[PRCo] Re: Other survivng car houses

[Edward H. Lybarger]

#1 was built by Latrobe Street Railway, and was replaced by #2 in 1928.  We
have construction photos of #2 in the files.  (They're not very exciting.)
In recent years about half the building (the front half) has been razed.
I've been inside #4, courtesy of Joe Kovalchik.  The piles of scrap extend
almost to the ceiling.

Then there's Connellsville, Charleroi (2), etc.

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org]On Behalf Of
robert netzlof
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2001 9:37 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at lists.dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Other survivng car houses



As I was driving off to the dread higher elevations
north of Interstate 80, my real home now, fresh fdrom
having seen the Oakford Park Car House, I pondered the
fact that there are four other car barns still
standing in my part of the Known World.

1. Latrobe. Jefferson Street between Spring and
Chestnut Streets.
2. Latrobe. Across Ligonier Street from the Latrobe
Brewing Co.
3. Derry. Just west of the PA 217 bridge over the
PRR/CR/NS main
4. Indiana. Wayne Avenue, just north of and across the
street from Kovalchik's yard.

1 was, I believe, built by the company which built the
pre-West Penn line from Latrobe to Baggaley, but
became West Penn with the purchase of that company by
the power company. Within my lifetime, it was used as
a garage and storage building by West Penn Power, who
had a large substation beside it for decades. In the
'40's the area between the building and the street was
paved with brick and the rails were still in place in
that pavement.

2 replaced 1. When? I know not. Pre-WW2 certainly. I
think a part of the building was torn down several
years ago, as it looks shorter than I remember it. One
could still see the two tracks into the barn, and the
siding which ran beside the barn until Latrobe Brewing
expanded and covered the area in front of the barn
with stone chips.

3 was built by the Westmoreland County Street Railway
which folded long before I was around, although there
were places in Latrobe where one could still see their
rails in the streets. When I first knew of the
building it was the garage for Chestnut Ridge Bus
Lines, now also gone.

4 was built by the Indiana Street Railway. It
currently is used by Kovalchik to store salvaged
electrical equipment and copper.

Since Indiana is probably getting pretty far afield
for a 'Burgh-centric group, I'll refrain from
mentioning the old car barn in DuBois.



=====
Bob Netzlof a/k/a Sweet Old Bob


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