Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS OCS, Almost Like A Winning PA Lottery Scratch Off

Paul Ramer and I took an overnight trip to see Wheeling, the Ohio Valley and Pittsburgh. On Friday morning we drove down to the trench that the former PRR operates through on the North Shore of Pittsburgh. We had passed a lot of eastbounds on the way and figured that we'd be seeing plenty of them once we got there. Unfortunately nothing came past, almost like they were being held out by something. Something was lined through the crossovers at Federal Street but we thought it was an eastbound due the westbound signals all being red. We decided to move on and went to the other side on Galveston. I could hear something coming and got out of the car and unexpectedly it was the OCS!
1) Signal Bridge for what was Pennsylvania Ave Interlocking but what I think is now CP Federal Street. (Actually CP Penn)
2) OCS NS 955 coming out the other side of where we had just been.
3) NS 955 going past Island Ave Yard. (Corrected)

Edit: Had wrong names.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/15 12:52 by tq-07fan.

---

---

---

We headed up Ohio River Boulevard. Stopping at all the lights we calculated and thought we surely would have missed seeing it and stopped for iced tea and to use the facilities. Continuing north I noticed people on the bridge at East Conway. They were taking pictures of the NS 955 as it was just pulling away from doing the recrew at East Conway. Ramer kicked it up a notch and we were able to get ahead of the OCS by Rochester but not by much. We made a U turn before the industrial track overpass before New Brighton and stopped at the first pull off I saw with little time to set up. I actually liked where I picked because I liked including the Pennsylvania Lottery billboard, after all happening to be in Pittsburgh and catching the OCS without knowing it was operating is almost like winning on a scratch off ticket.
4) NS 955 The two outside tracks are the Ft Wayne Line one of the inner tracks is the Youngstown Line and the other is now a long stub.
5) The complete train passing the equipment house for the cab signalling that installed here in 1996 to replace intermediate signals.

Thank You for Looking!

Jim

---

---

#1 is CP Penn, #3 is Island Ave Yard.
Nice pics.
Ross

I LIKE Pic 4!!......:<)

What a cool signal bridge.  Let's hope it stays for a while.  Great photos!

EMD100469 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> #1 is CP Penn, #3 is Island Ave Yard.
> Nice pics.
> Ross

Thank you for the correction. I was thinking Penn was where Pitt actually is. At one time I had every CP and interlocking memorized from Alliance to Altoona when I tested the Conrail while working for Sperry. I guess a llittle bit of memory slipped after 19 years. 

Here are a few others from yesterday. Does anyone know if East Conway Tower is still active or when it ceased to be?

1) East Conway looking toward Conway Yard. We would tie up the Sperry car in that stub track to the left of everything next to the bridge.
2) An Eastbound at Haysville PA.
3) A W&LE local working the transload place at Rayland Ohio.

---

---

---

<<Does anyone know if East Conway Tower is still active or when it ceased to be? >>>

Unfortunately closed about 5 years ago. Now operated by Conway Terminal dispatcher in Greentree. Nice pics!