Vandals have taken a toll on the site. The office/tower complex have had every window broken out, including those that overlook the hump that runs in front of the tower.

Railfan A railfan, train fan, rail buff or train buff (American English), railway enthusiast, railway buff, anorak (British English), gunzel (Australian English), trainspotter (British English) or ferroequinologist is a person who is recreationally in ...

ning the Gateway Yard is not hard since

Ohio State Route 289 State Route 289 (SR 289) is a east–west state highway in the northeastern quadrant of the U.S. state of Ohio. The western terminus of SR 289 is at a diamond interchange with U.S. Route 422 (US 422) and SR 193 in Yo ...

runs alongside the yard. The yard tower is visible from the road, and the CSX mainline runs right in between the tower and the road. Also visible from route 289 is the large car repair shed and several small support structures.

References

{{coord, 41, 4, 40, N, 80, 36, 40, W, display=title Buildings and structures in Youngstown, Ohio Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Transportation in Mahoning County, Ohio Rail yards in Ohio