Esplen, PA Pennsy "Esplen" Tower and Panhandle Corliss Railyard

Tower: (Satellite, according to the track diagram below, it was at this wye. According to the aerial photo below, the tracks have moved. It was along the south leg (connector to the east), but that connector went straight and then curved to some tracks closer to Brunot Ave.)

Railyard: (Satellite, this valley used to be filled with Panhandle tracks. The mainline is now the Busway and the classification tracks are now an industrial park.)

The tower controlled the wye at the south end of the Pennsy Ohio Connecting Bridge.

Darren Reynolds posted four images with the comment:

Conrails ( Ex-PRR) 

"Esplen" tower 

Esplen, Pennsylvania

Joe Cearfoss: I can remember a time when Amtrak would leave the station, come up over the O.C. bridge, take the south leg of the wye and then through the Corliss tunnel and on to Columbus. Those were great times. Thanks for triggering those memories!

Geof Meloen: Joe Cearfoss We used to take train everywhere before Amtrak existed. My Dad was Engineer for PRR sober rode everywhere on a Pass.We would leave Pgh late night to go to Dayton ,Ohio.I remember crossing the river but I thought we departed on the track that went under post office and where US Steel building is now.

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The railyad in the middle of this excerpt was the Corliss Yard. "In 1902 the Corliss Yard was a major facility on the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Panhandle Division. In those days the Panhandle crossed the Monongahela River on the bridge currently used by the PRT light rail trains, followed the south bank of the Ohio to the east end of Brunot Island then up the Cork’s Run valley through the Sheraden neighborhood before entering a tunnel leading to Ingram and parts west. The Corliss Yard was located in the Cork’s Run valley and served as a classification yard....The Corliss Yard consisted of twenty-one parallel tracks, including four mainline through lines."  [BridgevilleHistory]

1951/51 Pittsburgh West Quad @ 24,000

Apr 17, 1948 @ 35,400; AR1DQ0000040062

The route that Geof's Amtrak train took was the original Panhandle route to Corliss Yard using the Panhandle Bridge shown in dark blue on this map. The route that Joe's Amtrak train took was the cicuritus route to the yard using the Ohio Connecting Bridge shown in light blue.

1951/51 Pittsburgh West and East Quads @ 24,000 plus Paint