WELCOME TO THE PITTSBURG & SHAWMUT RAILROAD!
What we’re about! This is a place remembering the Pittsburg & Shawmut, Red Bank, and Mountain Laurel railroads of western Pennsylvania. This is a personal site not connected to the former Pittsburg & Shawmut Railroad Company, or Genesee & Wyoming company; present owner and operator. The Genessee & Wyoming corporate site is at: www.gwrr.com
The site began in May 1996 to share history, memories, photos, and other information about these colorful railroads. Email about the site may be sent to me, Dennis Snyder at: dlswpfl@aol.com
SITE UPDATED: 05/18/23
Hello Pittsburg & Shawmut fans!
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In July 1967 P&S 236 was at rest outside the Brookville engine shop still in original paint which was in pretty decent shape. Photo from my collection.
Years later the 236 looked a bit different, lettering shortened without the word Railroad, and the & sign replaced with the letter And. That and the paint had been touched up and the three nose stripes removed, also from my collection.
Then along came the mid 1970’s. P&S 236 became 1865 and named B. Tyler Henry, a gunsmith. Of course all the switchers ended up in red, white, and blue although a couple remained red and yellow for awhile.
In April 2008 Andy Hepp visited Brookville, if one wasn’t familiar with local railroading they would be scratching their head wondering what railroad this was!
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The P&S was a child of the PS&N (Pittsburg, Shawmut, & Northern) so for much deeper Shawmut history check out the PS&N Historical Society web site at:
http://www.psnrrhs.org
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Some things you’ll find here:
Brief P&S History, Detailed P&S History, Photos, Milepost info, Locomotive information, Photos, Timeline of Events, Photos, Logo History, Operational Info, Model P&S trains, Photos, P&S videos, links to various items of interest, even more photos, as well as many other things!
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BRIEF P&S R.R. HISTORY
The P&S was a child of the Pittsburg, Shawmut, and Northern which began in the late 1800’s as a consolidation of several small railroads in western NY and PA. In the early 1900’s they began building a new section to the south from Brockway towards Freeport to gain access to the Pittsburgh area naming it the Brookville & Mahoning. The P.S.&N. and P&S both used the older spelling of Pittsburgh without the h.
In 1910 the Brookville & Mahoning’s name was changed to the Pittsburg & Shawmut. Around the sametime the P&S broke away from the P.S.&N and became a separate company. The 88 mile P&S from Brockway to Freeport was completed in 1917. The P.S.&N. was a financial disaster from the beginning and was finally abandoned in 1947, but the P&S continued to 1996. More early history is in the detailed history section in the link at the top of the site. Especially during the last half of the 1970’s through the last half of the 1980’s the P&S prospered consideralbly. The large flood loading operation at Dora-Ringgold resulted in long 100 ton unit coal trains being moved for use at power plants elsewhere.
However, in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s the P&S expanded by adding the Red Bank & Mountain Laurel Railroads due to business falling off. Trying to survive they they purchased the former PRR “Low Grade” line running from Lawsonham to Driftwood from Conrail. The ten mile line from Lawsonham to Sligo was named Red Bank, the line from Lawsonham to Driftwood was named Mountain Laurel. The Red Bank had no equipment lettered for it.
After a few years and further loss of business all three railroads were sold to Genessee & Wyoming as the PSR in April 1996 which also owned Buffalo & Pittsburgh, the former B&O in the area. A few years later what was left of the P&S was absorbed into the B&P. A more detailed look at the long history of the P&S, etc. is in it’s own section at the menu bar at the top of this site.
In the 2020’s the only remaining P&S/PSR track is on the north end is from Brockway yard to just south of the connection track to the B&P. From Brookville south along Five Mile Run Rd to south of Rayard to Slimak Rd. On the south end track remains from Freeport north to north of Reesedale. A sad situation.
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PHOTOS!
In our photo section we rotate through many photos collected of which most were sent by fellow Shawmut fans and employees for which we thank!
It was a beautiful cloudless day when this one was taken of Mountain Laurel GP10 #17, but nowhere near the Mountain Laurel, Shawmut, or Red Bank! This was in Utah on Rail Link sent by Rail Link’s Chuck, the engineer and as you can see, not only did Chuck pose for us, you can see the RLIX reporting marks above the 17.
