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The SEDA-COG Joint Rail Authority (JRA) recently completed a 5,000-foot siding near Milesburg, Pa. The Miller Siding parallels a mainline operated by the JRA’s Nittany and Bald Eagle Railroad (NBER).

The siding is named for the late Jim Miller, who was general manager of NBER and the short line’s first employee when the line was established in 1984. He also at one time was GM of the Juniata Valley Railroad.

The siding, which features switches at either end to form a runaround track, is vital to shippers on NBER's Bellefonte and Pleasant Gap branch lines, JRA officials said in a prepared statement.

“The Miller Siding will allow Nittany and Bald Eagle Railroad crews to position a locomotive on either end of a train, which greatly improves operations by making them safer and more efficient,” said JRA Executive Director Jeff Stover.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation covered 70 percent of the siding’s $835,000 cost, with the remainder funded by a federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery II grant that was awarded to the authority in spring 2010.