 This line was a part of the old Pittsburgh and Western Railroad, originally a narrow-gauge line created in the latter third of the 19th century from a merging of various earlier narrow-gauge lines.When the segment of the B&O from Foxburg to Knox was taken out of service, shipping raw materials, mostly glassmaking sand, to Knox Glass became difficult.To ease this situation, a connection with the Conrail (originally the New York Central Railroad) line through Shippenville was put in place.