W&LE, Montour Westland
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Created – as it was – from the remains of bankrupted railroad’s right of way, there are several branches of the Montour Trail found snaking around the hinterlands of Pittsburgh.
One of these branch lines, in particular – the Westland – is fascinating to me. The somewhat sudden emergence of an industry which harvests gas from the Marcellus Shale formation in Western Pennsylvania (and in other nearby states here in Appalachia) using the hydrological fracturing – aka ‘Fracking’ – methodology, has caused a new set of rail tracks to emerge that more or less mirrors the route of the old Montour Railroad.
Recent endeavor found a humble narrator in PA.’s Washington County, walking along the Montour Trail, and also encountering a rail yard used by the Wheeling & Lake Erie outfit along this route.
For a history of the Westland Branch of the Montour RR – I photographed a signboard which the rail to trail people have installed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was a lucky catch for me, as I had literally just scuttled up the trail from a nearby parking lot, and my arrival is exactly when the gates of the rail yard signaled an alarm and then opened up to receive this train. In the distance, a young eagle was twisting in the sky, and you could just make out the rumble of a diesel engine coming my way before it arrived.
The land surrounding this area is semi rural. A dairy farmer has a small property nearby and you could both smell and hear his cows just beyond the tree line. The trail itself was barely being used, besides myself there was some other guy jogging about and a young woman riding around on some fancy pants bicycle was also spotted.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Wheeling & Lake Erie train was hauling mainly tanker cars. Each one bore a screed exclaiming that ‘Liqueified Natural Gas’ was contained within. The fracking thing… well, I’m new here and I’ve got opinions.
Just like butt holes, opinions are, everyone’s got ‘em.
Serious consequence to ground water and seismic stability accompany the practice of ‘Fracking.’ Future generations will rue the day that our current civilization decided that harvesting this gas was a good idea.
Saying that, this industrial pursuit has accomplished a fifty year long quest to decouple the American economy from energy dependence on the Middle East, and consequently the United States has now become the leading exporter of hydrocarbons to the rest of the world. This has allowed the Foreign Policy types to introduce the Arabians to the Chinese and let them work things out between themselves. In my opinion, never have two groups of people deserved each other more, but that brings me back to buttholes.
It’s… complicated.
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I think you may have been looking at railroad cars carrying LPG – liquid petroleum gas ie. propane and butane – and related products. The Wheeling & Lake Erie website doesn’t mention transport of LNG. https://www.wlerwy.com/commodities/petroleum-products/
Light pressure is used to liquefy LPG, while LNG is liquefied cryogenically, i.e. through exposure to extremely low temperatures. https://www.petro-online.com/news/analytical-instrumentation/11/breaking-news/whats-the-difference-between-lpg-and-lng/50495
Also see: “DOT Suspends Authorization for LNG in Rail Tank Cars” Posted on 9/5/2023 https://www.lion.com/lion-news/september-2023/dot-extends-suspension-of-lng-by-rail
dbarms8878
June 24, 2024 at 9:03 pm
Thanks. Still learning all this new alphabet soup
Mitch Waxman
June 24, 2024 at 10:29 pm