page_title: Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad
section_title: Shops and Yards
hierarchical_section_title: Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad / Shops and Yards
caption_attribution_description: English: Picture of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Locomotive Shops located by the railroad tracks at the end of Linden Avenue in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, on May 1, 2010. Built by the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad in 1903, it looks as if these locomotive shops have fallen into disrepair. I'm not sure if these shops are still in use by the railroad or not. Architects and builders: H. L. Turner (superintendent), Albert Lucius (consulting engineer), McClintic-Marshall Construction Company.
context_page_description: The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, also known as the "Little Giant", was formed on May 11, 1875. Company headquarters were located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The line connected Pittsburgh in the east with Youngstown, Ohio at nearby Haselton, Ohio in the west and Connellsville, Pennsylvania to the east. It did not reach Lake Erie until the formation of Conrail in 1976. The P&LE was known as the "Little Giant" since the tonnage that it moved was out of proportion to its route mileage. While it operated around one tenth of one percent of the nation's railroad miles, it hauled around one percent of its tonnage. This was largely because the P&LE served the steel mills of the greater Pittsburgh area, which consumed and shipped vast amounts of materials. It was a specialized railroad deriving much of its revenue from coal, coke, iron ore, limestone, and steel. The eventual closure of the steel mills led to the end of the P&LE as an independent line in 1992.
  At the end of 1970 P&LE operated 211 miles of road on 784 miles of track, not including PC&Y and Y&S; in 1970 it reported 1419 million ton-miles of revenue freight, down from 2437 million in 1944.
context_section_description: Gateway Yard
  The Youngstown Gateway Yard  was a major hub location on the railroad, until the creation of Conrail. Gateway Yard  was opened in October 1957, to be a modern hump yard.  The yard was approximately 200 acres (0.81 km²) stretching for a distance of just over 5 miles (8.0 km) from Lowellville, Ohio to Center Street in Youngstown, Ohio.  Gateway Yard was made up  of three principal yards, and an assortment of smaller, special purpose yards. The principal yards were arranged linearly, with the eastern limits of the Departure Yard in Lowellville. The Hump Yard was located in Struthers in the center of the facility, and the Receiving Yard was to the west. The special purpose yards were "Diesel Servicing Facilities", "Gorilla Park" and "Interchange" yards.  The "Interchange" yard was made up of six tracks, four were for interchange to and from the B&O Railroad and two of which were for general use. The other interchange with was with New York Central Railroad which was a direct interchange. The western yard limit was the end of track for the P&LE.  Beyond the western end of the Yard was the NYC mainline that continued to Ashtabula, Ohio. The yard was constructed when the P&LE was under the control of the New York Central Railroad.  Conrail routing most of the traffic around P&LE facilities in the area. After the 1993 CSX takeover of P&LE, Gateway Yard was closed and most tracks have been removed. The yard tower still stands but has been heavily vandalized. The Gateway Yard Tower November 2008
  McKees Rocks
  The McKees Rocks Yard facility was home to a yard, Major Locomotive Rebuilding and general maintenance, as well as Freight Car Repair and Maintenance.  On the westernmost end of the McKees Rocks yard, the P&LE interchanged with the PC&Y.  However the PC&Y facilities are just behind the P&LE Locomotive facilities in the main yard, and trackage from the PC&Y crosses the P&LE Mainline at this point, servicing several local businesses in the Bottoms section of McKees Rocks, finally making the previously mentioned interchange.  Most of the McKees Rocks facilities are now gone.  The Locomotive Facility till 2-16/2017 still had the PITTSBURGH AND LAKE ERIE LOCOMOTIVE SHOPS sign proudly displayed on its side, and if you looked close enough, you could see where the old New York Central Ovals were.  The entire McKees Rocks Locomotive Facility, Shops and old McKees Rocks yard is to be replaced by a Regional CSX Inter-model Facility.
  In 1904, P&LE built the O'Donovan Bridge for easier automobile access from Island Avenue to The Bottoms without crossing the railroad tracks.  This was replaced in 1931 by the McKees Rocks Bridge, which extended to Ohio River Blvd. but still provided access to The Bottoms via Helen Street exit.
  The McKees Rocks Community Development Corporation has plans to adaptively reuse the building.
  College
  The College Hill neighborhood of Beaver Falls had a small yard located just below Geneva College along the Beaver River.  There was also a small roundhouse on the property, plus the College Hill Station.  Today, only the station remains.
caption: Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Locomotive Shops, built in 1903, at the end of Linden Avenue in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "COOLPIX P80", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2010:05:05 13:49:24", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "264", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1026", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4296", "EXIF ExposureTime": "5/1529", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "64", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:05:01 14:47:36", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:05:01 14:47:36", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "47/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "672", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "346", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "900", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}