Allegheny and South Side Railway

Infobox SG rail
railroad_name=Allegheny and South Side Railway
marks=AYSS
locale=Pennsylvania
start_year=1892
end_year=1959
old_gauge=
hq_city=Pittsburgh, PAThe Allegheny and South Side Railway reporting mark|AYSS is an historic railroad that operated in Pennsylvania.

It was incorporated on September 20, 1892. Its initial board of directors was comprised of David, Henry, George and James Oliver, Charles Black and Henry Lupton. The officers were David Oliver, President, James Oliver, Vice President, Henry Lupton, Secretary-Auditor, James Oliver, Treasurer and D. S. Kamerer, General Superintendent. [Annual Report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs, Pennsylvania Department of Internal Affairs, 1901] It was controlled through stock ownership by the Oliver Iron and Steel Company and had the purpose of performing a terminal switching service in the South Side section of Pittsburgh. (71 I.C.C. 90, 1922) By 1903, John Oliver had become President of the railroad.

Between the Wars

The railway maintained connections with the Pennsylvania Railroad's Monongahela Branch (technically with the Whitehall Branch, a branch from the Monongahela Branch), and with the main line of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad. It was decided in a 1921 Interstate Commerce Commission case 62 I.C.C. 248 Allegheny and S.S. Ry. Co. vs. Director General that the railroad did not meet the requirements of a common carrier, despite serving the unaffiliated Mackintosh-Hemphill Garrison Foundry Co., American Sheet and Tin Plate Co., and Newsome Feed and Grain Co., none of which were directly served by either of the Allegheny and South Side's connections. In 277 I.C.C. 119 the commission reversed itself on petition from the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen.

The Postwar Era

In the years after World War 2, the property dieselized with the purchase of a Whitcomb 65 ton 65DE-19a (ex-US Army) switcher from the Lancaster and Chester Railway; That unit became A&SS 100. It was soon followed by an EMD SW1 purchased new; That unit became A&SS 101.

On March 12, 1952, the PRR, the P&LE and the A&SS drafted a new agreement regarding switching services which would be performed by the A&SS on behalf of the two larger railroads. A letter from P&LE Vice President C.M. Yohe to his counterpart J.A. Appleton at the PRR dated April 24 1952 notes that this contract has been executed by all concerned parties, supplanting an agreement dating to December 22, 1914 with the P&LE, and December 9, 1914 with the PRR. This contract named Theodore F. Smith as the president of the A&SS in 1951 and 1952, and James C. Beech as secretary of the A&SS in 1952. Since at least 1929, Smith had been President of Oliver Iron & Steel.

The contract provides that the A&SS would operate switching services for the trunk line railroads at tariff, on tracks between South 3rd and South 21st Streets owned by the PRR as their Whitehall Branch, and on side tracks of the P&LE between those same streets, including intra-mill switching services. The exception was that tariffs would not be paid to the A&SS for switching the mills of its parent, the Oliver Iron and Steel Company. Further, tracks belonging to the Iron and Steel Company between 10th and 11th Streets were required by the contract to be maintained by the P&LE.

The files of the American Short Line Railroad Association show that subsequent to the I.C.C.'s 1950 decision, the Association solicited the A&SS for membership; Some time later, George B. Moser was appointed president, a position which he already held with the P&OV. [Railway Age. v133 1952 Oct-Dec] (He was also trainmaster with the PC&Y at McKees Rocks. [Railway Age. v133 1952 Jul-Sep] )

Advertising by the railroad in February 1959 listed the office at 1101 Muriel Street, Pittsburgh 3, Pa, and the officers as G.B. Moser, President, W.I. Schaffer, Vice President, and K.J. Haberman, Secretary-Treasurer-Controller. At the time they owned 3 freight cars and 2 diesel-electric locomotives. [The Pocket List of Railroad Officials; Railway Equipment and Publication Co.; New York, NY. 1959]

The End

The railroad's affairs were entwined in that of its parent company, and an insurance policy was issued to the parent company (beginning with the November 1957 policy, the Oliver Tyrone Corporation) for the facilities of the Iron and Steel company (including remote offices and the Berry Division in Corinth, Mississippi) as well as for the railroad. The last policy was dated May 8, 1959, and was issued only to the railroad, suggesting the company intended a continued existence for itself.

The railroad dissolved August 1, 1959, and the line became jointly operated by the PRR and the P&LE at that time, according to documents of the P&LE. The files of the American Short Line Railroad Association suggest that a new Buda diesel prime mover had been purchased to remotor the railroad's Whitcomb, but the Whitcomb itself had been resold leaving the orphaned Buda to sell. This exchange happened in December, 1959, at which point Hiram Milton was listed as representing the A&SS. EMD SW1 101 was sold to the Pittsburgh and Ohio Valley Railway where it continued its service into the 1990s and possibly later as Pittsburgh and Ohio Valley Railway 5. Interestingly, it was part of a group of EMD switchers which replaced 65 ton Whitcomb units like its former sibling at the A&SS.

Customers

According to former officer Kenneth Haberman, in voice interviews conducted in 2006, the railroad serviced customers including:
* Oliver Iron and Steel Company, its parent.
* Levinson Steel (a steel products service center)
* Eichleay Engineering and Construction
* Chatfield and Woods (paper products)
* Edwin Bell (cooperage)
* Mackintosh-Hemphill Garrison Forge (rolls and machinery)
* Equitable Gas Company (a natural gas utility)
* Salvation Army
* Strunz Soap
* Republic Steel Dilworth-Porter Division (tie plates)
* Truscon Steel (windows)
* Pittsburgh Terminal Warehouse

* Union Supply (a division of U.S. Steel which typically supplied company stores in ex-Frick Coke territory)

Bibliography

*Evans, Henry Oliver. [http://books.google.com/books?id=J7QgAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1] , "Iron Pioneer: Henry W. Oliver. 1840-1904", 1942, E.P. Dutton & Company.

References

elected Links

* [http://www.fortunecity.com/westwood/vivienne/438/lcrost.html Lancaster and Chester diesel roster]
* [http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM02945.html The Guide to the American Short Line Railroad Association Records, 1912-1971]
* [http://railsforohio.railfan.net/wle1768.html Railroad pictures around Pittsburgh] (including Allegheny and South Side 101 as Pittsburgh and Ohio Valley 5)