Nostalgia & History > CR Pittsburgh Helpers 1984

I observed on my visits to Pittsburgh in the 1980s that  that Conrail kept 2 or 3, 2-unit helper sets at Pittsburgh's Penn Station.  Mostly SD-40s.  When called, they would head east and help trains eastward (or sometimes westward through Penn Station and across the Ft. Wayne viaduct over the Allegheny River - that's only where I saw them).  See posts below for more accurate info about the helper territory.
Here are two sets waiting for the call in spring of 1984.
1- SD-35 #6044.  Originally built for Central of New Jersey in 1965.
2- SD-40 # 6302, paired with the above.  Built for PRR in 1966.
3- SD-40 #6348, also PRR 1966 vintage.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/20 14:12 by RRTom.

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4- SD-40 #6292, also PRR 1966 vintage.  Paired with #6348.

Here are two more photos from Pittsburgh's Penn Station, taken the same day as the previous shots, to fill out this post:
5- These CR tank cars were parked on one of the station tracks.  Were they used to re-fuel the helpers?
6- This PRR keystone was still in place across Liberty Ave. from Penn Station.  It might still be there?  This was the old PRR produce terminal, viewed through an opening in the passenger station.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/20 10:17 by RRTom.

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I recall these helpers assisting eastbound freights out of Penn Station on the uphill climb through East Liberty, Wilkensburg, Swissvale, Turtle Creek and beyond. I do not know where they were cutoff but I do remember helpers still shoving through Greensburg. Not sure why they would be shoving west as that was pretty flat running along the Ohio River to Conway. TO members DJ-12 and cr7998 will certainly know more details about these moves.

Perhaps they operated in two directions.  I have photos of the westbound shove through the Pittsburgh station and I watched them depart light eastward a couple of times.
 

Thanks for the photos. Question..What was the purpose of the box below the outside of engineers window?
T.I.A. 
Desmond Praetzel, “4451 Puff”

Cab Signal equipment for former-PRR lines.

Good stuff. Thanks for posting. My recollection on the helpers based at CP PITT was that they predominantly assisted eastward trains from PITT. This predominantly would have been merchandise trains that were common on this section of the Pittsburgh Line at this time. IIRC, they would assist trains all the way to the summit at at Cresson if needed. Sometimes they would run east light to CP WING if they were needed to shove a coal train coming off the Port Perry Branch from Brownsville. I'd agree westward shoves were not as common, although I'd imagin an especially heavy westbound might need a shove over the Ft Wayne Bridge. Helpers used on westbounds normally cut off in the vicinity of CP BLOOM (and still do). It's likely trains keeping their helpers over the bridge might have also done so to avoid delaying any following traffic when this move could be accomplished on the multiple tracks west of PENN, but that's a guess on my part.

All of this changed late in the Conrail area when all the traffic patterns around town changed as Conrail cleared the Port Perry/Mon Line route for double stack trains. With the proliferation of this traffic and the desire to keep things on the single track Port Perry fluid, Conrail started running most eastward coal trains up the Mon Line to Esplen, over the OC Bridge and then up the Conemaugh Line. In the same timeframe, they started running heavy eastbound general freights up the Conemaugh Line instead of through Pittsburgh. This eliminated the need for basing a pool of helpers at Pittsburgh. Anything needing a shove away from WING (usually a stack train or sand train for SWP) runs over the water level Mon Line to WING, and then picks up an Altoon a based helped there (there are often helpers on westbound freights all the way to BLOOM.

 

Thanks for the info.  I edited the original post.  I was only here a few times but the one time I saw and photographed westward helpers moving through the station.

The helpers were based at the Pittsburgh station, but went wherever they were needed.  The most common task was pushing eastbounds on the Pittsburgh Line.  There was a grade of about 1.0 percent for eastbounds from the station to Homewood, and there were more grades of around 1.0 percent east of Pitcairn.  The Pittsburgh Line between the station and Conpitt was quite a roller coaster, which is why Conrail (and predecessors) liked to run heavy eastbounds on the Conemaugh Line to Conpitt, as the Conemaugh had grades under 0.5%.  But Conrail liked to run the intermodal trains and certain manifest trains over the more direct Pittsburgh Line, and those were the trains that got helpers if they were heavy enough.  If a train off the Mon Line needed help, the helpers would run light to Wing and get on the train at Pitcairn.  Sometimes the helpers would stay all the way to Cresson, sometimes they would cut off at Conpitt.  There were many variables.  It was unusual but not unheard of for the helpers to assist a westbound over the Fort Wayne Bridge.  

Nice photos. Later in 1984 the EL SD45-2's started showing up.

Interesting times to be sure.

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Thanks, RRTom for sharing your photos.

By the time I moved to Pittsburgh in 1989, the locomotives shown in you photos were replaced, as noted in a post above, by Conrail's former Erie Lackawanna SD45-2s.  If I recall correctly, I believe the former EL SDP45s were also assigned to be helpers in this location.  I've only seen them in use on the Pittsburgh Line east of the Amtrak station.

RRTom Wrote:
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> 6- This PRR keystone was still in place across
> Liberty Ave. from Penn Station.  It might still
> be there? 

Yes, the Keystone is still there. 

This was the old PRR produce terminal,
> viewed through an opening in the passenger
> station.

The former PRR produce terminal is located a couple of blocks to the north along Smallman Street between 16th and 21st Streets.  Here is a link to a website with photos of the building.

https://pittsburghmainline.weebly.com/train-nerds-blog/historic-pittsburgh-produce-terminal

A major new development is underway which will involve demolishing a third of the building.


 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/20 19:14 by RuleG.

Thanks for the comments. This was one of my favorite trainwatching spots. I will be posting some more photos taken here in this era soon.

So the building with the Keystone was perhaps the old PRR freight house?

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/20 10:15 by RRTom.

Around the 1990 era, I frequently heard the dispatcher inform eastbounds at Pittsburgh that they would "get a pusher to pack". I didn't have an ETT at the time but I assumed this was a control point. I later found out that this was CP PACK near Torrance.

One of the most thrilling rail experiences I have had was standing on the Latrobe Amtrak platform while an eastbound freight with helpers came blasting through at track speed! Conrail at its finest!

CSL_SW1001