Visit to Western Pennsylvania

Work took me to the Pittsburgh area last weekend, and on Saturday night I was able to visit our friends at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. I was given a tour of the PTM shop by Bruce Wells, who is also that museum's resident blogger, and got to see the work being done there. Most of their efforts are concentrating on Pittsburgh Railways low-floor car 4398, the recent subject of a gorgeous frame-up rebuild, and on recently-acquired Rio de Janeiro Tramways open car 1758. The latter was acquired to add an open car to the roster moreso than as an historic piece, and a lot of work is going into getting it ready to run on PTM's wide-gauge track. Pictured below left is a rebuilt and re-gauged truck for this car, and below right is the next car in line to get a complete rebuild: West Penn 832, the only Cincinnati curve-sider preserved intact and a member of the last order of curve-siders ever built. (To see it in service click here.)


Work had me in Greensburg, PA all weekend, which was in West Penn territory, so Bruce clued me in to the surviving West Penn freight and passenger stations in downtown Greensburg. They are shown below in photos taken on a grey Sunday morning. Note that the freight station is built on the side of a hill and that the loading track went onto a concrete trestle towards the downhill end of the building!










Shown below is the surviving "FREIGHT STATION" sign complete with West Penn emblem from the uphill end of that building, with the substantial passenger station - now used as Greensburg City Hall - on the right.