Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX's ROW between Confluence and Rockwood, PA Question

According to Google Maps, CSX's ROW, between Confluence and Rockwood, Pa, continues to have its single-track bottleneck, minus its Pinkerton and Shoo Fly tunnels having been daylighted. It seems like making the line full double-track would have been more than feasible, with extra room to spare. What factor am I overlooking?

Matthew

I have always wondered the same thing.  Especially after the tunnels were daylighted.

chessie7602 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have always wondered the same thing. 
> Especially after the tunnels were daylighted.

So I'm not the only one wondering... That's refreshing!

Matthew

My observations last Summer for several days showed very little delay.  The single track is five miles or less.  And with PSR, there are fewer longer trains.  The dispatchers seem to keep Amtrak operating well, and the delays to freight are always less than 30"

It really is amazing how trains often manage to arrive at either end of the single track at the same time, but others are right that given that there are far fewer (but much longer) trains than even a few years ago nowadays, it seems like the window to see full double track return has come and gone. Several sections of the former P&LE as well as a stretch west of Akron on the B&O also remain single and likely will into the future.

Posted from iPhone

The single track west of Akron always baffled me. Granted the second track was PRR and when Conrail removed their line through Akron it went away. Chessie or CSX at the time was probably not too concerned about it or they would have negotiated to purchase it. Then again looking at the track structure in the many Akron posts by Bob Farkas (Two of anything) of that era would indicate that a lot of PC's deferred maintenance would need corrected at great cost. As far as Confluence goes it is odd that CSX didn't opt to double track. Although the daylighting can handle a second track it would still be a lot of earth work to widen the remaining ROW along the narrow valley for a second track. Its all about the money.
Go

The biggest issue with that stretch of RoW is the segment between Shoo Fly and Fort Hill. This stretch was double tracked after the single tracking of the tunnels, which dated from the late 60’s, and lasted into the early 2000’s. Then they dumped a train into the river there back around 2003ish as a result of number 2 track sliding over the hill. At that point the single track was moved west to Fort Hill, where it remains to this day. The instability of the hillside there is the main reason for the lack of double tracking, even with all of the tunnel work in the area that issue was never addressed. That, plus the aforementioned PSR factors, are the reasons for it.

Scooter

Posted from iPhone