Railroad operations @ National Forge, Irvine (Warren County)

A number of years ago, on a previous version of this site, I posted a query regarding some industrial locomotives on (then) National Forge property that I'd glimpsed from Pennsylvania Route 6 on a visit to my hometown in northwest Pennsylvania. Unfortunately that information was lost when the site went down so I'm asking again.

Can anyone provide information on:

A-The locomotives used at the plant?

B-What type of railroad operations took (Take?) place within the plant?

C-Does the plant still send or receive shipments via rail?

Irvine (Listed in railroad timetables as "Irvineton") is just west of Warren, PA and was at one time served by both the Pennsylvania Railroad on its Emporium-Erie line and the New York Central's Dunkirk, Allegheny and Pittsburgh branch. The DAV&P was abandoned south of Warren in the early 1960's and the former PRR line went through a number of operators after Conrail, now being served by GWI Industries Buffalo and Pittsburgh (Previously Allegheny and Eastern).

Was the forge ever served by the NYC or was it strictly a connection with the PRR?

This topic was touched upon in the Kinzua Dam Railroad thread, however I thought it would be proper to start a new thread rather than "hijack" the thread on the Kinzua Dam operation.

Here's a link to the corporate website for the current operators of the National Forge:

http://www.ellwoodgroup.com/home.cfm?pid=458

Aa3rt wrote:A number of years ago, on a previous version of this site, I posted a query regarding some industrial locomotives I'd glimpsed from Pennsylvania Route 6 on a visit to my hometown in northwest Pennsylvania. Unfortunately that information was lost when the site went down so I'm asking again.

Can anyone provide information on:

A-The locomotives used at the plant?

B-What type of railroad operations took (Take?) place within the plant?

C-Does the plant still send or receive shipments via rail?

Irvine (Listed in railroad timetables as "Irvineton") is just west of Warren, PA and was at one time served by both the Pennsylvania Railroad on its Emporium-Erie line and the New York Central's Dunkirk, Allegheny and Pittsburgh branch. The DAV&P was abandoned south of Warren in the early 1960's and the former PRR line went through a number of operators after Conrail, now being served by GWI Industries Buffalo and Pittsburgh (Previously Allegheny and Eastern).

Was the forge ever served by the NYC or was it strictly a connection with the PRR?

This topic was touched upon in the Kinzua Dam Railroad thread, however I thought it would be proper to start a new thread rather than "hijack" the thread on the Kinzua Dam operation.

Here's a link to the corporate website for the current operators of the National Forge:

http://www.ellwoodgroup.com/home.cfm?pid=458

Art,

As Ron S. made a post regarding a few locos at ENF in the Kinzua Dam RR thread that you mention, I know nothing about them. I have seen the one loco located at the LSRHS in North East.

As far as the history of the operations, I have no idea there either, other than if Pennsy served them, would they have not had to cross the NYC to get into the plant? I was looking at this area on PennPilot just last week and wondered the same thing then.

Yes, ENF does still receive shipments by rail. I caught a switch in Easter time 2008 when I chased B&P's YAWA (Warren Yard local). The crew made the run with a loco at each end from Warren and split to shove into the plant from the east leaving the west end loco and remaining train on the main. Here is a photo from the day that I chased the YAWA that I took of the crew heading back into Warren after coupling back onto their train at the ENF:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 02&nseq=96
The spur into ENF curves to the right in the photo right about in the area of the green covered hopper that they picked up at Warren Rail Car. The Warren Yard job is usually a M-W-F daylight job, although I don't know for sure if the T-R Erie train would make a stop there on the way back in or not.

Thanks for the reply and the link to the photo. Yes, I recall when the former PRR Erie-Emporium line was threatened with abandonment it was United Refining, Warren Car Co. and National Forge that were instrumental in keeping the line open as to maintain rail service. However, I also remember that National Forge hit upon its own hard times a couple of years ago and was unaware as to the current status of the facility.

I was hoping Ron S. would chime in here. I believe he was the one who supplied the information on the operation with my previous inquiry.