West Penn today

[Fredbruhn at aol.com]

I see two errors in my ramblings last evening.  One, I mentioned the shoe 
store was in Masontown, it was in Republic.  And I said the new highway 
by-pass was 219, it is of course 119.

The Fairchance line has also been most interesting ever since those photos of 
the car and locomotive (with, without, or with fake smoke) were printed 
starting in Trolley Car Treasury, and then as more recently discussed in this 
group.  Also the Feb, 1950 Trains mag had a photo at the end of the line.

So I had great expectations of seeing this line, the curve beside the mail 
pouch barn(PERC booklet) and figured because it ran beside the B&O it would 
be a piece of cake.  Well, welcome to reality.  I hopped on the 119 bypass 
and was in Fairchance 
in no time flat, and although I didn't have the knowledge then that WP shyed 
away from street running for the reasons Ed stated, I did find the end of the 
line well away from the so called city center.  Nice little town.

I sort of matched up buildings and homes to the WP photos and then headed 
inbound towards Uniontown.  About 6 blocks north, the road becomes rural and 
I lost track of the line (not that it was obvious before that) and while I 
caught all the cross roads in Oliphant Furnace, Brownfield and parts of 
Hutchinson, and the railroad was there but almost  or totally out of service 
(I didn't see any trees growing between the ties) I didn't find the WP.  Oh, 
I could have spent more time and probably stuck gold, but I got frustrated 
and moved on.  The Uniontown end of the line  could be traced in 1970, the 
last time I was there before this trip, and with map from CERA 110, you could 
follow the streets (Stewart, Grant, etc.) and see where the rails were.  At 
the end of Grant where the B&O crosses, you could see the line turn off to 
the left and begin to parallel the railroad.  Uniontown has paved these 
streets and they are still there but not seeing the remains of the line isn't 
the same.   Next time I go back I'll spend more time on the Fairchance line, 
as Uniontown to Fairchance isn't long by auto.

Now I can mention another tool I had which wasn't available for the 
Brownsville or Martin line.  I have an 8mm copy of an old film Ed Miller did 
out the rear window on the main line.  The biggest problem is every time he 
was getting a good scene it must have been time to turn over the film reel or 
change it.  (Wasn't 8 mm 50')
Its hard to track the line this way as it comes across as jerky but it is 
better than nothing.  Also, if you do not have Ben Rohrbeck's West Penn VHS 
tape all I can say is shame on you.  Get it before it is gone.  It is a good 
tape of the Main line, Latrobe and will give you a good insite to WP.  Also, 
Sunday River had an 8mm film which may still be available on the West Penn, 
very short but showed a lot of the Connellsville terminal and Hecla.  There 
is also a VHS tape I have which I can't remember the name of (probably from 
RR Video which has just been sold, one of his PA series) that does have a 
short, I mean short, shot of a car going over the bridge into Uniontown from 
the back line.  I studied all of these before I went.

As previously mentioned the Uniontown station is quite nice today.  If I 
understand the maps right, the line to Brownsville/Martin and the back line 
exited the terminal and turned right at the first street which took the line 
to the base of the ramp and 
bridge over the rr's.  The original line on West Main St. I assume was long 
gone.
I went up this street, past the new fire and police station, and it becomes 
quite industrial and sort of like your trespassing so I didn't stick around 
nor did I see any 
evidence of the line.

So back to the terminal, the main line and Fairchance line left the terminal 
onto Main St. and went about a block, and you can follow this and where you 
see a incline to I think a church parking lot, with the ramp being supported 
by a stone wall.  The street continues straight as a one way street.  The WP 
following the curve of this wall and
then went over a truss and deck bridge over a rr. and stream, see CERA110 
where the drawing shows the line leaving Penn and coming back in on Main 
where the old
(pre 1930 I guess)  line went.  The map shows this as the two lines coming 
together.
I assume in later years it was just the Penn St. to private r of way to Main 
to Connellsville St.  After the cars crossed the bridge there was a siding 
while still on private right of way.  This I saw on the Ed Miller film.  I 
didn't spend a lot of time wondering through the shrubs and overgrowth in 
this area to find bridge piers, but they may be there.  Once you continue on 
Penn St. past where the WP turned off (its not far from the terminal) you 
need to find your way back to Connellsville St.  If your nose doesn't work 
like a compass, good luck.  I remembered Connellsville St. in 1971 as being 
brick and the paving still showing the car line, but this may be wrong.  You 
pop up Connellsville St. aways and it turns to the left and there is sort of 
an alley way that goes straight ahead.  (Probably a good idea to lock your 
car if you get out to see the barn area, and go in the daytime)  You will see 
a sub-station on your right.  I have my car barn photos (a few) away so I'll 
guess that there were 4 tracks inside the barn and I think 2 outside storage 
between the barn and what looked like a sub for WP in those days.  The 
turnouts were right off the main line, with the main continuing over the hill 
top and then dropping down on Coolspring Rd.  We will take the main line up 
from this point another time.

I have not really pushed Ed on invading the Miller Library files to look at 
the photos on the WP at the PTM, and probably will someday with offer of help 
in return, but I am surprised at the few photos that seem available for some 
areas such as So. Mt. VVernon Avenue, Connellsville St. Coolspring, 
especially the lines that lasted until 
August, 1952.  There seems to be plenty taken at the Connellsville terminal, 
and maybe fans were taking the train to Connellsville then and walking as far 
as the depot to catch the WP.  How many trestles and rail crossings are we 
missing in print, and to be fair when I look at page 1 of the PRMA West Penn 
Rys (orange cover) and see the rural road crossing near Scottdale its not 
hard to see why you could spend a long time getting one photo at a site.  I 
remember trying to chase the South Shore from Mich City to So. Bend and the 
folly of that effort.  That was an afternoon wasted.  But when you are greedy 
and desperate for photos you can be 
critical of whats not available, even if it isn't realistic or fair.

I used Uniontown as a base of operations for my visit and maybe Connellsville 
would be better if you want to spend more time on  the Main Line north of 
there.  It is a fair hike from Uniontown to Greensburg, oh maybe 35-40 
minutes, but that is time your not investagating.  

Next time I'll share with you the back line  and the Dawson line and how my 
memory faded from 1961 to today.  

Fred Bruhn