West Penn Railways
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West Penn Railways, one part of the West Penn System, was an
interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...
electric railway headquartered in
Connellsville Connellsville is a city in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, southeast of Pittsburgh and away via the Youghiogheny River, a tributary of the Monongahela River. It is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The population was 7,637 at th ...
,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. It was part of the region's power generation utility.


History

West Penn Railways consisted of of electric trolley trackage at its peak. It operated in a well populated mining region of rugged mountainous western Pennsylvania and connected numerous towns and villages with hourly or better transport from its north end towns at McKeesport, Latrobe and Trafford through the larger towns of Greensburg, Mt Pleasant, Connellsville, Scottdale, and Uniontown continuing to southernmost Fairchance and Martin. A branch extended to Brownsville on the Monongahela River. Some of its predecessor trolley companies operated as early as 1889 in the Greensburg area and as early as 1893 in the Wheeling area. West Penn Railways Company, as a separate corporate entity from its parent power company, was chartered on February 18, 1904. It operated a very active and inexpensive regional transportation service until August 9, 1952, when its last trolley ran on its one time busiest Uniontown to Greensburg line. Because much of its fare generating business was to bring residents of outlying areas into nearby towns for shopping and entertainment in the evenings and the weekend, particularly to see movies in the 1930s and 1940s, the West Penn's business declined with the drop in area mine and coking employment, the construction of better roads, and increased car ownership and use. An unsubstantiated story holds that once television reached the region, West Penn's management, facing an obvious future of fewer and fewer riders due to people staying home to watch TV, quickly decided to abandon railway operations. Near abandonment, as shown in photographs of the time, the still well maintained big orange trolleys ominously carried signs reading, "To keep the 5c fare we need more riders". In many parts of North America before automobiles and trucks, the interurbans were the only reliable way to travel and to move farm products to market quickly and economically. By the time of World War I, the street railway industry was the fifth largest industry in the United States, employing well over 100,000 people nationwide, but by the mid 1920s, many had abandoned operation. On August 9, 1952, the last scheduled West Penn Ry trolley left Greensburg at 11:00 pm and ended at Everson at 12:05 am.


Operation

Like most interurbans, West Penn's trolleys were powered from an overhead electric wire. The cars themselves were larger and heavier than typical city streetcars and were painted in a standout bright orange. West Penn's broad gauge (5 ft 2 in) single track was laid in streets in towns, but in the countryside the track often ran on a right-of-way separate from roads. At some points, the West Penn's single track reentered a road in order to use a road bridge, and it sometimes ran not in the center of the bridge but on one side. Motorists had the unusual problem of facing a trolley approaching head-on in their lane. This odd arrangement also existed in some of the towns where the trolley ran alongside a curb. In the country, sidings allowed opposing cars to pass at various points, and a crude but effective block signal system protected the car's progress and required the West Penn motorman to reach from his trolley window and throw a toggle switch. West Penn had some impressively substantial bridges crossing ravines and valleys. Bridges at Footedale, Cob Run, and Brownsville Junction were particularly high and long. Typical for interurbans, stops were much more frequent than for a conventional railroad, curves were tighter, and gradients (slopes) could be much steeper. West Penn Railway as a vibrant transportation system played a key role in the pre-automobile unpaved poor road era and was an important factor in the region's economy. Three branches of the WPRy crossed the Pennsylvania Turnpike.


Former structures still standing

The depot building in Greensburg (constructed in 1927) still stands at 416 South Main Street and is now used as the Greensburg City Hall. The freight station in Greensburg, slightly to the west of City Hall, is also extant. In Connellsville, the former West Penn depot is a three-story structure now used as a bank at 125 South Arch Street. In Uniontown, the former depot (11 East Penn Street), built in 1932, is used as a business school. A concrete bridge built in 1908 over Monongahela Creek still exists near
Allison, Pennsylvania Allison is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP), which is located in Luzerne Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, Luzerne and Redstone Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, Redstone townships in ...
. The West Penn Railway had a number of steel bridges and viaducts crossing deep ravines and wide valleys, some remarkable in structural size and height for what amounted to a regional trolley line. These were located particularly in the region south of Uniontown. The concrete and stone piers and abutments that once supported these structures still exist. File:greensburg-pennsylvania-city-hall.jpg, Former depot in Greensburg, now City Hall File:greensburg-pennsylvania-freight-station.jpg, Former freight station in Greensburg File:West Penn Railways Station Connellsville Pennsylvania.jpg, Former depot in Connellsville File:West Penn Railways Station Uniontown Pennsylvania.jpg, Former depot in Uniontown


