[PRCo] Re: West Penn Destination Sign Photo

[Fredbruhn at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/17/2005 5:56:14 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
PRCoPCC at P-R-Co.com writes:
If the 
> system works right, Derrick's computer will take it from here and put 
> it where you all can view it if you like.
Sorry for the panic message.  I dropped the ULR and it came up just fine.  I 
lack computerese.  
Question - Isn't the Uniontown, Hopwood, Fairchance color the same as the 
Dawson sign?

Fred,  the other Fred, not the  one with the titanium knees and
extensive travel schedule.

You may remember a couple of years ago we had a long discussion of a trip 
Derrick, Ed, Fred III, and I took over most of the WP lines.  With the discussion 
of the bus substitution, it may be of interest that what we drive on today as 
"rural" narrow two lane roads were the main highways of the 40's - 50's.  We 
took off out of Revere on the line to Brownsville and Martin which was less 
than a two lane road and Ed commented this was the only road in WP days.  It is 
only a 10 or 15 minute drive from McClellandtown to Uniontown today on the 
nice 3 and 4 lane road, but it was a winding disjointed trip by car in 1950.  The 
road today cuts off McClellandtown on a high bank and took out the wonderful 
curved crossing in front of the school that was pictured in many books.
There is a bit of the concrete wall in front of the track that is still left, 
but its not easy to find.  As Ed has said before, the WP didn't exactly 
travel through many towns.  Republic was almost totally missed,  and in Mt. 
Pleasant on the main line if you didn't know where the WP came through you would 
never find it.  Probably a half dozen city blocks from the center of town.  Many 
of the towns are just a few houses and a company store supporting the mines 
around them.  Today it is mostly gone.  The back line from Uniontown to 
Connellsville almost missed every town and today if there wasn't a large building left 
(the ex company store) or a sign designating the town's name you would not 
find it.  I guess my point is you can look at a WP map and see all these 
communities, and believe it was a prosperous source of revenue, but those towns 
weren't.  Someplace long ago I read that almost no rider (except railfans the last 
couple of years) took the entire trip from Uniontown to Greensburg.