Brandywine Valley Railroad

The Brandywine Valley Railroad (reporting mark BVRY) is a class III railroad operating in Pennsylvania.

Brandywine Valley Railroad
Overview
HeadquartersCoatesville, Pennsylvania
Reporting markBVRY
LocaleCoatesville, Pennsylvania
Dates of operation1981–
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Other
Websitehttp://www.arcelormittalna.com/

It was established in 1981 by the Lukens Steel Company to operate trackage at Coatesville, Pennsylvania and the neighboring town of Modena. It was acquired, with the rest of the Lukens properties, by Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 1998.[1]

The Brandywine Valley's main line was originally built by the Wilmington and Northern Railroad, largely following the Brandywine Creek, to connect Reading with Wilmington, Delaware. By the time of the Brandywine Valley's formation, the line had been abandoned north of Valley Station, just north of Coatesville. BVRY took over the line from this point, the site of an interchange with Amtrak's Keystone Corridor, south to Modena, below which the ex-W&N was owned by PennDOT and operated by a number of shortlines over the years.

Under Bethlehem operation, BVRY took over operation of the Delaware Valley Railroad, then operating the remainder of the ex-Wilmington and Northern, in early 1999.[1] This gave the railroad interchange access not only to Conrail at Coatesville (subsequently replaced by the Norfolk Southern Railway), but to CSX Transportation at the southern end of the line at Elsmere, Delaware. It also thus began to operate a connecting branch of the former Pennsylvania Railroad from Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, on the W&N, to Nottingham.

After the acquisition of Bethlehem Steel's assets by International Steel Group in 2003, Brandywine Valley began to scale back its operations. The ex-PRR line, also known as the Octoraro line, was taken over in that year by the Morristown and Erie Railroad.[2] In 2005, the ex-W&N line south of Modena was turned over to the East Penn Railroad, reducing the Brandywine Valley to its original extent.[3]

With the merger of ISG in 2005, the railroad and steel plant were taken over by Mittal Steel Company, which became ArcelorMittal in 2006.

An article in Progressive Railroading dated November 9, 2020 announced that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. "intends to acquire control of six short lines owned by ArcelorMittal USA LLC," which will include the Brandywine Valley Railroad.[4]

References
  1. "Brandywine Valley Railroad Acquires Additional Tracks". Archived from the original on July 28, 2004. Retrieved 2007-05-13.
  2. "Morristown & Erie Railway, Inc.--Modified Rail Certificate". Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-05-13.
  3. Surface Transportation Board, East Penn Railways, Inc.—Acquisition and Operation Exemption—Reading Company, May 6, 2005: "East Penn states that, pursuant to an agreement with ISG, it is also acquiring all of ISG's rights to operate the subject line. East Penn notes that ISG and its predecessors previously leased and operated the subject line per agreement with Reading." (footnote 1)
  4. https://www.progressiverailroading.com/m_a/news/Cleveland-Cliffs-to-acquire-six-short-lines--62043


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