[PRCo] Re: Monongahela to Bentleyville

[Edward H. Lybarger]

Dwight has described the company well, though the name was "Westside..."
rather than "West Side..."  A couple other facts:  The Bentleyville
extension opened in 1914, which was way past the time sound financiers were
putting their money into interurban electric railways.  The end of that line
was near the mine shaft at Ellsworth, to the south of Bentleyville.
Ellsworth was a Bethlehem Steel town.

Toward the end, both Westside and W, M, BV & FC were both operated by
Pittsburgh Railways on behalf of the (sometimes common) owners (they shared
a lot of executives even in 1918).  I have been unable to find any
abandonment petition for either of the companies, or any notice of
abandonment in the local papers; they just announced that buses were going
to appear on such-and-such date.

We don't know much about these companies except their routes, and photos are
scarce.

Ed

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Dwight
Long
Sent: Sunday, November 07, 2010 11:12 AM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Monongahela to Bentleyville

Paul

This was the West Side Electric Street Railway Co., which ran from Charleroi
to Bentleyville. It was abandoned in 1933.  Its most modern cars were
eventually sold to Lehigh Valley Transit and shipped there, but never used
(there was a gauge issue) and eventually resold to Norfolk, Va., where they
ran until after WW II.  Their car house was in Charleroi on Fallowfield Ave.
and in pictures taken from the hill on which Pittsburgh Rys descended into
Charleroi from the north, both it and the PRC car house (to the left in
these fots) can be seen. Its sister company, with which it shared the car
house and cars was the Webster, Monessen, Belle Vernon & Fayette City Street
Railway, which operated from Charleroi over PRC trackage rights to the
Monessen Bridge, thence over it to Monessen.  It was bustituted at the same
time as the West Side.

Dwight Long
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Paul Steven
  To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
  Sent: Friday, 05 November, 2010 18:36
  Subject: [PRCo] Monongahela to Bentleyville


  The Media Curator of the Archives Service Center, School of Information
  Science, University of Pittsburgh was kind enough to send me a link to
their
  electronic copy of Lewis' Guide (1923) after I suggested a correction to
one
  of their captions.
  http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/text-
 
idx?c=pitttextdir;cc=pitttextdir;g=pitttextall;xc=1;q1=lewis;view=toc;idno=1
5c599171s

  From this I extracted the Electric Railways map (which I know you have
  already, I think I have seen it on this list) and from which I have
extracted
  the area of Monongahela / Bentleyville. I'm assuming this was an electric
line
  which was closed before 1952 as it isn't mentioned in the ERA publication
on
  the Pittsburgh Interurban routes, but unlike the Harmony Line I can't find
any
  online information about this route. Does anyone have a history of this
line
  and / or a reference to its operation?

  This site
http://monongahela.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/easy-bicycle-route-from-
  monongahela-to-bentleyville-pa/ has details of a bike ride along the
valley,
  but doesn't mention a trolley route.

  Thanks
  --
  Paul Steven


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