[PRCo] Re: Northside rail

[Derrick J Brashear]

On Sat, 26 Jul 2003, Derrick Brashear wrote:

> Odd, now that you mention it I remember on an early (~1989) trip to
> Johnstown discovering the Maple Avenue bridge on the Franklin line
> having something that looked like short bits of rail over the expansion
> joints. The bridge was subsequently rehabbed and then got an asphalt
> overlay before I remembered to check on it.

A trip over this bridge yesterday says another rehab was done since the
one I remember from about 1990. The deck is concrete again, and there are
jersey-style concrete barriers along the sides of the carriageway. The
expansion joints are clearly of recent vintage and so there is nothing to
be determined of rails in the expansion joints.

Of course, the mill between Woodvale and Franklin is very nearly, but
not entirely, dead, and Franklin and (East) Conemaugh continue to not be
in the best of shape.

The Conemaugh School District's Junior High building in Franklin (which
would have been the high school when the carline still ran down the
street) is (and has been for a few years) gone.