I’ve lived along the Allegheny River for well over a decade now, and many nights over those years I’d hear the horns of the Allegheny Valley Railroad’s AVR-02 train as it made its nightly trek up and down its namesake valley. On a quiet night I can actually hear the creaking of the wheels echoing across the river while lying in bed. The sounds (and occasional sights) of the comings and goings of this particular train are as much a fixture here as the river or the highway.
This train originates at AVR’s Glenwood Yard in Pittsburgh five nights a week at 7pm, and makes its way to Pittsburgh’s Strip District – an area has been slowly trading its industry for loft apartments and microbreweries for years – and continues along the original Allegheny Valley Railroad which once went all the way to Buffalo, but today ends a bit past New Kensington in tiny Arnold, PA. Several larger customers remain a little further out from downtown, which is the focus of AVR-02’s energy this chilly evening.
Every year, Oakmont lights up their little downtown for the holidays, and for the last few years I thought about getting a photo of the AVR-02 passing by. Here we see the 02 on Tuesday, December 29, watching the AVR-02 come and go, taking advantage of the push-pull configuration having locomotives on both ends. It’s a big train with work for several customers in the Oakmont-New Kensington area in tow.