Coke Region lines

The bulk of West Penn Railways' trackage formed a network in Allegheny, Westmoreland, and Fayette counties of Pennsylvania, comprising in 1917. Headquarters was in Connellsville. The main line ran from Greensburg through Hecla (now known as
Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
), Mount Pleasant, Scottdale,
Connellsville Connellsville is a city in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, southeast of Pittsburgh and away via the Youghiogheny River, a tributary of the Monongahela River. It is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The population was 7,637 at th ...
, and Uniontown, a distance of . This trip took 2 hours 25 minutes, with service provided every half-hour. The speed averaged approximately , including stops. The ridership was almost entirely local in nature; most passengers rode only a few miles (mainly from their homes to the nearest town for shopping, or to go to work). Service ended on August 9, 1952. The phrase "Coke Region" is based on the area's fame for producing
coke (fuel) Coke is a grey, hard, and porous coal-based fuel with a high carbon content and few impurities, made by heating coal or oil in the absence of air—a destructive distillation process. It is an important industrial product, used mainly in iro ...
from coal needed in the making of steel. The coke industry suffered a major blow in the 1920s when coke was obtained from the coal burned to heat steel mill ovens and those facilities were built adjacent to Pittsburgh's steel mills. The coke making "beehive" facilities that dotted West Penn's trolley territory were rendered nearly obsolete. The trolleys had fewer passengers to take to work, and a decline in passenger business began in earnest. Branches and minor lines were as follows. (Date of last rail service is in parentheses.) * McKeesport - Wilmerding (1904) * McKeesport - Lincoln Way (1924) * Locust Street, McKeesport (1925) * Jerome Street, McKeesport (1928) * Scottdate - Meadow Mill (1931) * Boston - Scott Haven (1932) * Greensburg - Bunker Hill (1934) * Tarr - Mount Pleasant (1936) * Irwin - McKeesport (1938) * Greensburg - Hunker - Scottdale (1939) * Larimer - Trafford (1942) * Irwin - Larimer (1948) * Uniontown - Brownsville (1950) * Uniontown - Martin (1950) * Uniontown - Fairchance (1950) * Connellsville - Dickerson Run (1951) * Connellsville - Phillips - Uniontown (parallel to the main line but separate) (1951) * Irwin - Greensburg (1952) * Latrobe - Hecla (now Southwest) (1952) * Connellsville - South Connellsville (1952)


Noncontiguous lines

There were five other components of West Penn Railways which did not connect to each other or to the main network of "Coke Region" tracks: * Allegheny Valley Street Railway: This line ran parallel to the
Allegheny River The Allegheny River ( ) is a long headwater stream of the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York. The Allegheny River runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border northwesterly into ...
northeast of
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, running from Aspinwall to Natrona. A branch crossed the river to serve
New Kensington New Kensington, known locally as New Ken, is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. It is situated along the Allegheny River, northeast of Pittsburgh. The population was 12,170 at the 2010 census. History Like much of Westmoreland Cou ...
, Parnassus, and Arnold. Service began in 1906 and ended in 1937. * Apollo–Leechburg: Operated 1906–1936 along the north bank of the
Kiskiminetas River The Kiskiminetas River (commonly referred to as the Kiski by locals) is a tributary of the Allegheny River, approximately long, in Western Pennsylvania in the United States. The region stretching from the northern side of Harmar Township, Penns ...
from
Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
to
Leechburg Leechburg is a borough in southern Armstrong County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, northeast of Pittsburgh. A population of 2,149 residents live within the borough limits as of the 2020 census, according to US Census Bureau. Leechburg was fo ...
. * Cowanshannock–Kittanning–Lenape Park: A line ran from Cowanshannock to Kittanning to Lenape Park, an amusement park built and operated by the company. This line was built to a gauge, the only element of West Penn Railways not built to gauge. Service began in 1899 and ended in 1936. * Oakdale–McDonald: A short suburban line in the Pittsburgh area connecting Oakdale and McDonald. Service began in 1907 and ended in 1927. * Wheeling Traction Company of West Virginia: A subsidiary controlled by West Penn Railways from 1912 to 1931. Service operated from Wheeling south to
Moundsville Moundsville is a city in Marshall County, West Virginia, United States, along the Ohio River. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia metropolitan area. The population was 8,122 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Marshall County. T ...
, and from Wheeling north to Weirton. Another line ran on the opposite (western) bank of the
Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
, from Shadyside to Rayland, with a branch to Barton, and a connection by bridge to Wheeling. Another branch connected Brilliant and
Steubenville Steubenville is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Ohio River 33 miles west of Pittsburgh, it had a population of 18,161 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The city's name is deri ...
to the Wheeling-Weirton line. Track length in 1917 was . Wheeling's earliest trolley service consisted of horse-drawn trolleys in 1863 and electric trolleys in 1890, although this was prior to West Penn Railways acquiring control in 1906. Control by West Penn Railways ended in 1931, after which an employee-owned cooperative, Co-operative Transit Company, conducted operations on the Wheeling-Barton and Wheeling-Shadyside routes until 1948 when river flooding caused irreparable damage.


References

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Further reading

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:West Penn Railways Defunct Pennsylvania railroads Defunct Ohio railroads Defunct West Virginia railroads Railway companies established in 1904 Railway companies disestablished in 1952 Interurban railways in Pennsylvania Interurban railways in Ohio Interurban railways in West Virginia Transportation in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Transportation in Fayette County, Pennsylvania 5 ft 2½ in gauge railways in the United States Streetcars in Pennsylvania