[PRCo] Re: Monongahela to Bentleyville

Wed Nov 10 09:47:00 EST 2010

We have some photos and other materials of CEE origin.  A lot of it was
processed before I arrived on the library scene, so I can't say the extent
of it. 

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Dwight
Long
Sent: Monday, November 08, 2010 10:05 AM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Monongahela to Bentleyville

Ed

Right!  My error in the name.

"Such-and-such date" according to the (secondary) information I have was 1
May 1933.

Chuck England (RIP) had a fair amount of information on these properties.
Back in the early 1960s he was after me to take it and write at least an
article or hopefully a short history (PERC "books" at that time were not
much larger than pamphlets) of the Westside lines.  I begged off by reason
of working full time, building a house in Bethel Park, and going to night
school.  How I now wish I had somehow made the time to honor his request!
He made the same request of me for the material he had on BVT, obviously
with the same result.

I wonder what ever happened to Chuck's material.  My brother told me he
thought it had gone to John Baxter upon Chuck's death.  Did any of it get to
the archives (possibly still to be sorted through and cataloged)?

Dwight

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Edward H. Lybarger
  To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
  Sent: Sunday, 07 November, 2010 14:23
  Subject: [PRCo] Re: Monongahela to Bentleyville

  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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