Type Freight rail Status Operational | System Norfolk Southern Opened 1872 | |
Locale southwestern Pennsylvania Termini CP-BELL in Pittsburgh
Near Waynesburg | ||
The Mon Line is an 85-mile long Norfolk Southern rail line which runs along the Monongahela River.
Contents
History
The predecessor of this line is the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railroad. The northern portion of the line was once the mainline of the Monongahela Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the southern portion was once part of the Monongahela Railway. Its northern terminus was formerly at the junction with the Panhandle Route at the Panhandle Bridge in Pittsburgh, and its southern terminus was near Brownsville, Pennsylvania where it had a connection to the Monongahela Railway.
Route
The line begins at CP-BELL at its junction with the Fort Wayne Line, and then crosses the Ohio River on the Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge, and proceeds along the southern side of the Ohio and Monongahela rivers. The Port Perry Branch joins the line at the PRR Port Perry Bridge near Duquesne, Pennsylvania. There is a section of on-street running track in West Brownsville, Pennsylvania. The line ends near Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
Usage
The Mon Line is used for high-clearance double stack container trains between the Fort Wayne Line and the Port Perry Branch, which continues on to join the Pittsburgh Line to points further east. This bypasses the easternmost portion of the Fort Wayne Line and the westernmost part of the Pittsburgh Line, which have clearance issues for double-stack trains as of 2016.
The line also serves coal mines south of Pittsburgh, including the Bailey Mine.