West Penn Today - Greensburg and Latrobe

[Fredbruhn at aol.com]

There is one reference source I have not mentioned until now because it was 
not available when I planned my trip.  Morning Sun's "PA Trolleys Vol. III" 
is a nice addition to the library.  

A few of the shots in the book deserve a comment.  On page 10 the bridge from 
Everson to Scottdale has been replaced. On page 18, the trestle to climb over 
the railroad in Scottdale is shown and as Derrick added the scene may be 
further changed today from when I was there because of some flood control 
work.  

The Armbrust bridge is also shown from bridge level.  

I left you at the North end of the Youngwood industrial area where the line 
paralleled the PRR (former) yard on what is today Trolley Line Avenue.  I was 
stumped as I was looking across the small set of piers into a hill with no 
ideas.  Ed has helped us with the information to pick up the line from here, 
by locating the King's Restaurant which I will do on my next trip.

Not knowing this, I traveled north on 119, a very busy highway, to the first 
road to the right which had a traffic light.  I took that road and it is 
mostly rural residential and 
a bit rugged with a valley between us and the other side.  I missed any 
evidence of right of way and could have been entirely on the wrong road.  
After going a fair distance the road bore left and after a stop and a left 
turn to try and pick up something I ended up at the intersection of Broad and 
Reamer where in WP days the line continued with Sandhouse siding about 1/4 
mile beyond.  I'll find it next time.

I took Broad north towards Greensburg which turns into Highland.  Its a fair 
piece up this street which I assume was all street running.  At Mt. Pleasant 
you can see the railroad overpass that is still in place.  The Rohrbeck movie 
shows cars on this street and on page 13 of the PA Trolleys Vol. III book is 
a nice shot too.

I had done some preliminary map work on the Latrobe line but between the 
Westmoreland County map being on two sides, the roads in the area somewhat 
broken up and a plot of the line through or close to the towns on the 
timetables, it looked a bit like the Dow Jones Industrial Averages, up and 
down.

I decided to drive route 30 to Latrobe and work my way back to Hecla and take 
my chances.  One of the remains I was looking for was the Latrobe barn.  Bill 
Gwinn had taken a few shots there on a fan trip and the barn looked 
interesting.  Somehow I had 
gotten the impression the barn was on a side street, probably from my talks 
with Bill years ago.  From Rohrbeck's movie there is a shot of a car passing 
the Latrobe
Rolling Rock Brewery.  (Rolling Rock is a good beer too, even without Rocky 
Mt. spring water.)  Latrobe's two main streets are today one way so I drove 
north past the brewery to Washington St.  I'll save you the details on a 
frustrating trip back and forth with every cross street a stop.

The barn, as I now know, is there but has been shortened.  Next time I'll 
find it.
I drove south through town and I assume the scene is changed much today.  I 
didn't try to find Loyalhanna Creek and the line crossing and Kingston didn't 
make any connection for me either.  I do know there was a siding at Kingston. 

There is a cloverleaf at PA982 and US30 which I sort of ran into and then 
continued on 982 into Youngstown.  Small as I remember and didn't see much I 
could identify but continued on and was soon in Baggaley.  It appeared to me 
that the line ran beside PA982 between the two towns and through Baggaley.  
Not much in Baggaley.

At Baggaley I turned right onto PA2023 as the line crosses this road as it 
leaves 
Baggaley and heads up a hill.  The line makes a big sweeping left hand curve 
as it climbs, crosses the road (3023) and continues to climb to the top.  

The next town we will come to is Whitney, a bit south of 3023 and on 3027, 
which crosses our road (3023).  Remember the line crossed 3023 after 
Baggaley, so as we are going west the line is on our left hand side.  It 
looks like the line reappears after cresting the hill and runs almost 
parallel to 3023 but some distance to the South
and through open fields (today's scene).  I did not drop down on 3027 to see 
the Whitney layout and don't know why I didn't.

I stayed on 3023 because it was headed in the right general direction and not 
far after Whitney the line appears to come up out of some woods and cross our 
road again.  A rather steep climb with the road about 2/3 of the way up the 
climb.

3023 crosses PA130 south of Pleasant Unity.  The line must have run through 
the country between our last road crossing and PA130.  I turned right onto 
130 and at the bottom of a hill before you get to the town proper the line 
crosses 130.  Ed has identified this scene as being near a brick farmhouse 
and the pole line continues
in this wide valley on a straight line towards Hecla.  I guess you could say 
the line was at the "south end" of town, a decent walk.

3023 was not going we wanted to, so I went into Pleasant Unity and turned 
left onto 
PA981.  The next town was Trauger.  After Trauger is Calumet and it sure 
looks like the line came up to meet 981 and ran right through the present day 
front yard of a 
frame house.  It looks like the line crossed 981 (from south side to the 
North side)
at this point and disappears into current day woods.  

Norvelt and Calumet are almost one.  In WP days a mining community (Calumet)
By driving around the area you will see a large fill on both sides of a 
creek.  Obviously the line.  What I don't know is if this fill was the 
approaches to the 
Calumet bridge or if that bridge (PA Trolleys - Vol III page 23) is another 
one.

After this point PA981 heads south towards Mt. Pleasant, and we must take 2007
to Hecla.  The line ran through countryside or woods to Hecla.

This was the end of my adventure.  I hope to go back again, and certainly 
encourage any of our group to visit whatever portion of the line you can.  I 
watched the Co-Op lines remain virtually unchanged for 30 years, and then it 
seemed like instantly
road construction and building took it all away.  My memory is fading of my 
quick trip in 1961 and a few moments in Uniontown in the early 70's, but I 
remember enough to know that these scenes will change.  I see photos of the 
West Penn with hugh bog piles, or tailings, and they are all gone today.  

You all have been very patient and kind to let me ramble on for these past 
three weeks.  I feel disappointed we have not heard from Jim Holland much in 
this time.  
I am indebted to Ed and Derrick and Bob Dietrich for their help on this.  The 
corrections they provided will help us all become more accurate on the lines.

Now that I've exhausted my oxygen, we can get back and talk about Ozone.

The other Fred