Question regarding the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie

The end of the P&LE seemed strange as it folded.  I think there was some back room dealing going on.  Maybe someone knows more.

BessemerSam posted

So, in 1934 the B&O started using trackage rights on the P&LE between McKeesport and New Castle. Also, in 1992, when CSX first took over the P&LE, they renamed it the "Three Rivers Railway," as a subsidiary, CSX had been using the line more than the P&LE did.

I want to hear from people who were actually there or remember.

I remember standing on the east (south) side of the Smithfield Street bridge around 10-11PM on a night in April, 1955, watching a plume of smoke winding around the Yough as it headed west. As I stood above the tracks a B&O S-1 pulled a mixed freight westbound. I was waiting to take the eastbound Columbian to Baltimore.

At that time B&O through passenger trains used the P&LE station as did some through freights.

Two of my great uncles worked for the P&LE but they are long gone. As I recall the last P&LE power I saw running through the P&LE station  was around 1990 give or take. Seems like through freights had 4 GP something units and the transfer run had  what I guess was an SW something. I don't know much about diesels from the 1970's and later.

I estimate that in the 1990 or so time frame there were at least 10 CSX powered freights to each P&LE one.

I worked with a friend who had a neighbor that was an executive with P&LE. They were going down the tubes at the time and I was not in to trains too deep so I didn't ask questions. My friend said that his neighbor was coming in to a lot of money and spending it at a time his employer was going broke.  There was talk about a bunch of P&LE cars and equipment being sold off before bankruptcy.  Just didn't seem too kosher at the time.

I think the B&O paid the P&LE for trackage rights the amount of money it SAVED by running passenger trains over it than home rails!

In my book collection, the 1993 title " B&O Sunburst Trail to Chicago" Vol.2, Cumberland to Chicago; by Ori, Salamon, and Oroszi, gives the best accounting of the B&O/P&LE trackage rights arrangement and its expansion over the next 50+ years.