West Penn Photos

[daveklepper]

Scattered, here in one place.  Add any you have, please. and I hope to have more.

At and near Hecla, between Greensboro and Connellsville

North of Uniontown

The steeply graded unusual single=track on-street terminal in Brownsville:

The surviving Alleghany-Division Cincinnati lightweight on the Connellsville - South Connellsville local line (Bill Vigrass photo) and much more recent, photos by Richard Allman, at Arden, PA.

 

 

 

[rcdrye]

Sister car 639 (Wheeling WV West Penn affiliated system) on the move last Thursday March 11.

https://www.facebook.com/neerhs/videos/120201496722602

[daveklepper]

832 has the nicer paint scheme, but 639 the nicer and classic body design.  Both cars are beautiful to my eyes. But Seashore needs a flange-oiler on the outside rail of the loop to double or triple the life of both rail and car wheels.

Actually, someone with the right grease on a wood stick could solve the problem.  The  screech may be authentic and nostalgic, but it representes real wear.

Please, please, pass on this advice to where it will get some action!

[rcdrye]

daveklepper

Actually, someone with the right grease on a wood stick could solve the problem. The screech may be authentic and nostalgic, but it representes real wear.

It also represents the first car in the loop in 2021. The loop gets greased daily in regular operation. Temp at the time was about 40, after an overnight temp of about 15. Most of the contact is with the high guard on the inside rail of the curve.

[Flintlock76]

Yeah, that screech on the loop is a bit ominous, get the grease guys ready!

Beautiful car though!  And what's the symbol on the side?  It looks an awful lot like the old Public Service of New Jersey logo.

[Overmod]

Flintlock76

...what's the symbol on the side?

[rcdrye]

639's trucks are from a Boston type 5 (I think 5777, but I could be wrong) since the car came to Seashore without trucks.  Snow was covering the loop until last weekend.

Wheeling Public Service was controlled by West Penn from 1912 to 1931.  Both Standard Gauge and Penn Gauge lines were operated, with 39 (639) originally Penn (5'2.5") gauge.

[daveklepper]

 

 

West Penn 832 in service on the Connellsville - S. Connellsville Line

Ancor Glass was a glass factory located in South Connellsville

And a view of Connellsville-Uniontown)via Juniata ("back-road") car at Connellsville Station:

 

[daveklepper]

West Penn had two routes between Connellsville and Uniontown.  The "Back Road" was further west than the main Greensburg - Connellsville - Uniontown "main line."  Here is a car on that more western route:

 

[Jones1945]

daveklepper

West Penn had two routes between Connolsville and Uniontown.  The "Back Road" was further west than the main Greensburg - Connolsville - Uniontown "main line."  Here is a car on that more western route:

 

Why the car had no headlights?

[daveklepper]

Most interurban lines, including the North Shore (except for the Electroliners) used portable headlights that were placed on a bracker, with a heafty cable plugged into a socket.  Often, a spare headlight was carried in case the incandescent bulb or arc failed enroute.  A lot qucker replacement than unlatching the glass cover, unscrewing the old bulb, and then reversing the process.  A few streetcar companies did the same.

Note the photo you copied has has some further repair work.

The Alleghany Division of West Penn was bussed before WWII.   The surviving Divisioh was called officially the Coke Division, and the photo below shows the reason.   One of many locations of coke manufacuring, and a beautiifiul sight at night with the red flames of the coke ovens.

[mvlandsw]

Correct spelling of     Connellsville, Pa.

[daveklepper]

Thanks    Done

[daveklepper]

Note caption correction to the earlier Connellsville Station photo.  Some more photos of 704 on the Connellsville - Uniontown via Juniata Line; track going west from the swich is the branch to Dawson.:

I think this bridge is on the Uniontown-Mason City or Uniontown-Brownsville line; correction, line to Fairchancr:

 

And a view ahead:

 

[Overmod]

Connellsville still has too few 'l's in the correction.  There are four, not three.  

[daveklepper]

You mean "Ls" not "Ts" but thanks and I'll make the corrections.

And here are two more West Penns.  The car that alternated with Cincinnati Lighrtweight 854 on South Connellsville, Ancor Glass. in 1949.  Was this second-hand?

And  the spur in one of the 704 "back-road"pictures was for a little-known branch to Dawson.  Here is  the terminal there:

 

 

 

[daveklepper]

Back to Connellsville.  Approaching the station, Cincinnati Curve-side 832 from S. Connellsville is followed by 733 from Uniontown, running through to Greensburg.

