[PRCo] Re: PTM Site

[Edward H. Lybarger]

Tylerdale was never considered.  The barn was a piece of crap by that time,
anyway.  The museum founders considered one or two spots on West Penn (I
know not where), a stretch near Mingo Falls on the Charleroi route, and the
museum site.  They chose the last because it was sort of level, because of
the presence of the passing siding, and because the County was willing to
write a dollar-a-year lease in perpetuity.  There is no way that the early
folks could have handled a bridge or a highway crossing...it took eight
years to get into operation as it was.

The actual property purchased from PRCo included the track and overhead
structure and two small parcels of land near the Main Street crossing...on
the other side of the bridge that was dismantled behind the car house.  Not
very useful to us.  Both have been disposed of, one in a sale to the trailer
park people in the 1970s, and the other just recently quitclaimed to PennDOT
so they can rebuild the highway bridge just south of us.  For a long time,
all of PTM's track sat on leased land.  That has changed with the
acquisition of property at Arden and at the East Site, but that which was
under lease in 1954 is still under lease.  So is much of the Arden Valley
Extension.

Who owns the Tylerdale property now?  I haven't a clue (or a care!).  It's
virtually inaccessible except through the trailer park.  Installing a road
in from Wallace Lane would be very expensive, and there's been no need to
develop it, apparently.  The substation shell will collapse someday, no
doubt, and no one may notice.

Ed

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Mark
McGuire
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2009 9:49 PM
To: Pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] PTM Site

  This is a question or a series of questions aimed mainly at Ed, but feel
free to chime in if anyone can give me an answer. 

  When the site for the museum was first picked out, was Tylerdale ever
considered? One would think that a car barn on site would be very appealing.
I know it probably involves things like land ownership, etc. I know the
museum paid $1 for the half mile length of the original museum site.  In
hindsite, it would have been nice to have the present site, and another
branch(although it would not have been a branch in its earlier days) to
Tylerdale. Seems that the land at Tylerdale is still unused for the most
part. The substation shell still remains and looks as if it is just letting
Mother Nature take her course. Who owns this land now? I know the trestle
over the creek would have taken considerable maintenance and perhaps that is
a reason the museum didn't push further towards Tylerdale.

  I would appreciate any and all insight in to this. Thanks in advance.

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