Jeff, Mike, Garth, Tim, Dave, and all interested;

My rather laborious way of attempting to address this issue for my needs
has been to take all the great information provided by you all, and
compare it to the approach taken in my long-standing project, "Freight
Trains on the Monongahela Division/Branch". Yeah, I know; get a life,
right?!

I have taken a list of all industries on my essentially dead-ended
Division/Branch (from the PRR C.T. 1000) (also knowing that what comes
in at one end almost always eventually comes out that same end), and
tried to determine the dates that each industry was in existence. This
was not too hard, but it only works for certain dates. I also did the
same with interchanges that would take cars out of the mix and/or insert
cars into the mix, and for each "reach" of the branch. Because the
number of cars that enter or leave each reach has to add up, we can get
a good idea of the numbers of cars entering and leaving each reach, the
difference being those that interchange in or out.

I also was fortunate enough to have access to a report done on the
potential for closure and consolidation of facilities, that included car
counts for each reach of the branch for a given month (during which the
RR was studied), and the number of cars interchanged. This report went
into some detail. The report also contained info on the time of
arrival/departure of each freight train (for various days), and the
number of cars it contained (but not its symbol or extra number,
unfortunately).

An additional find from Jack Consoli was a list of industries and car
numbers generated or needed by each, that was generated during a study
on the take-over of RRs in the Pgh-area, for the purposes of serving the
war effort better. This provided some corroboration of the things I
might find, at least in a general sense. For instance, this report said
that the "Joe Smith Coal Mine" received 12 cars and dispatched an equal
number, in a given week (some of these operations were quite small).

This allowed me to establish the number of cars in and out per reach,
the industries in each reach, the number of cars entering and leaving
each yard each day, and other interesting stuff. As well as, for
certain dates, establishing the number of cars in and out of each
industry, for which I have lists for a variety of dates.

Then, I tried to contact someone that worked at each industry, or obtain
data on the production of each, that would allow me to determine or
confirm the number and types of cars serving each industry, and where
they placed in the larger trains that originated at the yard that had
collected those cars, or distributed those cars. Obviously, I have not
been able to establish them all, with the big industries being easier
than small ones.

What I have (and it is a series of long files), is an increasingly more
accurate (as I find more data) snapshot of operations on my branch of
the PRR, during certain timeframes. While some of it is still
guesswork, and will undoubtedly always be, it is lots better than what I
started with.

No, I can't begin to replicate a good fleet for this operation. But, I
can do an adequate one for my purposes.

Here is a summary of what I learned from the earlier reference:

Summary of important points from "Pittsburgh, Pa.; Coordination of

Railroad Operations: Report of Committee"; Pittsburgh District General
Coordination Committee; Pittsburgh, Pa. February 12, 1935.

Mon Summary:
This highly interesting document has some very valuable information (and
some not so). Examination of the data indicates a number of important
points not made elsewhere.

Interchange:
The PRR carried on highly active interchange with other railroads, but
only at certain locations. A list of interchange points does not
address this.
On the Mon, the PRR interchanged lot of cars to the P&LE at Homestead
Transfer, to the Union at Kenny (Thomson), to the McKeesport Connecting
at McKeesport, and to the MonCon at 30th Street. There was also lesser
interchange with the P&WV and Union at Clairton. The other
"interchange" locations were scarcely used. Other than receipt of 68
cars from the Union at South Duquesne out of Connelly Yard (probably
empty hoppers that formerly contained additives, and perhaps some ore
cars at times), there is virtually no interchange occurring between
these two at any other interchange tracks in the Duquesne area. It
appears that the cars must have been transferred up to the interchange
between URR and PRR at Kenny/Thomson. That explains the small size of
the yard at Duquesne versus the size of the facility.

Time spent in classification, Transfers, interchange, freight house, and
team track switching is approximately 43%, 32%, 22%, 1% and 1%,
respectively, at a mixed yard like Thomson, and 75%, 19%, 5%, 0, and 0,
respectively, at a more single-commodity yard like Shire Oaks.

