Photos of abandoned shop facilities at McKees Rocks and College, Pennsylvania, of the Pittsburg & Lake Erie RR:

http://www.kahndog.com/p%26le_stations.htm

Hello all,

It is my understanding that the large car-shop building at McKees Rocks was demolished about 3-4 years ago? Can anyone here provide further information?

Tom Cornillie

Can't confirm one way or another on the car shop as I'm not sure which building it is (was?) but here are some recent pictures of what the locomotive shop looks like from the inside.

http://montourrr.com/Plogger/montour_ra ... kees_rocks

To give a quick description of the place (the pictures don't show nearly the full deal): 5 Tracks, 1 or 2 with a shallow inspection pit and one with what appears to be a modern full-service run-through inspection bay, complete with full (maybe 6 foot?) inspection pit. Trinity Railcar, during the short time they were using the building, set up huge buildings over a couple of the tracks which appear to be paint booths. The overhead cranes and some of the large tools are still there, though some were sold off to other organizations when the P&LE went under. All in all, a very fascinating (albeit slightly creepy) place.

The trackage inside is still intact, but all track outside the building was ripped up in 1999/2000. Bessemer and Lake Erie 2-10-4 #643 was stored on a stub just outside the shops until this time, where it was moved to another location due to the owner's fear of being landlocked from the track scrapping (or worse - the 643 being scrapped on site).

Please correct me if any of this information is incorrect, but I'm pretty sure it's all accurate. I'll be interested to see what the future holds for the Locomotive Shop. Apologies if it's sacreligious to make this comparison, but the place has the feel of a more modern Ely, NV or Orbinsonia, PA; it's as if everyone left one day, and everything's still where they left it.

Cheers,

Tim Botti

I have always understood that the building with the monitor roof-line, with "Pittsburgh and Lake Erie" on the side to be car shop. I believe that it was only converted to be a locomotive shop upon dieselization.

Architecturally, these are among the best examples of Class 1 railroad shop architecture extant anywhere in North America. Is there any will among regional railfans to do organize an effort to consider what options there are for saving this facility?

There are options out-there for sites like these - but successfully finding them requires thinking like a real-estate developer, economic developer, and community developer and having a good understanding of local, regional, and state politics.

I'd be happy to help anybody who is interested in such a project.

Tom Cornillie
(expecting no takers - as usual)