Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad
The Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad was a short line freight railroad that operated in western Pennsylvania between the boroughs of Export and Trafford, where it connected to the Pittsburgh Line. The TCKR was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dura-Bond Corporation, a steel products company headquartered in Export. The company purchased the railroad from Conrail in 1982. For the next 27 years, three to five trains per week made the round trip along just over ten miles (16 km) of track, delivering materials such as steel pipe to the shortline's parent company in Export and lumber to lumber yards in neighboring Murrysville. In the shortline's heyday, trains of typically about four cars in length were hauled by one of the railroad's two 1940s era switch engines, operated by a two-man crew. The railroad was in service until 2009, when flash flooding of Turtle Creek severely damaged the TCKR's tracks which ran adjacent to the stream. After cessation of service, most of the right-of-way was sold to Westmoreland County to become part of the Westmoreland Heritage Trail.
Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad locomotive #550 in Export, PA
The Dura-Bond steel pipe coating company adjacent to the track of the TCKR in Export, PA (note: the flood protection channel in this photo was not constructed until after the railroad had ceased operations)
The siding in Trafford, PA where trains were exchanged between TCKR locomotives and those of Conrail and its successor Norfolk Southern
A PRR-standard TCKR milepost next to the former railroad, now part of the Westmoreland Heritage Trail
Turtle Creek (Monongahela River tributary)
Turtle Creek is a 21.1-mile-long (34.0 km) tributary of the Monongahela River that is located in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Situated at its juncture with the Monongahela is Braddock, Pennsylvania, where the Battle of the Monongahela was fought in 1755.
Turtle Creek, as seen looking north from the George Westinghouse Bridge
Photo of the George Westinghouse Bridge over the Turtle Creek Valley.
B-Y Pond in Trafford, Pennsylvania was formed when the flow of Turtle Creek was shortened to accommodate a railroad, which has since become the rail-trail in the foreground
The Westinghouse Floodgates in East Pittsburgh PA in 2017