The Westmoreland Heritage Trail is a partially completed
rail trail in southwestern Pennsylvania. As of 2019, 18.0 miles of the 21.9 planned miles of trail are complete, including an 8.7 mile section from
Saltsburg to the fringe of
Delmont as well as a 9.3 mile section from
Trafford
Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, with an estimated population of 235,493 in 2017. It covers Retrieved on 13 December 2007. and includes the area of Old Trafford and the towns of Altrincham, Stretford, Ur ...
to
Export
An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...
.
Right of way
The trail as proposed follows a 21.9 mile long right-of-way that was once the Turtle Creek Branch of the
Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), a portion of which continued independent short-line operation as the
Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad for decades after it was sold off by
Conrail. The right of way proceeds from Saltsburg through
Loyalhanna and
Salem townships, alongside Delmont into the outskirts of
Murrysville before passing through Export, the Murrysville business district,
Monroeville and
Penn Township, finally terminating in Trafford shortly before the remaining tracks merge into the
Pittsburgh Line
The Pittsburgh Line is the Norfolk Southern Railway's primary east–west artery in its Pittsburgh Division and Harrisburg Division across the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and is part of the Keystone Corridor, Amtrak-Norfolk Southern's combin ...
, which is still active. The portions of the trail that have thus far been constructed follow the former rail line rather faithfully.
Ties TIES may refer to:
* TIES, Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science
* TIES, The Interactive Encyclopedia System
* TIES, Time Independent Escape Sequence
* Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science
The ''Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science' ...
and rails have been replaced primarily with crushed limestone (asphalt was used in short sections near road crossings), and old railroad bridges have been re-decked for use by cyclists and pedestrians.
Elevation
The elevation profile of the former railway that the Westmoreland Heritage Trail follows is a complex one. Rather than simply paralleling a single river as many rail-trails do, it instead runs alongside and over multiple waters, twice approaching 1200' as the right of way transitions between different
watersheds. Beginning at the planned eastern terminus at 772.1' by the location of the former Trafford North Station, the trail follows
Turtle Creek toward its headwaters near
PA Route 66. Here the Pennsylvania Railroad's track maps show the old right of way crossing under the route through a tunnel at 1181.1' above sea level, however this tunnel has since been buried rendering it unusable. Since the path by which the trail will cross Route 66 is not yet decided, the ultimate elevation of this crossing remains unknown. From here the trail descends towards the causeway across the
Beaver Run Reservoir at an elevation of 1069.8', rising again to its current high point of 1193.5' as it passes through a cut about 1/4 mile west of
route 819.
From there the trail descends toward its western terminus at 856', where it merges into the
West Penn Trail
The West Penn Trail is a 17-mile long rail trail in western Pennsylvania. It runs on old rail alignments of the Conemaugh Line near the Conemaugh River.
See also
* Ghost Town Trail
The Ghost Town Trail is a rail trail in Western Pennsylvania ...
.
![Westmoreland Heritage Trail Elevation](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Westmoreland_Heritage_Trail_Elevation.svg)
This descent eastward from
Slickville represents the steepest gradient on the track chart at 2.08%.
Between Delmont and Saltsburg the trail departs from the rail grade for several road crossings previously made on rail overpasses which have since been removed, meaning that the actual slope of the trail exceeds the rail gradient for brief stretches. These grades are higher than those of some other prominent rail trails in the area; for example the
Great Allegheny Passage
The Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) is a rail trail between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cumberland, Maryland. Together with the C&O Canal towpath, the GAP is part of a route between Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., that is popular with through ...
lists its maximum as 1.5%. However it is still well below the 5% limit set for the “running slope” of an accessible route under the
Americans with Disabilities Act. Farther away from the highpoints where the streams grow deeper, such as alongside
Loyalhanna Creek, the trail becomes noticeably more level. Using a three-tiered evaluation system, Trans Allegheny Trails rates this section of the WHT as “easy”, while it rates the formerly mentioned steepest section near Slickville as “moderate” in cycling difficulty.
Points of Interest
Landmarks
![Haymaker Gas Well in Murrysville April 2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Haymaker_Gas_Well_in_Murrysville_April_2016.jpg)
The path of the Westmoreland Heritage Trail runs by several prominent landmarks associated with the old railroad and the industries that grew around it. The corridor of the eastern half of the trail is dotted with mine ruins and
piles of slate left over from the coal industry; one of the most prominent of which is adjacent to the trail in Slickville, where the town's name is spelled out atop it. In the borough of Export sits a newly restored 1939 railroad
caboose
A caboose is a crewed North American railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train. Cabooses provide shelter for crew at the end of a train, who were formerly required in railway switch, switching and Shunting (rail), shunting, keeping a l ...
