Donora Wye

[Don Galt]

>From Jim Holland:

>> Don, you didn't go far enough back on the Charleroi line whe you were 
there; you got stuck at Summit! <<

Nuh Uh! The stop at Eldora was on the way from Donora to Charleroi. Took
just one other relevant picture, a view of Charleroi from the hill at
Lockview (or two, if you count the view of the Mingo Creek valley from the
Presbyterian cemetery).

I *did* try to check out the Donora wye. But SOMEBODY had marked it in the
wrong block on my topo map, which doesn't name the streets. When I realised
that it might never have been in the substantial-looking block between 5th
and 6th streets I did make a stab at scoping out the next block, but got
suckered by the off-again, on-again one-way street system and was starting
to feel really cramped for time. If I'd read the ERA article more carefully
I'd have known right off that the wye was between 4th and 5th. And if I had
listened to somebody a little more carefully and realised that the wye
itself was still in place, I'd have tried a little harder to find it.

Donora looks like all the worst you have heard about the rust belt.
Deserted streets, derelict schools. Charleroi is much more lively, but I
was too rushed to do more than make my way through town and head out west
at the first opportunity.

If there had been a few more hours available I would not only have done
more exploring, but also paid visits to libraries and local government
offices in the area in the hope of happening on some detailed maps. But all
the library work at Wash&Jeff and at Pitt had eaten up most of my three-day
visit, and that last day I had already been trying for a little last-minute
wandering around. I had tooled about Mount Lebanon a bit, taken my one and
only trip to town and back on the T (from Washington Junction), then traced
the Charleroi line as carefully as possible from Wash Jct outward,
including the stop at Mingo Churchyard, where I have ancestors. And I was
expected 300 miles away in Cincinnati at a reasonable hour. So much to do,
so little time.

Don G