[PRCo] Fw: Re: Beaver Valley Transit

[Dwight Long]

Stephen

OK, here are the facts:

Edgeworth:  the park is called, according to Maps Google, Morrow Pontefract Park.  It is a block or so upriver from Village Drive on Beaver Road. Apparently there was a double track spur at the end of the line, which makes sense as a place to store extra or crippled cars, etc. The last day of rail operation on this line, actually owned by Pittsburgh & Beaver Street Railway, but operated as part of BVT, was 30 September 1925.  I believe this to be the second bus conversion of BVT rail lines, Riverview being the first.  The bit of track curving off Beaver Road into what is now the park lasted into the 1980s. In 1925 base service was between Beaver (Vanport) and Edgeworth every 20 minutes with some rush hour trippers. The replacement bus service into the mid 50s was still running every 20 minutes, but on a loop starting in Beaver Falls (Morado) going through Edgeworth to Sewickley and returning to Beaver (Vanport), thence back to origin in BF.  Transfer was at Conway’s Corner, Rochester.

Ambridge:  Double track ended at 4th Street on Merchant Street.  A single track loop ran toward the river on 4th, upriver on Maplewood, and back to Merchant on 1st Street. Through Ambridge’s business district on its main street, Merchant, the line was double tracked to 14th and up this street to Duss and then left on Duss.  The “extension” to Ohioview Ave. may have been the original line constructed by the French Point Street Railway in 1906.  There was no remnant of this that I can recall as far back as the 1950s. The line was opened to Baden in 1907, and was double track along Duss Avenue and State Street, the latter in Baden.  In Baden the Pittsburgh & Beaver linked up with BVT. There is no reason to believe that there was any deviation off Duss Avenue as suggested by old maps. Ed’s assumptions are right—plus he has the official documents!  Indeed, the trolley company built a one-thousand foot bridge over Logstown Run on Duss Avenue, later used as Pa. 88 (now 65, but relocated toward the river from here).  This bridge was torn down in 1934 after cessation of tram service between Ambridge and Freedom on 4 October of that year.

Baden-Freedom:  Single track with passing sidings.  Upriver portion obliterated by present day Rt 65.  Past Northern Lights Shopping Center was S/R along Beaver Road;  some remnants existed into the 50s.  Thru Conway in street, now obliterated by Rt 65. 

Freedom:  Double track from 8th street on Third Avenue to north (downriver) end of town, left turn at Freedom Oil Works onto steel bridge across PRR to S/R single track along Railroad Street to level crossing of PRR main line at New York Avenue in Rochester, where double track resumed. Remnants of track remain today just beyond the site of the level crossing (now gone). At New York, Brighton, and Pleasant streets was junction with Monaca line.  Freedom to Rochester tram service ended 14 March 1934.  BVT left some Birneys on line east of Freedom to provide service from 8th Street Freedom to Ambridge til that fall.

Beaver Falls:  The Patterson Heights Incline’s lower terminal point was the foot of Bridge Street at 7th Avenue (BVT on 7th).  From there along the curb line of Bridge St to the bottom of Ross Hill, crossed Bridge Street and went west about an eighth of a mile to the bottom of the plane itself.  As to your question of how BVT cars crossed the Beaver River during the reconstruction of the PRR bridge to New Brighton, the answer is, they did not.  Shuttle buses were used until the new bridge was ready.  There was no track connection between the Riverview line and the main line in NB. Rail service across the old BVT bridge ceased on 14 March 1926, but the Riverview line had been converted to bus on 1 September 1924, so the issue was moot in any event.  There was a track connection between the main line and Riverview line on 5th Street in BF.  There was no connection where the two lines crossed at 7th Avenue and 11th Street.  In lower BF, after opening of the “new” BF-NB (ex-PRR) bridge in 1927, tracks remained in service below the ramp to the new bridge until 1931 for use of the Harmony Route and were still in the street until construction of the newest bridge in the mid 1980s. Interestingly, there was dual gauge track in the Harmony freight station vicinity, to accommodate transfers from the P&LE.  The bridge that you are referring to as the “7th Street Bridge” is actually one that came off 7th AVENUE in Beaver Falls.  There was no bridge at 7th STREET in BF.  The next one upriver from this one was the 10th St. bridge, used by the Riverview cars.

That’s enough for one day.  Let me know if you need details of any other part of BVT.

