The Union Railroad - Steel Industry Shortline in Pittsburgh

The Union Railroad services the remnants of the steel industry in the Mon Valley with a small fleet of MP15 and SW1500 locomotives. Here, a scrap train arrives in Duquesne Yard as a cut of empty B&LE hoppers are switched. Later, a trio of blue switchers deliver an empty steel slab train to the US Steel Edgar Thompson Works in Braddock.

The Union is one of the few railroads to use cabooses in regular service, due to the large number of backing maneuvers performed. The cabooses are ex-B&LE cabins.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• train
• railroad
• railfan
• locomotive
• steel
• mill
• Union
• URR
• MP15
• industry
• industrial
• caboose
• Trains

[Stephenson18]

Very nicely done... quite a yard back in the slab train..looks quite a yard...Ready to go captain sleepyhead lol

[videotrains]

Hey, if they want to talk during the video, they're going to have to deal with the consequences :)

[Flipperpat11]

@Flipperpat11 oh yeah 1 time i saw a union railroad train with a yellow caboose on it now that is rare

[Flipperpat11]

why did the trains have a caboose at the end those are old and most trains do not them anymore.

[putneylane]

would love to be able to go sit and watch this unfold....I live in Natrona Heights, PA, and get to see quite a bit of Allegheny Technology (Allegheny Ludlum), but not the same kind of rail traffic. Nice video!

[j1964s20110]

@avand18

can you tell me why uss uses one railway for connecting the mills (the urr) and another for the inner-mill service? i live in duisburg germany where thyssen steel operates one industrial railway for all duties (connecting the mills, interchange to the class one railroad companies, running the hot metal, coke and ore trains and switching the steel and rolling mills).

[avand18]

Just a couple more notes: The in-mill switchers are not operated by Union employees, but USS operating/transportation employees. Union maintains some track around mill properties, but not all. If USS's steelmaking interests were to close in the Mon Valley, the Union still might serve Clairton coke plant but would probably be made redundant by NS. The B&LE (now the Canadian National's Bessemer Sub) would probably also be abandoned, making for one bad-ass bike trail from Duquesne to lake Erie...

[a4mallardie]

nice video

[baggerolli1]

Awesome, I like the camera angle and the combination wideangle and teleshot, hope to see this RR next year! Highball to all RR-Fans!

[xxxDeath9572xxx]

Videotrains: the power here are MP15DC's and SW1500's are remote controlled, and are also used for the strictly the mills.

[xxxDeath9572xxx]

It would seem that as of the recession right now, the Union will definatly see a bounce in activities when the recession is to end.. Even if Steadily. I can only say that with this bounce, i think it'll be time to see the Union upgrading they're fleet to the newer MP15T's for example.. The MP15DC's are old and will soon become battle wary, the SW1500's are strictly for mill uses, so i dont see those to come out.. All SW1500's are also remote controlled. We can only sit and wait as i agree myself

[xxxDeath9572xxx]

Oh no... lol I am only in 9th Grade! But yea i know alot about it due to it being such an interesting railroad.. And I thank you sir, maybe we can meet each other some day when i railfan the union... ;)