This is probably a question for Hot Metal; but here goes. Right after the formation of Conrail there was a large RR yard just east of Youngstown, OH : Rt 80 or Rt 76 that contained hundreds of diesel locomotives that were being scrapped. I recently passed that old RR yard again ( vacant land )and it made me wonder if anyone could tell me who's RR yard that was, and who were the scrappers ? Does anyone have photos.

Kevin K.

That started out as the Coalburg Yard of the New York Central. NYC did not have a through route in the Mahoning Valley. They came down from Ashtabula to Coalburg, where trains were made up for interchange with other railroads or delivery to the mills via their line which went as far as Center Street. When the NYC and P&LE integrated operations in the 1920s freight classification was moved to the P&LE Lowellville yards, making Coalburg obsolete. Eventually Midwest Steel & Alloy purchased the yard and used it to scrap rail equipment including the infamous train of Conrail GG1s that went to Chicago and back.

South of the yard on the other side of I-80 within the wye are the remains of the locomotive facilities. The turntable pit and foundations for the 15 stall roundhouse remain, as does the powerhouse and two concrete coaling towers. The ash pit also remains and is not filled in.

BTW the wye was the beginning of the Sharon Branch, which was built by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern in the late 1880s to serve the Shenango Valley. It paralleled the Erie and went as far as Ferrona Yard where it interchanged with the Erie.

The NYC had plans to massively enlarge Coalburg yard had the joint operations with the P&LE not taken place. I live in Coalburg, and if that expansion would have happened my house would have been smack dab in the middle of the passenger mains. I found the map of the proposed expansion in some Youngstown Sheet & Tube documents and donated it to one of the archives in Youngstown.

#1- Rick, please tell us more about that train of CR GG-1s; never heard that story.

#2- A colleague and I were WB on I-80 in Nov. 1972, en route to the Tourist Railway Assn convention in Milwaukee, and we crossed a huge yard at a right angle (coming down a hill near Youngstown). The yard was full of 40-foot steel boxcars on fire-- burning out the wood linings before scrapping the cars. Was this the same yard/location? I wish we'd stopped for some photos; still remember that scene.

Howard P.

Yes that is the same place. Some of my earliest memories of the yard was of burning boxcars.

http://conrailphotos.thecrhs.org/conrailfacts/Conrail-misrouted-a-GG1-funeral-train-all-the-way-to-Chicago

My family would travel to Pennsylvania every Christmas to be with my mothers family. We would pass by that yard every year and I would marvel at all the old locomotives never knowing it was a scrap yard.

I think a little part of me just died...