Dates

• Majority of material found within 1900 - 2000

Extent

1 box Linear Feet (This collection contains files and right of way maps about the Indiana County Branches of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh (BR&P) Railroad, and the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad/Chessie System/CSX that closed railroad offices and an old station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The box contains correspondence from the 1930s to the 1980s related to the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh (BR&P) Railroad and later the B&O/Chessie System/CSX Railways in Indiana County. Most of these files are realignments or the acquisition of track (from the Penn Central Railroad). One letter from the 1980s is from the railroad forbidding the removal of some track near Ernest because “the mine may re-open one day.” A large portion of the collection are the V-series Right of Way maps about railroad trackage in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. There are maps from the Ridge Branch (Chambersville to Shelocta to Iselin), the Lucerne Branch, and the Rossiter Branch. Some of the maps date to back to 1907. This collection was donated by John Cunningham, SJ, PhD, Chair of the Department of Physics at Loyola University Chicago. Dr. Cunningham grew up in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and his mother’s family were Polish immigrants who lived in Ernest, Pennsylvania. His grandfather worked in the Ernest mines starting in about 1906. Because of his interest in railroads, especially the Indiana Branch of the B&O Railroad and being from the area, Dr. Cunningham was given this box in 1991. For more information about the Rochester & Pittsburgh (R&P) Coal Company, see Manuscript Group 51 and Manuscript Group 94. The Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh (BR&P) Railroad originated from the Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad Company which was founded on January 29, 1881 from the Rochester and State Line Railroad. In October 1885, Adrian Iselin who owned the Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal & Iron Company (R&P – see Manuscript Group 51: Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company Collection and Manuscript Group 94: Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company Media Collection) reorganized the railroad as a subsidiary of R&P into the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad to ship from the coal fields of western Pennsylvania. In 1932, the BR&P Railroad was absorbed into the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad. For further information, visit, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo,_Rochester_and_Pittsburgh_Railway)

Language of Materials

English