Mountain Laurel

Company History: ML was launched on the last day of 1991 when parent company Pittsburg & Shawmut purchased 110 miles of line between Lawsonham and Driftwood, Pennsylvania from Conrail. The 10 miles closest to Lawsonham was assigned to a paper railroad subsidiary of P&S called the Red Bank Railroad. The rest of the line was operated under the newly established ML. The new line ran with a fleet of six GP10s. In 1996, P&S, LM and Red Bank joined the Genesee & Wyoming shortline group. In 2004, all three were officially merged into another G&W line, the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad.

Successor/Parent History: This regional railroad links Buffalo, New York with the greater Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. There is a long branchline to Erie, Pennsylvania along with nine shorter branches. The BPRR was launched in 1988 by the Genesee & Wyoming family of shortlines. Over the years, other adjoining G&W shortlines were were merged into the BPRR including the Allegheny & Eastern, Pittsburg & Shawmutt, and Bradford Industrial Railroad. The original BPRR route was a former Baltimore & Ohio line. Before B&O, it belonged to Buffalo Rochester & Pittsburgh. BPRR has an all EMD roster with the exception of a single Brookville Locomotive genset switcher. Traffic includes aggregates, farm products, auto parts, chemicals, coal, coke, animal feed, food products, forest products, metallic ore, minerals, pulp and paper, petroleum products, scrap, and metals. At 729 miles, BPRR is a bit bigger than the Jersey Central was in its heyday.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.