. A model
derrick
A derrick is a lifting device composed at minimum of one guyed mast, as in a gin pole, which may be articulated over a load by adjusting its guys. Most derricks have at least two components, either a guyed mast or self-supporting tower, and ...
as well as a plaque and display stand by the trail in Murrysville, honoring the gas well tapped by the Haymaker brothers in 1878, though the exact location of that well is not known precisely. Finally, the ruins of a railroad bridge and the turn of the century
brickyard
A brickyard or brickfield is a place or yard where bricks are made, fired, and stored, or sometimes sold or otherwise distributed from. Brick makers work in a brick yard. A brick yard may be constructed near natural sources of clay or on o ...
once serviced by it lie across the creek from the trail in Monroeville near TCKR milepost number 2 in Trafford.
Parks
![Westmoreland Heritage Trail in B-Y Park](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Westmoreland_Heritage_Trail_in_B-Y_Park.jpg)
The trail also runs by and through several parks and recreational areas. The trail begins in Saltsburg next to a small playground. Export has plans to build a new park next to the trail that is set to extend through the borough. Farther west the trail runs alongside Murrysville's Duff Park, which has a biking trail and several hiking trails. Neighboring Monroeville owns several parcels of land across the water from the trail, including Alpine Park and Valley Park, however a lack of nearby bridges over Turtle Creek currently limits access to them. The last major park the trail runs through before its current western terminus is B-Y Park in Trafford, which has picnic pavilions and a pond that is used for fishing and ice skating, depending on the season.
Construction history
Completed and planned
![Conemaugh River bridge and Rt 981 Tunnel May 2017](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Conemaugh_River_bridge_and_Rt_981_Tunnel_May_2017.jpg)
Nearly nine years passed between the time the discussion of the WHT began in 1998 and when the first section was built. With this first five-mile segment from Saltsburg to Slickville completed, momentum for development of the trail continued to grow, and a 3.7 mile westward extension towards Delmont was opened in 2013. The following year, trail developers set their sights on the Turtle Creek valley, when they raised the funds to purchase the right of way of the Turtle Creek Industrial Railway.
Construction on a 5.9 mile section of this corridor between Trafford and Monroeville was completed in the fall of 2017, and construction of a further 3.4 mile section from Murrysville to Export was completed in the summer of 2019.
Future goals
Which section will be built next and when is not yet certain. The future connection between Export and Delmont is complicated by the need to cross PA route 66, a busy highway once traversed by a railroad tunnel that is now buried. In 2018 a grant was awarded to fund a study of the possible development of the trail on this ~4 mile segment.
On the western front, expansion from Trafford must first involve acquisition of the rights to the final fraction of a mile of the Turtle Creek Industrial Railway, currently owned by
Norfolk Southern
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...
. From here the trail could continue alongside Turtle Creek through
East Pittsburgh, and some proposed trail maps imply that this could be done along the abandoned East Pittsburgh Branch of the PRR, where the
Westinghouse Interworks Railway once ran.
Connecting trails
Mega Greenways
![Westmoreland Heritage Trail and West Penn Trail May 2017](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Westmoreland_Heritage_Trail_and_West_Penn_Trail_May_2017.jpg)
At its eastern terminus, the WHT connects seamlessly to the
West Penn Trail
The West Penn Trail is a 17-mile long rail trail in western Pennsylvania. It runs on old rail alignments of the Conemaugh Line near the Conemaugh River.
See also
* Ghost Town Trail
The Ghost Town Trail is a rail trail in Western Pennsylvania ...
, which is part of the 320 mile Pittsburgh-to-Harrisburg Main Line Canal Greenway. On its western end the Westmoreland Heritage Trail has no connections as of yet, however continuing the trail downstream along Turtle Creek and through
Braddock would allow the WHT to connect to the
Steel Valley Trail, a connection that members of both respective trail councils have expressed support in making. This would link the WHT with the
Great Allegheny Passage
The Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) is a rail trail between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cumberland, Maryland. Together with the C&O Canal towpath, the GAP is part of a route between Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., that is popular with through ...
, a 150-mile rail-trail from
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
to
Cumberland, Maryland
Cumberland is a U.S. city in and the county seat of Allegany County, Maryland. It is the primary city of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 19,076. Located on the Potomac River, ...
, which, along with the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C. and Cumberland, Maryland. It replaced the Potomac Canal, ...
towpath trail, forms a continuous hiking and biking trail between Pittsburgh and
Washington, DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
.
Rough Diamond Trail Project
The Westmoreland Heritage Trail is also part of the Rough Diamond Trail Project, a circuit of completed and proposed trails between Pittsburgh,
Freeport, Saltsburg and Trafford that is being promoted by locally born actor
David Conrad
David Conrad (born August 17, 1967) is an American actor. From 2005 to 2010, he starred in the television series ''Ghost Whisperer'' alongside Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Early life
Conrad is the youngest of three sons born to James Watson Conrad, an ...
He has produced and starred in two videos thus far about this project. The first shows the WHT only briefly, while the second features Conrad riding through a few different sections of the trail, which includes the Turtle Creek gorge before the railroad tracks were removed.
References
External links
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*
*
{{pennsylvania rail trails
Rail trails in Pennsylvania
Heritage trails