PL&W railroad? PLSW railroad?

I have bits and pieces of information, if anyone can add to it or point me in the right direction i would greatly appreciate it.

I live in east liverpool, ohio. (or calcutta) There's a coal chute near the ohio river that says "property of PLSW railroad Inc. No trespassing." i cant find any info on a PLSW railroad, its faded so i might be miss reading it. About ten miles from there, there is a tunnel. I've only managed to find one end of it so far. The side i found is engraved with the year 1933. If it helps the tunnel is made of concrete, its still in really good shape except its flooded. The tunnel is near Grimm's Bridge, which goes over beaver creek, part of the old Sandy-Beaver Canal system. The railroad replaced the canal system. Farthe north there was a train tressel, I havent explored there yet, but its been torn down.

I have heard several stories about a train wrecking on this track, some say in the tunnel, some say it took a turn to fast in the winter and went off the tressel. I dont know, im searching the libraries newspaper archives tomorrow. All the stories end with the train in a place where it and the bodies on board couldnt be recovered. The ghost-ish story piqued my interest, now i want the facts behind it.

Any information would be so helpful and greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

~Michael Netherland

Just a stab in the dark, but could the sign really say "PL&W"? That would make it Pittsburgh, Lisbon & Western, a coal-hauling line that connected with the Youngstown & Southern and later became part of the Y&S.

thats entirely possible, its very weathered. ill look in to that. thank you.

The Pittsburgh, Lisbon &Western ran from New Galilee, Ohio to Lisbon via Darlington, Cannelton, Watts Mills, Negley, and Signal. Somewhere along its line -- maybe at New Galilee -- it connected with an affliated private which extended south to the Ohio River. The PL&W connected with the Youngstown & Southern at Signal. Possibly this private line is the one you've found.

The PL&W also connected at Lisbon with the Youngstown & Ohio River, an electric interurban line that ran from Salem to East Liverpool via Leetonia, Lisbon, and West Point. But this wasn't associated with the PL&W, so it probably isn't your line.

The PL&W-Youngstown & Southern-private RR were all covered in .a recent (within the past 2-3 years) book on this system, "Rails of Dreams," by Wayne Cole.

I don't know if all this is in the same territory you're describing, but it's the best I can do.