Allegheny County
Nine rail yards inside three miles
The Kenney yard is recorded here under Norfolk Southern, and it is not alone. Within three miles the node list carries eight more: Thomson Works appears three times, twice about a mile east-southeast and once again under CSXT, with Demmler Transfer about 2 miles east-southeast and Monongahela Junction, the Duquesne yard and the Duquesne Coal Dock all about 2 miles southeast.
There is even a second yard of the same name. Another Kenney is attached to Pittsburgh about 3 miles west under the Allegheny Valley Railroad, against Norfolk Southern here — two different carriers, one name, three miles apart.
That density is the whole trucking story
Those yards are what the trucks here exist to reach. Drayage between a dock and a yard is short, repetitive and hard on equipment in a way long-haul work is not: constant loading, constant manoeuvring, and hours that accumulate far faster than miles.
So a unit working between Demmler Transfer and the Duquesne Coal Dock may show modest mileage and a great deal of wear, and that combination is normal in this borough rather than a warning sign.
Pennsylvania weight law
One general number, and a great many local ones
Short as those runs are, the state ceiling still applies. Under 75 Pa.C.S. § 4941 the maximum gross weight for a vehicle or combination on a Pennsylvania highway is 80,000 lb. The only allowance found in the section is 2,000 lb for vehicles fuelled primarily by compressed or liquefied natural gas or powered primarily by electric battery.
No commodity relief for stone, coal or natural resources was found in that section as consulted. That is not the same as establishing there is none — Pennsylvania runs a large permit apparatus under Title 67 — and it is written here as an open question rather than as an answer.
The penalty is a formula rather than a flat fine. A driver over the maximum or registered gross weight commits a summary offence and on conviction pays $75, plus $75 for each 500 lb or part of it beyond 3,000 lb over the limit. So the first 3,000 lb over is effectively a flat charge and everything past that climbs in steps.
75 Pa.C.S. § 4941; 67 Pa. Code ch. 189. Information, not legal advice, and only as current as the date the rule file was last verified.
River town geography, and what it does to a route
It is the crossings rather than the distance that govern movement here. The yards sit along the Monongahela and the routes between them funnel across a small number of bridges, so a plate on any one of them redirects a whole lane rather than a single trip.
That is sharper here than in open country. Between Thomson Works and the Duquesne Coal Dock the alternative to a restricted crossing is measured in miles of detour, not yards, and the posting authority may be the borough rather than the county.
Pennsylvania paperwork
We need a title — unless it never had one
Beyond the routing, the paperwork is one sentence. Everything after it is a fix rather than a category. If the title is lost, there is a counter replacement. If the truck never had one, there is a bonded route. Both are ordinary and neither stops a sale.
Two Pennsylvania rules are worth knowing because they run the opposite way to most states. There is no fixed total-loss percentage in statute: under 75 Pa.C.S. § 1232 the test is whether repair cost plus salvage value equals or exceeds actual cash value. And PennDOT defines a salvage vehicle by comparing the cost of repairs to the value of the repaired vehicle — every other state on file compares it to the value before the damage.
The other one protects old equipment. The salvage definition does not include a vehicle that would qualify as antique or classic but for its lack of restoration or maintenance. So a truck old enough to be antique cannot be called salvage merely because nobody restored it.
75 Pa.C.S. § 1232; PennDOT salvage and reconstructed-vehicle definitions. Information, not legal advice.
What we buy here
Yard and road work both come to us. Day cabs and road tractors off the drayage. Dump trucks, flatbeds, rollbacks, box trucks, service bodies, and the pickups and work trucks around any terminal.
Most of it runs between the Kenney yard, Thomson Works and the Duquesne Coal Dock, inside a few miles of river.
Whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change. We buy all of them.
We buy complete trucks. If the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it. Small things — a missing bumper — are fine.
Straight answers
The questions we get asked in Braddock
- Does it have to run?No. It does have to be complete — if the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it.
- Low miles but very high hours.That is what drayage does. Around Thomson Works it is the normal pattern and it does not stop a sale.
- It is parked in a yard I do not own.Common enough. Give us the gate and a contact and we will arrange it from there.
- What about the title?We need one unless the truck is old enough that it never had one. Lost has a counter replacement; a bonded route covers the rest.
- We are clearing several units.Straightforward. Terminal fleets turn over together and several at once is a normal conversation.
Why people call
Beyond a haulage contract ending, the reasons are the ordinary ones. A retirement. An operator down to one truck. A tractor insured and turning no wheel.
Those sit on lots between here and Demmler Transfer about 2 miles east-southeast, and in a borough this tight a parked truck is taking up space somebody needs.