For those who might be interested:

Pennsylvania shortline Fayette Central is ending its tourist trains after this season due to a sharp increase in freight traffic.

Read all about it on their homepage:

http://www.fayettecentralrailroad.com/

Well, if you gotta end passenger excursions, that's the best dang excuse for doing so!

And KUDOS to the railroad and staff for publicly announcing the pending cessation in advance, to give the public and railfans a last opportunity to take some extra effort to ride before operations cease.

...true Alexander, but, the Fayette Central is not the operator of the freight on the line they use. Really, its the same blow that came to several other tourist roads over the years that "rented" trackage.

It also, to me, seems hard to operate a railroad in these parts. This is the second or third operation to start and then fizzle in that area for various reasons.

Recall, if you will, the operation "Laurel Highlands Railroad" that operated just a few miles North of the Fayette Central, in Scottsdale up to Youngwood.

They also lasted only a few years - running steam at that.

The line in question is former B&O and now owned by Westmoreland and Fayette Counties under a joint authority.

Freight operator is Southwest Pennsylvania, now having a big time traffic boom in fracking sand for the Marcellus Shale gas production industry.

The location, while not all that far from the PA Turnpike and I-70, is still not exactly a big tourist draw.

As a friend noted, "Nobody seems to know they're operating." No doubt due to very little if any advertising.

Perhaps if a few more patrons showed up, the decision might be reversed. But first they have to be made aware of the FCRR's very existence.

Well, since they are actually having a "big time traffic boom", maybe the reason is totally legit.

I suspect they're not making much money on the operation (not a tough guess) and the railroad probably said "We don't have time for this right now".

Once the fracking boom ends, maybe they could resume operations.

When we started the FCRR the freight traffic on the FM&P branch was once a week
if needed, now with 3 different fracking companys getting sand traffic has gone up to 6 days a week.
The people I have talked to in the gas drilling and pipeline companys are telling me
there is work in this area for the next 8-12 years.

The SWP who is the freight operator has been good to us over the years but with the traffic increase we are in the way and with the FRA rule of
"Temporal Time Separation" the FCRR and SWP can not be on the FM&P at the same time.
The westmoreland county side is also busy with the transloading facility near the old sony plant and some fracking sand companys there is no room for us there.

At this time it looks like this will be the last season we will be running

Tim C
Fayette Central RailRoad

I guess this proves one man's boom is another man's bust.

Have you guys investigated the Turtle Creek Industrial RR?

Last time I looked the trackage showed no sign of use for a very long time.

Dave H.

That is something that will need to be looked at closely, the last I know of that track is it is below FRA spec. for passenger trains

Tim C

If Its not active then its not part of the general system. Different regs apply. Or rather, many regs do not.
This is the kind of situation where CLEAR understanding of the fra regs is essential to success.
Start with the tourist railway letters and then go to 49 cfr 209 appendix A. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32680

Sorry for the formatting, used my phone.

What kind of non-railroad equipment are you using that causes that rule to be applied?

Im sad to see the FCRR go. I have to make it down this season and ride.
In response to ideas about using the TCKR, they folded in 2009 when a large storm caused some washouts. They still have a SW and NW on the washed out property and they have a GE 44 ton at a separate site that still runs. I do not know how much it would cost to repair the line, but It wouldn't be viable. Most of the trackage looks like has been abandoned for not Three, but Twenty years with tons of growth and I believe some crossings have been paved over.

The way it was explaned to me, because we are running on track that belongs to
SWP and the FM&P runs from the signal at "green Jct" on CSX in connellsville to
smithfield pa. as one division the FRA said we can not be out when the SWP train is on that track.

Tim C
FCRR

I happened to be in Western PA visiting family in mid-August and I took my family on a ride of the Fayette Central. It was an enjoyable outing and I can vouch of the many covered hoppers of frac sand that were on sidings at multiple locations on the trip.

The stop in Dunbar was nice and we enjoyed ice cream from the local shop. The owners expressed concern that they would have to close when the train stopped running, as the train brings them a lot of business!

The PA system was a bit hard to hear at times, but I did get to see some of the concrete phone booths along the way, and enjoyed being on the bridge over the "yock" river in Connelsville. As a bonus, we got to see a CSX train on the other side of the river. It was also interesting to see where another rail line formerly paralleled most of the route.

I'm glad that I was able to ride this train before the excursions ended. I was a bit sad they were out of pins/patches to purchase. More sad that the operation will have to end.