A novel way of finding abandoned railroads

[northbessemer]

Came across a data collection warehouse where people have been uploading where they run and bike. Abandoned right of way makes excellent trails for hiking & running.

I looked around PA and some long-abandoned ROW suddenly reappeared.

Behold, the PRR Mule Shoe curve lives in 2018!

labs.strava.com/heatmap/#13.78/-78.50774/40.43375/hot/all

There is activity along active RR ROW (bad) and abandoned (useful!) throughout. Many of these natural trails appear nowhere on maps. People naturally find them. There is a long abandoned PRR mining branch on the NW corner of the Horseshoe Curve. Hikers find it. Routes to MG tower from below and above.

What old Bessemer lines can we find?

[westernallegheny]

Almost all of the Bessemer lines/branches that were abandoned are included in Wayne Cole's last 2 Ghost Rails books, volumes XIII & XIV.

GR XIII includes the Hilliards Branch and branches from it including the Coaltown, Gomersal, Goff-Kirby, Seaton Creek, Allegheny, & Pittsburgh Limestone #1. The Unity Railways which connected with and later was operated by the Bessemer and PRR Plum Creek Branch with connected with the Unity are also included.

GR XIV includes the Meadville Branch and the Vallonia & Conneaut Lake Park Branches from it. Also, there is a lot of info about the French Creek Feeder Canal which a large part of the Meadville Branch was built on the tow path of. The Mercer Branch and the double track main from Filer to Coolspring are included. On the southern end, the Indianola Branch and the Cheswick & Harmar are included. They were both just to the north of the Allegheny River Bridge with the Indianola Branch on the Pittsburgh side and the C&H on the opposite side of the Bessemer. The Bessemer & PRR both operated on the C&H for about 20 years when it was created until the C&H purchased their own engines and the Bessemer bought & operated it later until it was abandoned.

You can google Ghost Rails and purchase them or they're usually available on ebay. Also, Wayne has a Ghost Rails page on Facebook and can be contacted their. If you need further help, let me know.

[westernallegheny]

I forgot to mention that Wayne Cole also authored a book on the Western Allegheny Branch about 12 years ago. It's titled Ghost Rails II - Western Allegheny and contains over 200 pages about the WARR. The WARR was built by the Bessemer and owned or operated by them until 1926 when it was bought by the PRR. The PRR operated it until it was sold back to the Bessemer in 1967 and operated by them until abandonment in 1994.

There are only a very few copies of it remaining.

[northbessemer]

I have all of Wayne's books except the latest one. Will pick it up when I can get to a show again.

The map I mentioned shows where right of way is readily found and easily navigable. This can be useful for finding old buildings or other structures (foundations for signals, water tanks etc) which can be photographed, measured (water tank support spacing helps nail models) and positively geolocated for future reference.

We're somewhat fortunate as nearly all of the Bessemer Route has not been overbuilt or lost in urban sprawl. Lines in other places have virtually vanished beneath developments. Positively defining locations (GPS Lat Long) while they are extant helps with photo location (then/now) and somewhere in the future, recreating the Bessemer in digital form. Who knows, in a generation or two, future railfans may enjoy lifelike simulations of what is today only our memories.

I recall back in the late 80's there was still C&H rail present where their engine facility was (south side of Rt 28, couple hundred yards north of the Bear's Inn (?) where coworkers would lunch. The Bessemer connection was of course in place up until last year, although it's probably years since the line up past Curtis Wright had been used.

I'd guess now one could simply drop a pin on Google maps on their phone to mark any notable points.