A train on the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad in 2006.
(sookie, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
BUFFALO AND PITTSBURGH RAILROAD
The Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad (reporting mark BPRR) is a Class II railroad operating in New York and Pennsylvania.
The BPRR is owned by Genesee & Wyoming. Its main line runs between Buffalo, New York, and Eidenau, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. Here, connections are made to the city center via the Allegheny Valley Railroad. The system runs largely on former Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) lines. The entire BPRR system is 728 miles (1,172 km).
Major commodities carried include paper, petroleum products, chemicals, coal, steel, and sand.
Main line
The Buffalo-Eidenau main line passes through Salamanca, NY, Bradford, PA, Johnsonburg, PA, DuBois, PA, Punxsutawney, PA, and Butler, PA.
Principal rail yards are located at Butler, Punxsutawney (Riker), and Buffalo, with support yards for local industry at other locations.
B&P initially used the direct former B&O/BR&P main between Buffalo and Salamanca, but during the 1990s a failing bridge at Springville, New York forced the railroad to detour its trains north of Ashford Junction via the former Rochester & Southern track to Machias Junction, New York, thence north on Conrail's/Norfolk Southern's ex-Pennsylvania Railroad Buffalo Line to Buffalo. Buffalo & Pittsburgh now is the sole user of the ex-PRR south of CP-GRAVITY in Buffalo.
BPRR operates two key secondary lines. One runs between Erie and Johnsonburg along the former Allegheny & Eastern Railroad. Another is made up of former Pittsburg & Shawmut Railroad tracks, running from the Armstrong Power Plant in Reesedale, Pennsylvania to Freeport, Pennsylvania. The B&P also operates on the Low Grade between DuBois and Driftwood that was formerly used by the Pennsylvania Railroad, then Conrail. A portion of the former B&O Northern Subdivision is used to provide access to Petrolia, PA.
There are many interchanges in BPRR. The Canadian National Railway has interchanges at Buffalo, New York and Butler, Pennsylvania. Canadian Pacific Kansas City has an interchange at Buffalo, New York. CSX Transportation has interchanges at Buffalo, New York, Erie, Pennsylvania. and New Castle, Pennsylvania. Norfolk Southern Railway has interchanges in Buffalo, Erie, Driftwood, Pennsylvania, Freeport, Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh.
Rochester & Southern Railroad and Buffalo Southern Railroad also each have one interchange at Buffalo, New York. Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad have one at East Salamanca, New York. Allegheny Valley Railroad also has one, located in Allison Park, Pennsylvania. Lastly, Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway has one in Bruceton, Pennsylvania.
CSX Transportation leases the P&W Subdivision to the B&P between Allison Park and the New Castle Yard in West Pittsburg, just outside New Castle, PA. Though the B&P ends in Allison Park, the railroad rarely traverses the line down to the borough. Instead, it transfers its goods to the AVR either in Evans City or Bakerstown depending on the amount of freight it has. Other owned and operated branch lines travel to Homer City, St Marys, and Brookville, Pennsylvania, as well as to the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.
Indiana subdivision.
(Bonnachoven, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)
History
Operations began in 1988 over mostly former Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (formerly Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway) lines. In the early 2000s, the BPRR merged other GWI railroads into it. These lines include the Allegheny & Eastern Railroad (ALY), Pittsburg & Shawmut Railroad (PSR), and the Bradford Industrial Railroad (BR).
Around 2005 the Indiana Subdivision, which had been out of use, was rehabilitated to serve the Homer City Generating Station. Shortly after this, the Ridge Subdivision, which had seen a Norfolk Southern coal train run-through to Shelocta was sold off to NS. In 2006, the railroad was honored as the Regional Railroad of the Year by Railway Age magazine.
Fleet
The BPRR fleet, as of April 2024, consists of the following. Almost all locomotives were manufactured by EMD between the late 1950s and early 1970s.
| Number | Type | Built | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | EMD NW2 | 1942 | Small switching locomotive. |
| 33 | EMD SW1200 | 1960 | Small switching locomotive. |
| 44 | EMD MP15DC | 1975 | |
| 51, 2000-2003 | EMD GP38 | 1967-1971 | |
| 120, 121 | SLUG | 1964/1980 | Rebuilds from GP35/GP50 respectively. |
| 101-102, 104, 3020–3021, 3050, 3100–3103, 3106–3107, 3120-3121 | EMD GP40-2 | 1966-1969 | 101-102, 104, 3100–3103, 3107, 3120-3121 are the variant GP40-3, rebuilt by CSX in 2014. |
| 202-210, 626, 874, 879, 886-887 | EMD GP9 | 1955-1959 | |
| 305 | EMD GP35 | 1964 | |
| 450-463, 3063-3064 | EMD SD45 | 1966-1970 | 450-463 are the variant SD45R, rebuilt by Southern Pacific between 1979 and 1989. #463 was scrapped in September 2012. 3063-3064 is variant SD40-3. |
| 922, 926 | EMD GP18 | 1959 | |
| 1002 | EMD SW1001 | 1973 | Small switching locomotive. |
| 1400-1401 | GS1400 | 2010 | Custom-built by the Brookville Equipment Corporation. |
| 1506-1515 | EMD SW1500 | 1969-1972 | Small switching locomotives. |
| 2004, 2030, 2142, 2143, 2167, 2172, 2176-2178, 2184,3512, 3563, 3564, 3574, 3575, 3581-3583, 9425 | EMD GP38-2 | 1979-1982 | 2100's are NS heritage, 3500's are UP heritage. |
| 2470 | Santa Fe CF7 | 1953 | Originally an EMD F7, almost completely rebuilt by AT&SF in 1974. |
| 3000-3001, 3032, 3062, 3111, 6410, 6416 | EMD GP40 | 1966-1968 | |
| 3301-3302 | EMD SD40T-2 | 1967-1969 | |
| 3323, 3396 | EMD SD40-2 | 1967-1971 | 3323 built for CNW, 3396 built for PRR. |
| 3328, 3330–3332, 3342-3343, 3346 | GMDD SD40 | 1969-1975 | CN heritage built by GMDD in Canada. |
| 3880-3885, 3886-3892 | EMD SD60 | 1993-1994 | 3880-3885 are SD60I; 3886-3892 are SD60M, with full-width short hood. |
| 4528, 4813, 4823, 4827, 4830, 4851, 4868, 4885, 4889, 4923, 4933, 4941, 4973 | GE C44-9W | 1998-1999 | All are ex-BNSF locomotives purchased from Wabtec. |
| 5018-5020 | EMD SD50 | 1986 | All are variant SD50-3, rebuilt by CSX in 2009. |
Overview
Headquarters: Rochester, New York, U.S.
Reporting mark: BPRR
Locale: Northwestern Pennsylvania, U.S.
Dates of operation: 1988–
Technical
Track gauge: 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length: 729 miles (1,173 km)
Other
Website: www.gwrr.com/bprr
