The Port Perry Branch is a
rail line
Rail or rails may refer to:
Rail transport
*Rail transport and related matters
*Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway
Arts and media Film
*Rails (film), ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini
*Rail ( ...
owned and operated by the
Norfolk Southern Railway
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...
in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
. The line runs from 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 ...
in
North Versailles Township southwest through the
Port Perry Tunnel
Port Perry Tunnel is a railroad tunnel on the Port Perry Branch in Pennsylvania.
History
The tunnel was built as part of the Port Perry Branch connector between the Main Line and Monongahela Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad
The Penn ...
and across the
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River ( , ), sometimes referred to locally as the Mon (), is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in nor ...
on the
PRR Port Perry Bridge to the
Mon Line in
Duquesne along a former
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 ...
line.
History
The
Main Line of 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 ...
(PRR) was originally constructed with the goal of providing a rail link from the
Eastern Seaboard to the waters of the
Ohio River
The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...
at
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 ...
. By the 1870s, however, Pittsburgh was not just an endpoint; it had become a gateway through which all the PRR's lines to the Midwest passed. With the tracks in the city becoming increasingly more crowded, the PRR sought to bypass some of its traffic around the city. Moreover, all the traffic bound for the
Panhandle Route needed to pass through the
Grant's Hill Tunnel in downtown Pittsburgh, limiting and slowing traffic through the city.
Therefore, in 1871, the PRR planned a connection – later to be known as the Port Perry Branch – between its Main Line and the main line of a subsidiary, the
Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway
The Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway was a predecessor of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. By 1905, when it was merged into the Pennsylvania, it owned a main line along the left (west) side of the Monongahela ...
(PV&C, today's
Mon Line).
This connection would contain new trackage, a tunnel and a bridge. Together, this would provide a bypass via which traffic from the Main Line (today's
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 ...
) bound for the Panhandle Route, and vice versa, could skip the heavy congestion in the city and avoid Grant's Hill Tunnel.
In 1877, the branch was complete between Brinton's Station on the Main Line and
Port Perry
Port Perry is a community located in Scugog, Ontario, Canada. The town is located northeast of central Toronto, north of Oshawa, and east of Whitby, Ontario, Whitby. Port Perry has a population of 9,553 as of 2021.
Port Perry serves as the admi ...
on the north bank of the Monongahela River. The river bridge between Port Perry and the PV&C opened the following year, completing the alternate route around the congestion of the Main Line and the
passenger station complex in Pittsburgh.
For some time, there was also a link from the Port Perry Branch to the main line heading westwards.
This consisted of a curved bridge over Turtle Creek at Brinton, and was known as the Brinton "U".
The PRR leased the PV&C in 1879 as part of its Monongahela Division.
Historic American Engineering Record
Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). It administers three programs established to document historic places in the United States: Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American E ...
Conrail Port Perry Bridge, Spanning Monongahela River, Port Perry, Allegheny County, PA
/ref> The branch passed to Penn Central Transportation
The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals, the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...
in 1968, 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, and was assigned to Norfolk Southern in 1999.
In the 1990s, Conrail began to use the Port Perry Branch, together with the Mon Line to Pittsburgh (including the former PV&C main line, a small portion of the Panhandle Route, and the Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge) as a double-stack high clearance route.
See also
* Brilliant Branch, a similar cutoff across 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 ...
* Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge, part of the former Ohio Connecting Railway, another bypass the PRR built across the Ohio River
The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...
.
* Mon Line
* PRR Port Perry Bridge
References
{{Pittsburgh Metro Area
Norfolk Southern Railway lines
Pennsylvania Railroad lines
Rail infrastructure in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Railroad Through-freight Lines
Railroad cutoffs
Railway lines opened in 1877
1877 establishments in Pennsylvania