Youngstown and Austintown Railroad


Youngstown and Austintown Railroad is a short-line railroad that operates just west of Youngstown, Ohio, United States, and was acquired by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. in 2008. It connects with the Youngstown Belt Railroad which is owned by the same company and CSX at Yanda. The YARR is essentially two former Erie Railroad branch lines. The line come together at M&T Jct.. The lines are very short and they service the steel industry in Youngstown. For years the largest customer on the YARR was Youngstown Steel Door and United Freezer Storage. The first operator of the YARR was Jerry Jacobson. The original YARR rostered an Alco switcher and former P&LE GP7 1501. The one-stall enginehouse still stands today in Austintown on Oakwood Ave. A small section of the structure was constructed by the Erie railroad.
The bridge over the Mahoning River, which connected the sections from the ex-Erie mainline to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at YANDA has been demolished and shows no signs of reconstruction. The end-of-track in Austintown has since been cut back to within the Austintown Industrial Park, north of RT 18.