Number of cars "worked":
30th Street to Kenny/Thomson and S. Duquesne processed >1100 cars in,
1100 cars out/day

Shire Oaks processed >1100/day in >1100/day out
Trains moving empty hoppers south into the yard avg. 92 cars/train
Trains moving empty hoppers south out of the yard avg. 71 cars/train
Trains moving loaded hoppers north into the yard avg. 66 cars/train
Trains moving loaded hoppers north out of the yard avg. 78 cars/train
All of this makes sense when one figures that, in that time period, over
80% of the traffic was coal. Add on steel loads bound for points north
out of Pgh Steel and Amer Steel & Wire, and we have almost all loaded
cars moving north. More cars per train moving empties (south) into the
yard or loaded cars (north) out of the yard also makes sense. It seems
that these are pretty big trains for that period!

Wilson/Clairton:
Processed ~ 140 cars/day each direction (that day). Of this, 19 cars
went to P&WV and 23 cars to Union in interchange, remainder (98)
delivered to local industry. Of ~140 cars leaving the yard(s), 10 were
received from P&WV and 13 from Union in interchange, with remainder
(117) received from industry. I would imagine that there figures varied
a lot, with the standard somewhere in between each; i.e., with perhaps
~15 cars being interchanged each day each way w/P&WV, and perhaps ~18
w/Union each way. However, this would also depend highly on need, so
could vary substantially. It is hard to figure out where all those
additional cars were coming from/going to! I wonder if a substantial
traffic between PRR and USS existed that is unaccounted for in these
figures. Thirteen percent of yard traffic being attributable to USS
just doesn't make sense.

McKeesport: Roughly 74 cars each way interchanged that day. I had no
idea the traffic between PRR and McKeesport/National Tube was this big.
I imagine part of this is the lack of a connection with the URR! So,
National Tube had to go thru PRR, P&LE and B&O to get all their stuff in
and out.

Other issues of note:

Passenger traffic, versus the number of trains being run, seems quite
low, even for this time period. Why?

There are still a LOT of little stations, either combination, or freight
only. Many received almost NO baggage, sold few passenger tickets, but
seem highly dependent on mail. When did this mail service end? Was
that the end of all those stations?

Ditto for team tracks. Although the PRR maintains all these team tracks
facilities, there is very little traffic. Why? For instance, Clairton;
zero outbound, 11 inbound cars over the whole month. Dravosburg;

Interchange Between Railroads
3,374 cars total (equates to 51% of total cars [6,582] originating or
terminating in district)
But elsewhere stated, 6,751 cars terminate in district, 6,160 cars
originate in district, and 6,525 cars move thru district; total 19,436
cars moved in road haul. Oh well.
Broken down:

30th St.:
PRR to MonCon: 21 cars
MonCon to PRR: 28 cars

Homestead (Transfer):
PRR to P&LE: 33 cars
P&LE to PRR: 35 cars

Kenny:
PRR to Union: 63 cars
Union to PRR: 50 cars

Duquesne:
PRR to Union: 1 car
Union to PRR: 0 cars
South Duquesne (Connelly Yard?):
PRR to Union: 0 cars
Union to PRR: 68 cars

McKeesport:
PRR to McKCon: 79 cars
McKCon to PRR: 69 cars

Clairton (Wilson, Clairton & Cochran Yards?):
PRR to P&WV: 19 cars
P&WV to PRR: 10 cars
PRR to Union: 23 cars
Union to PRR: 13 cars
P&WV to Union: 1 car
Union to P&WV: 3 cars

Switching
Time Spent:
Thomson:
Classification: 16 hr 40 min
Transfer: 12 hr 05 min
Interchange: 8 hr 20 min
Freight House: 20 min
Team track: 20 min

Shire Oaks:
Classification: 17 hr 05 min
Transfer: 4 hr 17 min
Interchange: 1 hr 15 min
Freight House: 0 min
Team track: 0 min
Industries: 15 min

Freight Train and Yard Operations

South Side: 21st St. to Homestead
Practically all of 670 cars interchanged in district (all RRs) were
received from or delivered to industries within district.
30th Street Yard is principal industrial and interchange yard. Yard
crews from it perform freight house, team track, industrial and
interchange switching, break up and classification of cars set off or
picked up by through trains operating out of "terminal" yards in Pgh
District.

