West Penn today

[Fredbruhn at aol.com]

Brownsville - Republic

To quickly recap -- take 40 from Brownsville towards Uniontown, exit right 
onto PA166
Look for crossing near hospital (Thornton stop) then proceed to Davidson 
Siding Road.  Turn left and look for 1st. house.  The concrete Davidson 
bridge is there.
Continue on PA166 to road marked Allison.  Take this road and as you go down 
the valley opens to your right with steel buildings in distance.  The WP went 
right through this valley.  At bottom of hill by Allison co. store, look to 
left for cut and 
Davidson bridge is just beyond, look for the railroad bridge (curved) that Ed 
mentioned.  According to the supt. from the company with the buildings you 
are just about standing on the row as you enter their road.

Return to Rt.166 and go to Merrittstown (not far), take a 180 turn onto a 
dirt road that
comes out at the intersection of PA166 and County 4020.  Drive down the dirt 
road to where it ends.  This is the row (don't know if road was there in WP 
days).  Walk a a bit further to Glencoe concrete bridge.

As Ed said as the line came up from this valley after crossing the Glencoe 
bridge it
ran along side 166 and there was a siding (name?) for a short while and left 
road to the left.  You drive into Republic, the WP made a big sweeping turn 
east of town a good bit coming into Cardale which is a few streets, some 
mobile homes and homes.  I believe the row was on "railroad St.."

Drive through Republic and turn left onto the Filbert-Orient Road.  The WP 
crosses
this road at Cardale and you can see the line by the power pole line.  The 
Orient siding was along here.  If you have the fabulous Frank Butts photo 
from one of the calendars of car 714 looking back towards Cardale you can 
recreate it by stopping at the sharp right turn in the road not far from 
Cardale.  The house in the photo is still there and you can see the line 
where it crossed the road and went behind a house.

>From here you can follow the line as it climbs the hill away from the road 
and runs
parallel to the Filbert-Orient Road.  Roderick Road goes to the left.  Turn 
onto this road and there are the piers for an overpass that the WP took over 
Roderick.  A piece of track is left half buried.  I tried to chew off an end 
to save but to no avail.  The line 
runs behind some houses on a fill, easily seen towards Fairbank.  Don't stop 
at the first house beyond Roderick as the owner is looking for whoever owns 
the row today.
Wants it trimmed, cleaned up.  

Ed is going to have to help us on the routing (when we take our tour) through 
Fairbank, Newboro, Buffington, and New Salem (you can go through all four 
towns
in about 2 minutes) It appeared to me that the line in Newboro was well above 
the New Salem Rd. which is what Filbert-Orient Road turns into.  Drive up a 
couple of city streets to the left and you can see a substantial bridge pier 
in Newboro.

The line drops down from Buffington and I was told (a questionable "local" 
source )
that the line ran along the road to a ticket office that was a gasoline 
station.  
The line goes from the New Salem Rd. to the right via prw to County 3023 
which is like a city block.  Would like to know how this layout was.  You 
drive to corner of 
New Salem and Church, turn right on Church and go a block to 3023.  A great 
building to model is there "New Salem Motors."  Turn left on 3023 and there 
is the beautiful Church of the Madonna of Czestochowa, Polish Roman Catholic 
church.  Good picture of this I think in CERA 89.  The car ran right in front 
of the church beside the road.  You follow 3023 and look to the right about 
the 3rd. House and you will see small concrete piers from short bridge (real 
short).  At some point just beyond this the line crosses 3023 and climbs to 
Brownsville Jct.  I believe the Jct. is where a catholic church sits today 
and a power substation.  This is Footedale.  Ed can correct me.

If you park on the elevated parking lot for the school and first look towards 
New Salem, then turn left about 30 degrees I think the long trestle taking 
the Martin line 
crossed the valley in front of you.

Since we are this far away from Uniontown, it is best to travel the Martin 
line.  
Take the road marked McClellandtown - Lambert which takes you across the 
valley and you can stop and look back towards the Jct.  It looks like the 
line along side this road some distance and just after you see it swing away 
from the road and behind houses (was there a siding along this road) and into 
the woods, you come to a road jct..  Take a left and stay left as there is 
sort of a wye, you want SR3013.  Take this road until you come to an open 
field on your left (farming) and a white house with red shutters on your 
right with a very distinct drive beside it.  Stop here and you are on the row 
where it made the "S" crossing as shown in a couple of shots in CERA 110.
If you have time go to the farm house just beyond and off to the left a ways 
and get permission to drive the row.  Then go back and take it to the right 
which is now a drive for 3 new houses.  You can drive the row a good distance 
to a couple of gas wells, and walk much further through some cuts and fills 
and really typical WP row.
I suppose I walked half way back to where it left the road near Lambert (I 
never found Lambert).  Retrace your route to 3013 and drive into 
McClellandtown.  

