Pittsburgh and Whitehall Railroad

The Whitehall Branch was a rail line owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The line ran from Monongahela Branch near the 30th Street yard to a connection with the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad and the Allegheny and South Side Railway at 21st Street Yard in the South Side of Pittsburgh. The line was abandoned by Conrail and has been removed.

After encouraging the development of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad (P&LE) east of downtown Pittsburgh to give competition for traffic from his Oliver Iron and Steel Company, Henry W. Oliver set about arranging for direct competition for the P&LE, looking back to the Pennsylvania Railroad to provide that. Under an 1882 charter, sufficient for any railroad purpose but with the stated purpose of building a 7-mile passenger line to the future suburb of Whitehall, a line was constructed parallel to and across sidings of the P&LE serving industries from South 3rd St. to South 21st St. The line was known as the Pittsburgh and Whitehall Railroad. It connected to an existing branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad by traversing an easement in a reservation in the center of South 21st St. obtained from the heirs of the Ormsby estate. The easement in the reservation was adjacent to the existing narrow gauge railroad of the Birmingham Coal Company, for whom it connected a coal incline leading to the Ormsby Mine opened by Birmingham Coal predecessor Keeling Coal Company. The mine was near St. Patrick Street. The railroad ran from the base of the incline at Quarry St. to the river. At the time, that part of the South Side was the independent community of East Birmingham and the street was known first as Oliver St., then Railroad St.

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