Pitcairn-south to Clairton:
2,663 cars moved to and from, of which 1,651 interchanged, of which 354
cars to and from industries of McKeesport Connecting and MonCon.
Other than freight house cars (to PRR Pitcairn Pgh Transfer Sta.),
traffic in this district is from primarily heavy steel industries:
Carnegie (USS), J&L, National Tube.

Freight Yard Facilities
Wilson (Clairton):
Flat Yard; 0 Receiving, Classification or Departure Tracks; 16 "Special"
Industrial Tracks; 460 car capacity; 4,224 cars/mo (141/day) Rec'd;
4,006 cars/mo (134/day) dispatched; 55 crews
Of 141 rec'd, 10 cars from P&WV, 13 cars from Union = 118 from elsewhere
(non-interchanged)
Of 134 dispatched, 19 cars to P&WV, 23 cars to Union = 92 cars to other
(non-interchanged)

Shire Oaks:
Hump Yard (2); 18 Receiving, 28 Classification, 0 Departure Tracks; ?
car capacity; 74,111 cars/mo (2,470/day) Rec'd @ 12 trains = 206
cars/train (something wrong here!); 34,581 cars/mo (1153/day) dispatched
@ 13 trains = 89 cars/train; 363 crews

South Side to S. Duquesne:
Flat Yard(s); 0 Receiving, Classification or Departure Tracks; 99
"Special" Industrial Tracks; 2,111 car capacity; 34,406 cars/mo
(1147/day) Rec'd; 35,035 cars/mo (1167/day) dispatched; 628 crews

Riverton (McKeesport):
Flat Yard; 0 Receiving, Classification or Departure Tracks; 13 "Special"
Industrial Tracks; 320 car capacity; ? cars/mo (?/day) Rec'd; ? cars/mo
(?/day) dispatched; ? crews

Freight House Facilities:
Clairton Combination:
Frame & Brick
41 pieces baggage, 2116 mail pouches
796 car loads outbound, 186 inbound (?) [41 cars LCL out; 56 in]
House length 130 ft; width 33 feet; platform length 137 feet; width 12
feet
1 outbound house track, 6 car capacity

Dravosburg Combination:
Frame
21 pieces baggage, 611 mail pouches
0 car loads outbound, 2 inbound (?) [0 cars LCL out; 0 in]
House length 31 ft; width 19 feet; platform length 23 feet; width 12
feet
1 outbound house track, 2 car capacity

Duquesne Combination:
Frame
150 pieces baggage, 1,624 mail pouches, 14 pieces company material
646 car loads outbound, 235 inbound (?) [38 cars LCL out; 9 in]
House length 45 ft; width 21 feet; platform length 158 feet; width 7
feet
1 outbound house track, 3 car capacity

Hays Combination:
Frame
0 pieces baggage, 0 mail pouches, 0 pieces company material
45 car loads outbound, 90 inbound (?) [5 cars LCL out; 3 in]
House length 30 ft; width 16 feet; platform length 50 feet; width 4 feet
1 outbound house track, 2 car capacity

Homestead Combination:
Frame & Brick
49 pieces baggage, 3,918 mail pouches, 61 pieces company material
1,534 car loads outbound, 473 inbound (?) [102 cars LCL out; 53 in]
House length 210 ft; width 32 feet; platform length 102 feet; width 12
feet
2 outbound house track, 14 car capacity

McKeeport Freight:
Brick & Iron
0 pieces baggage, 0 mail pouches, 0 pieces company material
708 car loads outbound, 1,381 inbound (?) [26 cars LCL out; 80 in]
House length 270 ft; width 30 feet; platform length 106 feet; width 12
feet
3 outbound house track, 21 car capacity

Pgh. Carson St. Freight:
Brick
0 pieces baggage, 0 mail pouches, 0 pieces company material
15 car loads outbound, 40 inbound (?) [24 cars LCL out; 0 in]
House length 269 ft; width 28 feet; platform length 208 feet; width 6
feet
1 outbound house track, 7 car capacity

Pgh. 23rd St. Freight:
Frame
0 pieces baggage, 0 mail pouches, 0 pieces company material
1,321 car loads outbound, 1,157 inbound (?) [64 cars LCL out; 4 in]
House length 360 ft; width 28 feet; no platform
3 outbound house track, 18 car capacity

Pgh. Terminal Warehouse Freight (joint w/P&LE):
Brick
0 pieces baggage, 0 mail pouches, 0 pieces company material
5 car loads outbound, 181 inbound (?) [39 cars LCL out; 5 in]
House length 340 ft; width 59 feet; no platform
7 outbound house track, 50 car capacity

Shire Oaks:
None
13,030 car loads outbound.........

