Rail line will aid steel mill efforts in Warren

WARREN — Soon, residents of Warren’s North End will again hear the rumble of freight trains heading south into town from the former Copperweld Steel mill in Warren Township.

Trains will pass through their neighborhood and back out of town to the east, carrying steel.

It’s something of a time warp for a community that has seen more plant closings than expansions and more railroad abandonments than railroad expansions in recent years.

In this case, Trumbull County officials secured about $838,000 in state grants and money from the Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corporation to improve the rail line, which hasn’t been used since Copperweld last used it nearly a decade ago. Copperweld closed in January 2001.

The improvements, now in progress, will enable Warren Steel Holdings, which reopened part of the former Copperweld mill in 2007, to ship raw materials and finished steel less expensively than it does now, said Alan Knapp, Trumbull County Planning Commission director.

Read more in Saturday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com