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Back to the History of Norfolk Southern in PA
PRR - Pitcairn Yard
(Conrail/Norfolk Southern - Pittsburgh Intermodal Facility)
"Pennsylvania Magazine" offers insight into The Pitcairn Railyards. Pitcairn was named for Robert Pitcairn, the superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Pittsburgh division, when it was incorporated in 1894. in 1874 the railroad officials had purchased 215 acres of land along Turtle Creek, which is about 15 miles east of Pittsburgh, in order top expand the road's rapidly growing facilities at Pittsburgh. Fourteen years later, construction of the railroad yard began. It was completed in 1892. The community developed north of the yards, ~A by the l 890s boasted several thriving businesses. Because of the '1close ties" between the community and the railroad, the Pennsy sponsored baseball teams and constructed a large outdoor band shell in which the railroad's band could perform. It also built a YMCA there for the railroad workers. The Pennsylvania railroad Shop League monopolized the area's baseball activity between 1912 and 1918 and in 1926 the Car Shop Club became one of the strongest baseball teams in western Pennsylvania. In 1894 the YMCA attached two passenger coaches from President Lincoln's funeral train and eventually added eight more old passenger cars. During World War II, more then 200 trains steamed through the huge Pitcairn railyards each day, carrying troops, supplies and material critical to the war effort. At that time, sabotage was of such a great concern that guards armed with rifles patrolled the tracks.
The Pitcairn yard complex consisted of fanning out the four track main line into about three dozen tracks, which had the facility to assemble extensive freight trains, areas for classifying and receiving and humps for westbound (constructed in 1903) and eastbound (built in 1907) traffic. The classification area could handle trains longer than 50 cars. As the yard grew and prospered, it offered employment to the men who settled in the area to build homes and raise families.
The Pitcairn yards were the first to use the new Westinghouse system of automatic switching to slow down the trains and move them to other tracks (presumably in the hump yards). In the 30s "more than 5000 men switched the trains, sorted freight and hammered metal for new freight cars and locomotives".
Retired rail yard workers take pride in the fact that when other rail yards closed because of strikes or track problems, the Pitcairn yard workers always kept their trains running. The pride, spirit and enthusiasm united men of all races and nationalities who worked in the yards. Family ties were an important factor in the tough hiring practices, however. In fact they were a prerequisite for employment on may jobs, where father and son often worked side by side. Naturally, the family connections resulted in a happier, and consequently, more contented, work force for the railroad.
As was common place in the '3Os, the various operations in the yard were being shut down and one after another moved elsewhere. Many were relocated to Altoona, in Blair County or to the Conway Yard in Beaver County, 35 miles northwest of Pitcairn. By 1959 only 1,350 of the 7,000 men employed during the peak of World War II remained. In 1960 only about 1,000 were still there and the borough's population followed suit and shrank from 6,000 to about 5,400. As the decline continued, the eastbound tracks were closed in 1964. In 1967, when the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central merged to form Penn Central, the freight classification in the yards was discontinued. Conrail acquired the entire system in 1975. When Conrail closed most of the operations in 1979 a bit of the borough's history and link with its past disappeared.
Finally, in 1996 the 250 acre sight formerly occupied by the Pitcairn railyards was formally dedicated as the Conrail Pittsburgh Intermodal Facility. The Pitcairn site now handles more than 100 trains daily, with expectations that the traffic will double in ten years. At one time it was one of the largest rail facilities in the world. Now Pitcairn is Conrail's hub for intermodal transit in western Pennsylvania.
(via the Delaware Valley Chapter, National Railway Historical Society; July 1999 Edition of the "Observation Car")
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