W. Elizabeth Combination:
Frame
6 pieces baggage, 293 mail pouches, 0 pieces company material
0 car loads outbound, 11 inbound (?) [0 cars LCL out; 3 in]
House length 24 ft; width 16 feet; no platform
0 outbound house track, no car capacity

Wilson Combination:
Brick
4 pieces baggage, 820 mail pouches, 0 pieces company material
1 car loads outbound, 0 inbound (?) [1 cars LCL out; 6 in]
House length 26 ft; width 20 feet; platform length 40 feet; width 10
feet
1 outbound house track, 2 car capacity

Team Tracks & Business Handled:
Clairton:
65' width Brick-paved driveway, 2 tracks, 25 car capacity; 0 outbound
car loads, 11 inbound car loads/mo.

Dravosburg:
50' width unpaved driveway, 1 tracks, 8 car capacity; 0 outbound car
loads, 2 inbound car loads/mo.

Duquesne:
30' width slag-paved driveway, 1 tracks, 12 car capacity; 3 outbound car
loads, 10 inbound car loads/mo.

Hays:
32' width ashes-paved driveway, 2 tracks, 10 car capacity; 0 outbound
car loads, 5 inbound car loads/mo.

Homestead:
24' width Brick-paved driveway, 5 tracks, 30 car capacity; 2 outbound
car loads, 6 inbound car loads/mo.; plus 15-ton hand-crane

McKeesport (Station siding):
26' width stone block-paved driveway, 2 tracks, 56 car capacity;
46outbound car loads, 74 inbound car loads/mo.; plus, 1 Portable 15-ton
1-car, 1-track crane

Carson St. Pgh:
27 to 106' width "Ligonier Block"-paved driveway, 3 tracks, 23 car
capacity; 15 outbound car loads, 28 inbound car loads/mo.

23rd St. Pgh:
30' width "Ligonier Block"-paved driveway, 5 tracks, 45 car capacity; 2
outbound car loads, 40 inbound car loads/mo.; plus, 50-ton Gantry crane,
2-track, 10 car coverage

W. Elizabeth (station siding):
50' width cinder-paved driveway, 1 tracks, 7 car capacity; 0 outbound
car loads, 8 inbound car loads/mo.

Wilson (station siding):
40' width asphalt-paved driveway, 1 tracks, 6 car capacity; 0 outbound
car loads, 1 inbound car loads/mo.

Arrival and Departure of Trains at Yards
Shire Oaks: 12 Arrive ; 13 Depart; 6 set-off or pick-up; total 31

7 trains southbound In-bound; 438 cars (westbound by timetable) from
points north, of which 4 terminate, 3 have set-offs;
4 Terminating have 100, 76, 117, and 75 cars each (92 avg. mostly
empties)
Set-Offs have 10, 8, and 52 cars each

7 trains southbound out-bound; 494 cars (westbound by timetable) toward
W. Brownsville, of which ALL originate, no set-offs only;
Originates have 97, 125, 19, 3, 78, 108, and 64 cars each (71 avg.
mostly empties)

7 trains northbound In-bound; 593 cars (eastbound by timetable) from
points south (W. Brownsville, Uniontown), of which 8 terminate, 1 has
set-offs;
8 Terminating have 95, 63, 88, 112, 73, 21, 19, and 103 cars each (66
avg. mostly full)
1 Set-Off has 19 cars

8 trains northbound out-bound; 598 cars (eastbound by timetable) from
points south, of which 6 originate, 2 have set-offs;
6 Originates have 85, 76, 82, 75, 72, and 79 cars each (78 avg. mostly
full)
Set-Offs have 61, 68 cars each; full hoppers?


Thomson: 0 arrive or depart; 23 set-off or pick-up; total 23<<<<<




Sorry if you don't find this interesting, and if so, for having wasted
so much space. Drop me a line if you want to discuss.

Elden Gatwood