West Penn today

[Fredbruhn at aol.com]

As I offered and Jim Holland encouraged, I'll from time to time give you some 
of my notes from my West Penn search this past year.

Both concrete bridges are standing on the Brownsville line.  Leaving 
Brownsville on Rt. 40 heading towards Uniontown, take 166 just outside 
Brownsville.  Just after 
leaving Rt. 40 the WP crossed 166 near a doctors office (I was told) but 
didn't see it.  
Watch on your left for a road turning off marked "Davidson Siding Road"  Take 
that road and almost immediately there is a house on your right (green I 
think).  Stop there, as the bridge is just behind the house.  I asked for 
permission to see the bridge and it was no problem.  

Going back to 166, continue towards Merrittstown and take the road to the 
left (again) near Allison Heights that goes to Allison.  Route 166 and 
Allison Heights are one on side of a hill, and Allison is across the valley 
on top of another hill.
You will drop down a winding  road on the way to Allison and see to your 
right a large steel building well beyond the road.  This is a coal equipment 
repair company or something like that.  At their drive entrance (which is a 
long dirt road) you are on the
West Penn right of way.  Look back to your left and you can see the cut in 
the hill
and by walking a short distance you are back to the concrete bridge at the 
Davidson stop.  The Allison company store is a private business today and is 
ahead of you.
It was a decent walk from Allison down to the car stop.  More so from the 
Heights.

Back track to Rt. 166 and head to Merrittstown.  County Road 4020 crosses St. 
Rt. 166 here.  You will see an access road that is parallel to St. Rt. 166 
that comes in 
at this junction.  Do a 180 and take this narrow road that goes down grade 
quickly and has a couple of houses on it.  If you look closely to your left 
beside this road there is a cut.  This is the right of way.  At the bottom of 
this hill the road ends.  Park your car and walk less than 100 yards and 
there in front of you is the Glencoe
concrete bridge.  It isn't in the best of shape.  As you look north across 
this bridge
in the distance you can see the top of the steel building mentioned above at 
Allison.

I was told that after crossing the Glencoe bridge heading towards Uniontown, 
the line climbed the hill along this narrow road and at the top of the hill 
in the cut you can still see turned and ran along Rt. 166 for a short  
distance and then away from the road
near the present high school (which I couldn't verify) and around the town of 
Republic
and through Cardale.  

There is a excellent photo of the Glencoe bridge from the PRMA museum 
collection
that was in one of the calendars.  It was taken in 1908 as the line was being 
built.
The bridges are very substantial but as I walked across them I was surprised 
at how
narrow they seemed.

In Brownsville, Leo Quarzo's barber shop at the end of the line is still 
there.  The shop has moved and another business is in the building, but other 
than some cosmetic changes it is the same.  I remember in about 1962 driving 
through Brownsville  you could follow the line up from the shop, but the new 
Rt. 40 has taken all of that out today.  It will take a better expert than I 
am to track the line from the end across the high bridge and out to Rt. 166.  

Next time I'll talk a bit about the line through Orient and down to 
Brownsville Jct.

Fred