Dwight

From: Dwight Long 
Sent: Wednesday, 28 September, 2011 01:02
To: Dwight Long 
Subject: Fw: [PRCo] Re: Beaver Valley Transit


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dwight Long" <dwightlong at verizon.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org>
Cc: "Doug Long" <rpo_gn44 at toast.net>
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 9:26 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Beaver Valley Transit


>
> Stephen
>
> Perhaps it was not a park in the late 1920s when this BVT line was
> bustituted (one of the first ones to be so).  What I can tell you is that 
> in
> the 50s and up til perhaps the 80s or 90s, the rails were still in the
> street and made the mentioned southeast jog but disappeared at the curb 
> line
> of a park in the southeast quadrant.  Beyond that I can add nothing.
>
> Beaver Falls-New Brighton--the 10th street bridge was used ONLY by the
> Riverview line.  It was not used by the main line and was not connected to
> it in New Brighton. Use of it stopped when the Riverview line was
> bustituted.
>
> The Riverview line WAS a BVT line.  It was an early (I think the first, 
> but
> would have to go to files which are at home to check) bustitution, in the
> late 20s.  In later years it was operated by Hilltop Motor Coach rather 
> than
> Beaver Valley Motor Coach, which was the lineal descendant of BVT.
>
> I am unaware of any bridge between BF and NB at 7th street (in either 
> town).
> The "new" bridge (new in the 20s for road and BVT purposes) connected via 
> a
> ramp down to the area of the Harmony Route freight station and the 
> Patterson
> Heights Incline loop and ultimately on to 7th Avenue, the main street of 
> BF.
> On the NB side it came off the river at 5th Avenue, which is the street in
> which the PRR tracks ran in the center.  Even into the 50s there was still
> one PRR track in 5th, to serve a local industry on that street.  The BVT
> tracks, as I said yesterday, curved down off 5th to 3rd, the main street 
> of
> NB. This is the bridge that was replaced a few years ago by the current
> bridge, which has a somewhat different approach in lower BF.
>
> I don't have any BVT maps here at work so can't speak specifically to the
> relationship between the Patterson Hts. track and the BVT, but they were
> close.
>
> As to the Ambridge branch, if it did in fact exist, it must have been gone
> well before the 20s.  On the other end of Ambridge there was some trackage
> which deviated from the thru line to Edgeworth and formed (as I recall,
> without having map in front of me) a loop.
>
> Now here is another puzzle.  In Monaca, the "main line" turned left onto
> Pennsylvania Avenue, the town's main street, and proceeded east (upriver) 
> to
> the eastern edge of town.  But there was also a single track WEST on
> Pennsylvania from 9th Street.  No one seems to know what that track was 
> all
> about, or if it were ever used.  Even the late Bob Richardson, who had
> relatives in Monaca and frequently visited them in BVT times, could not 
> shed
> any light on it.  But the track was there in the 40s and 50s, in concrete
> and quite obvious until the street was blacktopped.  Any ideas?
>
> Dwight
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Stephen Titchenal" <stephen at titchenal.com>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 9:03 AM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Beaver Valley Transit
>
>
>>>>>In Edgeworth: The park was in the southeast quarter of the
>> intersection, and until at least the 1960s, the rails were still there
>> from
>> the curve to the curb fronting the park.
>>
>> The only park I see on the 1940 Hopkins is Way Park in the southWEST
>> quarter
>> of the intersection bordering Beaver Rd, Quaker Rd. and Meadow Ln. The
>> 1906
>> Hopkins shows a small pond in this location.  The Rohrbeck map shows a 
>> jog
>> southeast at Edgeworth, but there is quite a ridge east of Beaver Rd. and
>> no
>> parks identified.
>>
>>
>> Regarding the bridges between Beaver Falls and New Brighton. From north 
>> to
>> south, this is what I have been able to piece together:
>>
>> 10th Street Bridge just south of dam built in 1890 dismantled in 2001.
>> Bridge abutments still visible. Used by the Riverview line.  Did the BVT
>> eventually use the Riverview route? If so did it extend the Riverview 
>> line
>> south along 14th St to meet up with the original line on 3rd Ave in New
>> Brighton?
>>
>> 7th Street Bridge. Originally PRR main line, converted to highway in the
>> fall of 1926 when the PRR was relocated to a new bridge south of this
>> point
>> in June 1926. Replaced in ?
>>
>> Covered Bridge. (replaced by 1901 as New Brighton Panoramic View shows
>> uncovered bridge.)
>> This bridge must have been removed when the new PRR bridge was built and
>> opened in 1926. Is this when the BVT started using the 10th Street 
>> Bridge?
>>
>> (Photos on pages 10,28,44 of Rohrbeck book.)
>>
>> The photo on page 44 also shows the Paterson Heights Street Ry. Loop. It
>> must have run along side the BVT tracks on bridge street?
>>
>>
>> The Rohrbeck map also shows a branch northwest at the intersection of 
>> 14th
>> St and Merchant in Ambridge. It appears to follow Merchant St. around a
>> bend
>> to the PRR by the Ohio River and Ohio View Ave. This area is now
>> obliterated
>> by Rt. 65. The 1906 Hopkins plate 12 shows the Economy RR station and
>> Harmony Society (dissolved in 1905) further south than the branch appears
>> to
>> extend on the Rohrbeck map.
>>
>> Thanks for the help.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>