West Penn today

[Edward H. Lybarger]

The Fairchance route is not as obvious as it looks, and a native Indian
guide is a good idea if you can find one.  The line was built very early and
was therefore not subject to the "avoid town" stricture, but it worked that
way anyway.  R/W alongside the B&O was cheap, and that's where the patches
were, so that's where they stayed, with a couple notable exceptions.

Leaving the terminal, the line followed Penn (not Main) street, then as
described by Fred.  I have one strip map showing the older (1913) terminal
layout.  The bridge over the B&O and the Masontown/Brownsville connection to
the Phillips trackage were all a part of the terminal improvement project of
1930.  The CERA city map is sort of accurate but it conveniently omits what
the author didn't know and didn't take the time to research.  But it's OK as
far as the Fairchance route is concerned.  And the route to Fairchance on
the larger map is OK, too.  What's egregious is the line drawn from
Fairchance to Smithfield, purporting to be the traction company of the same
name.  That company went west and north to York Run and Collier, not south
to Smithfield.  Not only do I have maps of it, but I have to assume from
reading the abandonment petition that the company itself knew where it ran.
But I digress.  Uniontown's one-way streets interfere with a direct outbound
trace.  One needs to get over to Fayette Street to get on Grant.

The best photos are not generally in the PTM Library.  FWS and I have most
of them in our personal holdings as a result of our efforts a decade or so
back to gather together what was out there to see if there was enough new to
warrant a new history (there was).  PTM has many company photos (though some
of them didn't surface until 3-4- years ago) and quite a number of other
images that others have let us copy.  But when you draw from the three
sources it is literally an awesome assortment.  The missing locations are
numerous, from our perspective, but a reader would probably not notice.  I
think I put John Bowman's shot at Coolspring Siding in a calendar not too
long ago.  But nothing exists along Mt. Vernon Avenue, so far.  There's a
company photo on Connellsville Street at Park School (now gone).

The Phillips route has major gaps in photo coverage.  FWS speaks of the arch
north of the Giant Eagle; there were two of them (arches, not food stores)
within a few hundred feet of each other, and there were two trestles between
Phillps and Vances Mill that we have never seen.  I'll talk more about that
in the reply to the next message.  By the way, the photo in our 1970s
booklet "near Scottdale" is erroneously located.  It is the first road
crossing north of the Turnpike crossing, above Green's.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
[mailto:owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org]On Behalf Of
Fredbruhn at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2000 11:42 AM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: West Penn today


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