Pittsburgh amateur rail and history
A Pittsburgh Rapid Transit (T System) Car passing over the historic Panhandle bridge into Pittsburgh, The Panhandle bridge (also known as the Monongahela River Bridge) was built in 1903 to replace another rail bridge that had previously been there. It was owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad but the name comes from their subsidiary The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad as it was a part of their Panhandle Route (now mostly spilt up and partially removed) a line that ran from Pittsburgh to Bradford Ohio before splitting into 2 separate main lines, a northern line to Chicago and a southern line through Indianapolis, Indiana, to East St. Louis, Illinois. The line would pass on to Penn Central and then to Amtrak as Conrail didn't see any use in the restrictive underground tunnels beneath Pittsburgh itself. The Bridge would be sold in 1982 and be reconstructed by the Pittsburgh Port Authority for its downtown light rail project, the first car of theirs would cross the bridge on July 7th 1985. The southern end of the bridge splits as it reaches Station Square, one way heading into Station Square before passing under Mount Washington into the neighboring community around Pittsburgh, the other travels up and over Mount Washington before rejoining the other line just as it comes out of the tunnel underneath, this line is now mostly unused as it's stops have been removed (Accidents and tunnel maintenance will often see trains still use the alternate route as it only bypasses 1 station). Today all of the traffic going over the bridge belongs to the T System and all of their lines utilize the bridge. #trainspotting #video #train #electric
