Youngstown Belt Railroad

The Youngstown Belt Railroad (reporting mark YB) is a part of the Ohio Central Railroad System, which was bought by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. in 2008, serving the area northwest of Youngstown, Ohio. It began operations in 1997, mainly on ex-Erie Railroad trackage owned by the affiliated Warren and Trumbull Railroad (W&T), which acquired the "Lordstown Cluster" from Conrail in 1996. It also leases a short ex-Baltimore and Ohio Railroad segment from CSX Transportation, formerly operated by the W&T.

The company operates in three separate areas near Warren, Niles, and Youngstown, connected by trackage rights over the Norfolk Southern Railway. In addition to its connections with affiliated railroads - the Warren and Trumbull Railroad at Warren and the Mahoning Valley Railway and Youngstown and Austintown Railroad at Youngstown - it interchanges in Youngstown with the Norfolk Southern at Haselton Yard^[1] and with CSX.^[2]

History

The YB's trackage near Youngstown and Niles includes pieces of a former main line, completed in 1856 by the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad, a predecessor of the Erie Railroad.^[3] Other ex-Erie trackage includes two branches to Leadville (connecting with the Youngstown and Austintown Railroad there) and the U.S. Steel Ohio Works,^[4] and the portion of the line at Warren north of the Warren and Trumbull Railroad junction (opened by the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad as part of a main line to Dayton in 1863^[3]). The remainder of the Warren line was opened in 1873 by the Ashtabula, Youngstown and Pittsburgh Railroad, a Pennsylvania Railroad predecessor.^[3] Conrail sold all of these lines to the Warren and Trumbull Railroad in 1996,^[5] and later that year the W&T leased a connecting ex-Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line near Youngstown from CSX Transportation.^[6] Effective January 1, 1997, the Youngstown Belt Railroad began operating this trackage under lease.^[7]