The Washington Run Railroad was a

branch line A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located ...

in Pennsylvania. Starting at a junction with the

B&O Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 until 1987, when it was merged into the Chessie ...

in Layton, the line crossed the

Youghiogheny River The Youghiogheny River ( ), or the Yough ( ) for short, is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 tributary of the Monongahela River in West Virginia, Maryla ...

on a bridge (

Layton Bridge The Layton Bridge is a Pratt truss bridge over the Youghiogheny River in Layton, Pennsylvania. Originally built for the Washington Run Railroad, construction began 1893 and was completed in 1899. The last train crossed in 1931. The bridge an ...

) and passed through a tunnel (both built by the A.P. Roberts Construction Company) to continue to

Perryopolis Perryopolis is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States. The borough is part of the Greater Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population was 1,705 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

. From there, it continued to Star Junction on a track that ran parallel to today's

Pennsylvania Route 51 Pennsylvania Route 51 (PA 51) is a major state highway that is located in Western Pennsylvania in the United States. It runs for from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, Uniontown to the Ohio state line near Darlington, Pennsylvania, Darlington, where ...

. The railroad had a passenger car that it used for passenger service, but it was primarily a freight carrier, transporting coke produced at Star Junction and coal for the Washington Coal and Coke Company and the Cochran Coal Company. It also served the brickworks in Layton and had a stop in Victoria. The railroad ceased operation in 1931. Layton Bridge and the adjacent tunnel still serve as a single lane part of Layton Road (State Route 4038).

References

External links

* Website with postcard view of the railroad tunne

Defunct Pennsylvania railroads Transportation in Fayette County, Pennsylvania Railway companies established in 1899 Railroad tunnels in Pennsylvania 1899 establishments in Pennsylvania 1931 disestablishments in Pennsylvania {{US-rail-company-stub