An interesting peek at three of the SW9’s at Applewold/Kittanning looking down from the 422 overpass when the switchers were still in the original paint with the three nose stripes. This one from my collection.
Here’s another very early photo at Kittanning of the three Doodlebugs, this would be right at the Kittanning station.
The P&S had two bay window cabooses number 150 & 151 that were built out of B&A boxcars, these were big boy! They were build by The Magor Car Corporation. Top photo is 150 at Brookville from Stephany Kolata, bottom at Kittanning from my collection.
This one’s from Ed Horm from David Baer with P&S 357 on Conrail!
This is probably the oldest P&S photo in the collection at Timblin in the 1920’s, Timblind is milepost 44, middle of the Shawmut.
Here we’re overlooking the Reddco coal loader just south of the Colwell and Reid mine loaders, this view is from the hill where the tracks disappear into Mack Tunnel just after the Reddco siding on the left turn into the mainline.
One of my favorite modeling accomplishments was fabricating the Reddco coal loader, this is on my 4 x 8 foot HO layout and was both a fun and easy project.
Here’s three of the former P&S SW9’s on the Lycoming Valley from June 2013 sent to us by Melissa.
In 1988 P&S GP7 #10 is seen here at Butler I guess leased to the Buffalo & Pittsburgh in this shot from Ed Horm from David Baer’s collection.
In March 1992 David Baer was at Summerville when this Red Bank RR train scooted by on the way to Sligo. Such an ironic capture, a Red Bank train with Shawmut power and LEF&C hoppers on Mountain Laurel track which a year before was Conrail track then on to Red Bank RR track at Lawsonham!
In the mid 1970’s the P&S was undergoing a big change in appearance and name! While some of the SW9’s were emerging from the paint shop in Bicentennial Red, White, and Blue, a couple of the switchers were getting fresh red and yellow paint and instead of the ampersand (&) the word “AND” was used such as the 237 here from my collection.
In February of 1982 GP 7 10 was running long hood forward as it usually did along with two of the switchers going through McWilliams in this Dave Hamley photo from David Baer’s collection
Be sure to check out the photos in the separate pages section on the top menu line!
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P&S GOODIES!
Pittsburg & Shawmut In Color – A Book!
In 2015 Kurt Reisweber and Brad Esposito published a 128 page book on the P&S. The book contains a good bit of history of the Shawmut and many awesome color photographs from the 1950s on. The book is available from Morning Sun Books. Here’s the main Morning Sun web address.
SPECIAL NOTE – I verified that the book is still available at the web site below on 10/07/20.
http://www.morningsunbooks.com
Here is a direct link to the Shawmut book.
https://morningsunbooks.com/products/pittsburg-shawmut-in-color
P&S ART
Kevin Yackmack recently announced he is selling some of his railroad art work and here it is! Here’s a northbound P&S local approaching Timblin. Prints are $60 each, postage included. Contact Kevin at: kevin.yackmack@yahoo.com or on Facebook at KEVINSRRART. (Click on the photo for larger view, use your back button to return to the site)
SHAWMUT GROUPS
Welcome to those who have joined the new Shawmutline group on Groups.io. The P&S Yahoo group of over 100 members is gone now as Yahoo pulled the plug on their long-time groups service on 12/15. While it had seen little activity a new P&S group has been started at a new group service called groups.io. Those of you who have used Yahoo’s groups will be pleased to know groups.io is easier to navigate.
If you’re interested in joining the new Shawmut group, simply go to: https://groups.io/ or www.groups.io and click on “Sign Up” in the upper right. Your email address will be your log in name, create a password, then do a search for “Shawmutline” – name of the new group. Here’s hotlinks to the new group service, which is FREE!
https://groups.io
or
http://www.groups.io
FACEBOOK!
There is also a P&S Facebook group you can join, just do a search for Pittsburg & Shawmut or Shawmut Line there.
Another Facebook group of great interest is – Railroad Photos and Memories, Western NY and PA – there are an amazing amount of railroad photos from all eras and some contributors to this web site are members there, check it out!
