PRR Passenger Train Alongside Edgar Thomson Steel Mill

Artist Harold M. Brett painted this painting of the PRR Pennsylvania Railroad mainline in the vicinity of the Edgar Thomson steel mill for the 1927 calendar issued by the railroad. This is in the area of milepost 342.1. The track to the left of the K4 steam locomotive would have been track 4. Here the passenger train is on track 3 westbound to the Pittsburgh station. In the distance, to the east, the faint expression of the position light signals above tracks 2 and 1 is expressed by the artist. The white vertical line is a clear signal for track 2. The small white horizontal line is a stop signal for track1. The signals were actually three electric lamps in a row. The concept was that if a lamp was burned out, the other lamps would still provide the information for the engineer to operate the locomotive safely. Not shown are the westbound signals also above the tracks as they face the opposite direction. A brakeman is standing in the track used to access the Edgar Thomson Steel Mill. Gondola freight cars are being switched on the siding as the Brakeman uses his hand held kerosene signal lamp to signal the switch locomotive's engineer out of sight to the right. The PRR had a passenger railroad sharing the ROW with a freight railroad.