Pennrail Operations
This page has some details on the operations of Pennrail. It started with some write-ups from the
past, including one that followed the Lock
Haven – Tyrone local crew for a day. Others to come in the future.
Eventually this area will feature a full schedule of trains across all
Divisions. For now, there is the Bedford Division timetable, version 1.0:
The next scheduled
addition is a similar narrative as to the Bedford
Division daily local crew – it is in an early draft stage. Also recently
added is a simple timetable for the Bedford
Division.
Traffic Summary:
In short, there are two main sets of traffic on Pennrail –
Buffalo to Harrisburg and Cumberland to Williamsport – that represent NW to SE
traffic and SW to NE traffic. The two
sections intersect at Lock Haven, and are common between Lock Haven and Williamsport. A smaller set of traffic runs Cumberland to
Buffalo. Very little is handled out of
the Hagerstown rights at this time, as much of Norfolk Southern’s traffic is
handed off to Conrail for delivery to Harrisburg.
Each Division rates its own daily local, except for the Buffalo Division which
has two, one working out of Emporium and the other working out of Buffalo. Pennrail’s only major yard is in Buffalo,
where it takes on traffic from Norfolk Southern, Conrail and Chessie/CSX. There are medium-size yards in Emporium, Lock
Haven, Williamsport, and Cumberland, and small yards in Avis, Bedford,
Driftwood, Milesburg, Olean and Tyrone.
The Bedford division in particular rates a pair of daily merchandise trains (Trains 207/208)
that sets out and picks up cars in Bedford for the locals (Trains 517-521) to handle delivery. Commuter runs to
Altoona are featured, with two trains north (Trains 111/113) in the AM, and two south (Trains 112/114) in the PM. As-needed through unit coal
loads (Train 719) and empties (Train 720) flow through as well. Extra merchandise trains are not uncommon, and extra locals out of Altoona
service the Cove Secondary as traffic warrants, usually once or twice a week.
This page is in a state of construction. Hit your back button to return to the main page.