Conway Area
Welcome to the NS Conway area section of Railroads of the Upper Ohio Valley.
This site is currently under construction and not too much will be for
a while so hang on and check back soon.
We will begin East to West following the main from Haysville which is just north of
I79 to Beaver Falls. A map of the area will come later.
We will begin with Haysville. Haysville is about two miles North of I79. To get there you, of
corse, have to get off of I79 and proceed North on Route 65. (Youll be hearing alot about
Route 65 since its THE road that follows NS North.) Youll know your at Haysville when you see
a PRR signal bridge and traffic light, you turn at that traffic light and just sit
somewhere to your liking. Whats neat about this place is the PRR signal bridge,and that you
can hear them coming for a good distance and the trains move at a good clip of over 50MPH,
most of the time the trains are passing the cars!!!
Next in line is Leetsdale and is one of the best places to shot east of Conway yard and is
a evening location. Turn left at the light in Leetsdale that is right beside the tracks and
go over the mainline then go either left or right. Both areas are equally good and
are very shootable.
The next place in North of Leetsdale that is shootable is the bridge at East Conway but is
now a no tresspassing area and I would suggest going to one of the other many places. This
was a great but now is lost.
The engine terminal at Conway is called East Park and is easily shootable from the highway.
Depending on your timing,there will be no cars infront of East Park but most of the times,
there are trains sitting there blocking view.
Conway is a huge yard built by the Pennsylvania Railroad and completely in 1956 and has
the capacity of handleing 6,000 cars daily. Heres a map of Conway yard and showing what
parts of the yard is called what.
At the western edge of Conway yard is a small town called Freedom. It is a good morning
location to catch trains in either directions and you can just park along the street as there
are always parking spaces. Just get off at the Freedom exit on Route 65.
A little over a mile north is Rochester and is one of the best places to be to railfan the
western end of Conway. To get here, take the first Rochester, PA
exit and turn to your left over a bridge that goes over the tracks. When you reach the
bottom, you can turn left or right to find locations.
Going right will take you to the eastern edge of the interlocking at Rochester where
you will find the home signals. This place is called the Bowling Alley because it is now
a bowling alley and at one time it was a brewery.
Turning left will take you to the western edge of the interlocking. Go under the Cleveland
Line bridge and park in the parking spots at the park. EBs on track 1 are the only real good
way of shooting as going up the stairs is not advised.
The next spot that will be mentioned on this page is Vail and is a morning spot. Vail is
where the Youngstown line climbs upgrade to meet at grade with the Ft Wayne line. The easiest
way to get to Vail is to turn left once you get to the first light right before town. Go
down that road and pull into the grass.
