The P&LE Railroad

The P&LE Railroad. The Little Giant. , The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad (P&LE) transported coal, coke, iron ore, and limestone to the steel mills starting in 1875. It was called the "Little Giant" because it made great profits by moving vast tonnage over short distances. It connected the coal fields of Connellsville to Pittsburgh industries, then headed west to Youngstown, Ohio, to access Lake Erie transportation. One of the short lines controlled by the P&LE was the Pittsburgh, McKeesport and Youghiogheny Railroad (PMCK&Y), most of which is now the trail., The P&LE headquarters in the Pittsburgh Terminal (1901) on the city's South Side featured a grand passenger station, a large train shed and freight houses. When heavy industry declined in the 1980's, the P&LE went out of business, but the Pittsburgh Terminal was converted into an elegant centerpiece of a major commercial redevelopment. The rail corridor between Connellsville and Port Vue was purchased and converted for trail use in the 1990's., (Captions):, A steam engine pulls a load of iron ore past a steel mill shed aglow with molten metal-late 1947., The historic P&LE Terminal next to the Smithfield Street Bridge is now Station Square, a unique tourist center across the river from Downtown Pittsburgh., The P&LE created a complex system of more than a dozen wholly-owned or jointly-owned short-line railroads. It also shared trackage rights with other railroads, such as the New York Central., Painting by Harold Fogg. Title page illustration from "The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie RR", by Harold McLean, Courtesy of Sen. John Heinz , History Center Archives