Question about old Homestead Works photo

[Utley26]

Ok, take a look at this photo on Shorpy.com:

http://www.shorpy.com/node/10447

Click the photo itself to see the zoomed-in version.  My question:  the railroad track in the far backround, behind all the mills, is that the PRR mainline? 

If you've never seen this website, you are really missing out.  It is amazing.  I have it bookmarked and I check it every day (they update it with new photos every day).

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

It's a distinct possibility, but I would defer to someone more familiar with the geography of the Pittsburgh area.

[wanswheel]

At the left margin of the enlarged Shorpy photo, I think I see B&O track on the right bank of the Monongahela, passing under the Pittsburgh end of a long-gone trolley bridge to Homestead.

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jmohney/homestead_bridge_1912_b.jpg

[Utley26]

Indeed; below is a response to my question I got from ajs7161 on the PRRT&HS discussion board.  Consistent with Wanswheel's observation:

"The short answer is 'no', if you mean the Pittsburgh-Altoona mainline.  The photo is taken towards the west end of the mill, looking roughly northwest across the Monongahela River.  The line in the far background is on the right bank of the Mon, opposite the mill, and is the B&O Cumberland-Chicago main.  There is a PRR mainline in this photo, though, which is the mainline of the Monongahela Division headed for Duquesne, in the near-middle-right of the photo (behind the first mill building in the foreground).  Note the Union Line boxcar on these tracks."

Wanswheel, thanks for the great photo.  I love old photos of steel mills, and the grimier, smokier, and dirtier the better.

[wanswheel]

 

The Shorpy photo is the first of 5 photos that together form a panoramic view of Homestead.