Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad

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Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad
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Locale	Ohio and Pennsylvania
Dates of operation	1897 – 2004
Track gauge	4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters	Pittsburgh, PA

The Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad (B&LE; AAR reporting mark BLE) was a railroad company operating mainly in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. The railroad's main line ran from the Lake Erie port of Conneaut, Ohio to industrial city of North Bessemer, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, a distance of 153 miles. The company has operated continuously since its founding in 1897 until it was purchased by Canadian National Railway in 2004. The B&LE formerly had passenger service, but is now strictly a freight hauler.

History

The Pittsburgh, Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad Company was founded in 1897 by Andrew Carnegie to haul iron ore and other products from ports on the Great Lakes to Carnegie Steel Company plants in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas. On the return trip, Pennsylvania coal was hauled to the ports. The company was created largely out of a series of small predecessor companies including the Pittsburgh, Shenango and Lake Erie Railroad, and the Butler and Pittsburgh Railroad Company. The company was renamed the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad in 1900. Carnegie Steel had an exclusive 999 year lease to the PS&LE. This lease was acquired by US Steel when that company acquired Carnegie Steel in 1901.

In 1988, the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad became part of Transtar, Inc. Transtar is a privately-held transportation holding company with principal operations in railroad freight transportation, dock operations, Great Lakes shipping, and inland river barging that were formerly subsidiaries of USX, the holding company that owns U.S. Steel. In 2001, the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad became part of Great Lakes Transportation, LLC. On May 10, 2004, Canadian National Railway acquired the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad.

Route notes

The B&LE intersects with the Norfolk Southern at Wallace Junction, near Erie, Pennsylvania, and at the Shenango, Pennsylvania yard. The Union Railroad is intersected at North Bessemer, Pennsylvania, and CSX at the Shenango Yard and Butler, Pennsylvania. It also formerly also interchanged with the New York Central (until the latter line was removed) near the former KO yard (now just a junction of two B&LE routes) at Osgood, PA.

The main rail yard and locomotive and car shops are located in Greenville, Pennsylvania. The company’s livery color scheme is reddish orange and black; the reason for this so that its primary traffic in iron ore won't discolor the cars. (Locomotives are bright orange and black.) Iron ore is still a major freight commodity.

The B&LE mainline divides around Greenville between Osgood ("KO") three miles north of Greenville and Kremis (the waypoint uses this name) three miles south; the original line follows the Little Shenango and Shenango Rivers south into downtown Greenville (where the B&LE shops are located, and then to Kremis enroute to Fredonia and Mercer, PA. Some years ago, the B&LE constructed a shortcut cutoff ("KO") line to bypass this winding route through Greenville. It runs between the "KO" junction near Osgood over a massive trestle above the Little Shenango River (and the original B&LE mainline), passes east of Greenville, and rejoins the original line at Kremis, thus shortening the run by several miles (this section was double-tracked for some years but is now single track).

There was originally one tunnel on the B&LE mainline, but it was "dug out" and converted into a cut through a hill some decades ago.

As it approaches Bessember, the B&LE is also noticeable where it crosses the Allegheny River immediately north of and parallel to the Pennsylvania Turnipke.