Take one of the cross streets (there are only a few) to find a neat old gas 
station.
Don't go clear to PA21 where there is a light.  Take the cross street to the 
next sort of through street which is road T374.  You will see a school.  The 
line ran beside the 
road and the school.  You turn right and head away from PA21 and you will see 
from the poles and grade where the line went As you get out of town watch on 
your right and the row is well preserved including ballast.  I walked it and 
found no spikes though.  I didn't go too far because of time but I assume the 
line joins that drive by the white house on 3013 a short distance from where 
I quit walking.

Go back to McClellandtown and a turn onto the road in front (or side) of the 
school.
Just beyond the school is the famous road crossing and you can see the 
concrete retaining wall beside the road.  New PA21 goes by on your left on a 
big fill so the comparison shot isn't quite possible today of the line 
leaving McClellandtown

Find the traffic light at PA21 and 3013 in McClellandtown, cross PA21 and 
continue on 3013 towards Leckrone.  At the town (6 people, 13 dogs) of 
Puritan, turn right on T465 and take it to the next burg (1/2 mile) called 
Austin.  T465 makes a loop to your right and you will see a couple of new 
houses.  It appears the WP ran beside this road.  Where you reach the end and 
turn back towards Austin, you can look north and see the PA21 fill.  So I 
assume the line came straight from McClellandtown to here.

Stay on T465 and watch the pole line as it lives Austin and appears to cross 
the road just south of the town.  It looks like the WP ran along side this 
road to Leckrone.  
Not much of a town here either.  No main St. Where T465 makes a sharp drop to 
run into SR3012, you stop at the top of the drop.  If you walk to the edge 
you can see in the weeds the North end pier of the long Leckrone steel 
trestle.  Look in the outfield between right and center of the town ball 
diamond and the center pier is standing.  You can also see the South pier 
from your vantage point.

Drive down to SR3012, turn left and immediately right onto T710 and you can 
pull up and park in front of the South pier.  Walk up and follow the line 
through an S cut which was interesting.

Continue on T710 and the line runs along the hill to your right.  It looks 
like a company store was to your Left.  Then just before you run into 3013 
again where the line looks to drop down and cross at 90 degrees to the road 
at grade, there is on your left the neatest substation (brick) you will find. 
 Ed, whose was it, as nothing I have lists it as WP.  It is neat.

It looks like the car line went through someone's side yard and then runs 
cross country through farmers fields to Masontown.  You can follow the 
current pole line. 
Where it crosses 3013 is called Deffenbaugh.

Ed has told us the WP didn't like city street running (maintenance) and 
Masontown is no exception.  On a cold night it was a long walk home from the 
car stop to downtown Masontown.  The line enters to the south of town on 
Smithfield Rd. (crosses it) It looks to have run behind houses on prw and 
then along Harvey Avenue.  Today the row is about in the middle of the lawns 
for these houses.  There is a photo I think in CERA89 of the line running 
along Harvey.  It crossed SR166 and continues along Harvey to where it 
crossed the tall trestle to be on the Southeast side of 166.  (166 makes a 
big curve as it leaves town and the WP sort of went 
straight).  We head on 166 towards Martin, first passing Grays Landing.  The 
town 
is on your left and all on a hill with the WP running along the top of the 
hill (which it will do to Martin)  Take a minute and drive up to the top as 
the row is very clear, and the houses are typical coal company houses.  They 
are painted up a bit today, but they are all the same company house.   Next 
town is Gallatin, and the same story.
Then someplace, where I do not know except for photos the line ended, just 
ended.

None of these towns are far apart.  If you were in a time crunch you could 
probably get this portion of the WP covered in a couple of hours,  but you 
will only get a  
flavor for it, not time to absorb anything.  

Next time I'll try and get you to Uniontown.  I have no idea what changes or 
additions have been made to the highway system since the WP left us and all 
my notes and comments are based on the highways of today.  


Fred