Hello. I'm looking for pictures and information on the Unity Railways in Plum, PA. Here's some of the information I have so far:

-They ran from North Bessemer Yard to the Renton coal mine.
-Caboose 53A is at the Carrie Blast Furnaces in Swissvale/Rankin, PA
-Locomotive 53 was in a green and white paint scheme. It went to the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway, and then went to a power plant(?).
-According to https://www.steamlocomotive.com/roundhouse/?state=PA , the roundhouse in North Bessemer was theirs.

Please say if any of this information is incorrect, and I would appreciate any more information I can learn about it. Thank you in advance!

Corey -
Do NOT take this to the bank: Unity Railways connected to the B&LE/Union RR at the north end of North Bessemer yard (Unity Junction) and ran up Little Plum Creek to Renton to serve a coal cleaning plant. I’m not sure if there was also a mine there or not - it’s likely as the PRR once had a branch that ran up Plum Creek to serve a few mines. A connection was built by the PRR to the Unity to swap cars for the Renton plant and maybe for a little bit of interchange to B&LE. The Renton plant closed in the mid 60s as did the Unity. When Renton opened again for a while a few years later, B&LE took over servicing the plant.

I’m not aware of any roundhouse at Unity Junction. There is a Union RR roundhouse a ways south of North Bessemer yard at Hall.

There’s a B&LE forum on the web that you might ask some questions there. https://bessemerandlakeerie.proboards.com/

Wayne Cole’s book, “Ghost Rails XII” should have some info on it if you can find a copy.

Morning Sun Books "Pennsylvania Short Lines in Color - Volume Two" by Gary R. Carlson has a couple of pages on the Unity Railways.

Moody's Manual for 1942 shows the Unity owning one locomotive, one freight car, and one passenger car. The railroad served a mine and was controlled by the coal company through a wholly-owned subsidiary.

- Alan Maples

Nice operating ratio!! 35%

Howard P.

A few additional comments: The overall layout of the Unity is a Y shape with the base of the Y at Fenton Mine, the line's only customer. One leg came west to their operating base and the Bessemer/Union connection at the north end of North Bessemer Yard. At their base they had a combination office and M/W building on the north side of the tracks and an enginehouse on the south side just big enough for their EMD SW8 #53, numbered for its build date. Caboose 53A began life as NYO&W 8323 and was also purchased by Urys in 1953, hence the number and suffix. The usual parking spot for 53A was under the Pennsylvania Turnpike bridge just west of the enginehouse. URys ceased operation in late 1965 at which time loco 53 was sold and caboose 53A donated to Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, along with several motorcars and trailers. The third leg of the Y was the connection to PRR's Plum Creek Branch from Verona. This branch passed under the north throat of North Bessemer Yard in a tunnel and connected with the URys line a couple miles farther east. The traffic pattern in later years was PRR delivering empty hoppers which were loaded at Renton Mine and shipped out via B&LE. After URys quit B&LE operated the line until final closure of the mine a few years later.
Caboose 53A at PTM was converted to broad (62.5") gauge for use on PTM's trolley line and was most often used as residence for Santa Claus for the PTM Christmas event. As it no longer fit PTM's mission it was given to Rivers of Steel for display and use at the Carrie Furnace preservation site near Rankin. It's back to Std. Ga. now.

What is probably the definitive book on the Unity is Wayne A. Cole's "Ghost Rails XIII - Coal Runners" that has about 50 pages on the Unity in addition to the connecting PRR line and the B&LE's Hilliards Branch. Wayne's books combine historical photos and maps with present day (circa 2010) photos of the same locations and remaining signs that the railroad was there. If you plan to model the railroad or visit the site, I highly recommend the book.

The book notes that the big Renton Mine was closed 1962-67; the locomotive sold to CR&IC as #90 in 1965 and the caboose went to the museum at that time. When the mine reopened, the RR was operated by the B&LE until the mine closed in 1983 for a while and for good in 1987. The RR officially filed for abandonment in September 1994.

Nick

There is a photo I can't currently locate of the North Bessemer Roundhouse marked "Unity Railway '43" showing the Roundhouse after it had been cut down to 4 stalls from its original 12 stalls.

You can see a couple smaller locomotives in the roundhouse. With the arrival of Larger Bessemer Locomotive, I wonder if the Bessemer sold the building to the Unity or if the person taking the image was mistaken. The Unity bought old Bessemer locomotives, so it's possible they used the Roundhouse for said locomotives, and they might of taken down 8 of the stalls because they didn't need all that structure.

The Diesel Shop and the Roundhouse are on separate parcels of land, with the Shop still being owned by the BLE and the Roundhouse being used as a garage.

My Grandfather worked for the BLE as a mining engineer at Renton mine, his building/office at the mine is now a house.

After the mine shut down, and before it was torn down, my father literally threw a massive wrench off the Renton Tipple into thick grass, its about two and half feed long and greater than fifty pounds. We still have it today.

I managed to get a copy of "Ghost Rails XIII Coal runners" as was recommended. Unfortunately for me it was rather difficult to get a hold of even though it's a fairly new book. Here's some information I'd like to pass along.

- The Unity Railways had 4 locomotives throughout their lifetime, a first locomotive with little information about it, A 2-8-0 new from Baldwin in 1925 numbered #25 (For some technical information on this locomotive, go to https://digitalcollections.smu.edu/digi ... rwy/id/32/ volume 74 pg. 27), A former B&LE Alco 2-8-0 class C2C #352 acquired in 1944, And an EMD SW8 built for the Unity in 1953.
-The roundhouse in North Bessemer seems to have always been owned by the B&LE during it's railroad usage. The Unity used it for their steam locomotives which is where the confusion could've come from.
-The Unity had two cabooses that I have found. The book unfortunately didn't contain any information on the earlier caboose. You can find a couple decent pictures of the caboose before 53A here: https://rrmuseumpa.andornot.com/list?q= ... &p=1&ps=20
-In the years that the B&LE ran the Unity, they primarily used F7s and SD9s as motive power.
-According to the book, in 1918 the Unity had 1 locomotive, 1 passenger coach, 1 box car, and 1 flat car.

I should have said this sooner, but thank you to all for the responses I received to my original post. If anyone has anything else to share about the Unity, I'd appreciate reading that too.