[daveklepper]

Two main-line (Uniontown-Greensburg) cars pass on the double-track on Connelsville's main street north of the West Penn Station.  Double-track was rare on West Penn, but traffic probably forced the issue on this street.  The main line, along with the Hacla Junction - Latrobe Brach lasted until the end of all West Penn trolley service, in 1955.

June, 1949, saw the start of the conversion to buses or complete abondment of specific lines, with the three lines south from Uniontown , to Brownsville, Fairchance, and Mason City the first to go.  This view is in Fairchance:

 

 

[daveklepper]

Street scenes in Connellsville and Uniontown:

[daveklepper]

Another street sxcene, probably Collensville:

[daveklepper]

More restored photos:

Edward H. Lybarger provided location information.	May 10, 2022, 9:51 PM (7 hours ago)

The first photo is at the Martin end of the line, beyond Masontown.  The second is an outbound car at Thompson Siding, a short distance west of Uniontown.  The third shows the end of the Brownsville line.  At one time this line extended farther down the hill some 600 feet or so but was cut back on account of street congestion.

 

The bridge was north of the Uniontown Terminal.  Until September 16, 1930, Masontown/Martin and Brownsville came in on Main Street from the west. Fairchance went south from the east end of town and again was in Main Street.  On that date the new terminal opened and the tracks rerouted off the main street.  This involved construction of the wye at the north end of the bridge carrying the Phillips line out of town, and new trackage on Mt. Vernon Avenue north of Main Street and on West Place brought those lines into the new station.  Fairchance shared a new bridge with the Main Line over the B&O to the east.

 

These three lines (Masontown-Martin. Brownsville, Fairchance) ownwere converted to bus operation on three dates in the first quarter of 1950.  It was West Penn’s experiment to see if buses would revive declining patronage; they felt changing over just one line would not give enough of an answer.  In 1951 they converted two more routes before deciding in early 1952 not to convert the main line, and in 1953 to leave the transportation business entirely.

This view looks outbound across the trestle at Brownsville Junction, near Footedale.  The HV line is the 25KV service that reached into a number of mining communities on and beyond the trolley line.  The wires on the trestle included trolley feeder from the nearby substation, signal lines and telephone lines.

 

The 716 photos were taken just north of Uniontown.  The bridge crossed the PRR and allowed WP traffic from the Phillips line and (after 1929) Masontown/Martin and Brownsville to enter the city.  The other was on the “Jordan” Wye (on property acquired from the Jourdan family) where the routes split.

 

[pennytrains]

Great stuff as always David!  

[daveklepper]

Three more West Penn photos.  I think one is at Greensburg Station, but don't have an idea avbout the other two locations.   Help!

 

[daveklepper]

At Connosvile Station and enterring Greensburg Station from Pennsylvania Avenue

[daveklepper]

Two at the main yard and shops at Connosville.  I must thank Ed Lyberger for corredct locations of many of my West Penn photos.  A third of a sweeper will be posted on the Work Equipment thread..

[daveklepper]

Image of 204, previous post, correcyed.

[daveklepper]

Two of Cincinnati curved-side lightweight 832 at the mid-way passing siding on the South Connelsville Line, and a color photo sent me (his photo) by Richard Allman (my teacher regarding shading in photo-editing) to show that you can ride this car at the Werstern Pennsylvasnia Arden Trolley Museum. One of only two Cincinnati-curved-sides preserved.  The other is at Seasshore, and RC has a thread here (two years ago?) concerning that beautiful streatcar.

 

 

 

[rcdrye]

639 (from Wheeling W. Va., but still part of the West Penn System) is a mainstay of Seashore's daily operations.  It came to the Museum as a stripped car body, having served a druggist in Ohio for some years after retirement.

 

[daveklepper]

Thanks, RC.  Can you copy one of your thread's photos and past it here.  Or authorise me to do it?  A direct comparison of the two cars would be interesting, and I'd like you to discuss the truck-motors issues in detail, if you can.  Not sure if 832 does have originals, also.

[rcdrye]

639 came to the museum without trucks or motors.  It now has a set of Standard C-35P trucks from a Boston type 5. The Westinghouse 508A motors are of a type that was widely used (Seashore's Boston 5821 has GE 264As in the same style truck frame).  I'm not sure off-hand if they're the same type used in Wheeling.  639 (or 39) was 5'2-1/2" gauge, though some of its sisters were standard gauge.

https://collections.trolleymuseum.org/items/119