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Pennsylvania Ghost Town Rail Trail

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Pennsylvania Ghost Town Rail Trail
Posted by MidlandMike on Sunday, November 6, 2022 8:59 PM

Article about a Rail-to-Trail along the old Cambria & Indiana.  Photo shows some abandoned PCC cars out in the woods.

https://www.thetravel.com/what-to-know-about-hiking-the-ghost-town-trail-in-pennsylvania/

 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, November 6, 2022 9:19 PM

Interesting!  Thanks for posting!

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Posted by NKP guy on Tuesday, November 15, 2022 1:04 PM

   What a horrible, gut-wrenching photo of two dead friends of mine!  

                                 "How the mighty hath fallen!"

   I rode both of these PCC's many times on the beautiful broad boulevards of Shaker Heights, Ohio.  Also, it was amazing to watch or ride the daily 5:11 PM Van Aken express, with 5 PCC's in MU operation at speed.

 

   

   

 

 

 

 

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Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, November 15, 2022 4:45 PM

NKP guy
   What a horrible, gut-wrenching photo of two dead friends of mine!  

                                 "How the mighty hath fallen!"

   I rode both of these PCC's many times on the beautiful broad boulevards of Shaker Heights, Ohio.  Also, it was amazing to watch or ride the daily 5:11 PM Van Aken express, with 5 PCC's in MU operation at speed.

Rode the Shaker Heights line one time with the Ex to watch a playoff game between the Browns and the Baltimore Colts.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by MidlandMike on Tuesday, November 15, 2022 7:15 PM

NKP guy

   What a horrible, gut-wrenching photo of two dead friends of mine!  

                                 "How the mighty hath fallen!"

   I rode both of these PCC's many times on the beautiful broad boulevards of Shaker Heights, Ohio.  Also, it was amazing to watch or ride the daily 5:11 PM Van Aken express, with 5 PCC's in MU operation at speed.

 

   

   

 

 

 

 

 

How/why did those PCC's get to PA ?

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Wednesday, November 16, 2022 9:58 AM

BaltACD
 

Rode the Shaker Heights line one time with the Ex to watch a playoff game between the Browns and the Baltimore Colts.

 
And neither team still plays their home games in the same city.
The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, November 16, 2022 11:39 AM

CSSHEGEWISCH
 
BaltACD 

Rode the Shaker Heights line one time with the Ex to watch a playoff game between the Browns and the Baltimore Colts. 

And neither team still plays their home games in the same city.

Nor in either of the teams stadiums that existed at the time of that game.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by pennytrains on Wednesday, November 16, 2022 7:25 PM

That can be a bit convoluted.  Cleveland won the right to call our NFL team "Browns" after Art Modell absconded with the team to Baltimore.  So officially the Browns never ceased to be Cleveland's team.  We just didn't have any players for awhile.  Of course it wasn't new.  The Cleveland Rams relocated the year after winning the championship.

Back to PCC's, a lot of Cleveland Transit cars went to Toronto before winding up elsewhere but I never knew of these cars ending up in the woods.

Big Smile  Same me, different spelling!  Big Smile

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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, November 16, 2022 7:45 PM

pennytrains
That can be a bit convoluted.  Cleveland won the right to call our NFL team "Browns" after Art Modell absconded with the team to Baltimore.  So officially the Browns never ceased to be Cleveland's team.  We just didn't have any players for awhile.  Of course it wasn't new.  The Cleveland Rams relocated the year after winning the championship.

Modell was pushed out of town by the Cleveland City Council and their penury.  Modell wanted the Browns name left in Cleveland, as opposed to the Irsay's stealing out of town at night in the middle of a a snow storm - taking the name and HISTORY of the BALTIMORE COLTS, rather than develop his own history in Indianapolis.  May the Irsay's rot in the booze that consumed the old man and the drugs that have affected the son.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Thursday, November 17, 2022 9:59 AM

Name changes when a team relocates are not that unusual.  The NHL has had several: Kansas City Scouts to Colorado Rockies to New Jersey Devils, Hartford Whalers to Carolina Hurricanes, Quebec Nordiques to Colorado Avalanche, Portland Rosebuds to Chicago Black Hawks, etc.  The NBA/ABA has also had some.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by pennytrains on Thursday, November 17, 2022 7:04 PM

Montreal Expos to Washington Nationals. .

Big Smile  Same me, different spelling!  Big Smile

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Posted by Backshop on Sunday, November 20, 2022 6:56 PM

I remember shooting the Cambria & Indiana on my way to Altoona once in the 90s.  I wish that I had spent more time there.  It was a nice, little operation.

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Monday, November 21, 2022 10:00 AM

C&I was a big-time operation for a while.  An article in TRAINS covered it quite nicely and generally described it as an atypical short line.  It rostered 18 EMD switchers and often use 8 of them (4 on front, 4 on back) to move 100 loads of coal at a time.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by mudchicken on Saturday, November 26, 2022 10:31 PM

Rochester- Cincinnati - Kansas City - Omaha - Sacramento Royals/Kings....

(Why this kid has no interest at all in the NBA)

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by Backshop on Sunday, November 27, 2022 8:21 AM

In 1955, before the Giants and Dodgers moved west, the farthest west MLB went was Kansas City and the farthest south was Washington, Cincinnati and St Louis.  How our demographics have shifted...

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Posted by BaltACD on Sunday, November 27, 2022 8:30 AM

Backshop
In 1955, before the Giants and Dodgers moved west, the farthest west MLB went was Kansas City and the farthest south was Washington, Cincinnati and St Louis.  How our demographics have shifted...

And it was only in 1955 that the A's moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City and in 1954 the St.Louis Browns moved to Baltimore to become the Orioles.  Somehow my mother decided to go 'downtown' for some shopping on the #8 streetcar and we walked into the parade 'announcing' the arrival of the team and the impending start of the baseball season.  There were only 16 Major League teams, 8 in each league, National and American.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by rixflix on Sunday, November 27, 2022 2:44 PM

For PCCs-in-the-woods see Windber PA in Google Earth. Looks like 50 PCCs plus other cars at the Vintage Electric Street Car Company at the end of 19th Street. They are on an abandoned PRR spur to Eureka no. 32 mine. Wiki says many came from MBTA.

Rick

rixflix aka Captain Video. Blessed be Jean Shepherd and all His works!!! Hooray for 1939, the all time movie year!!! I took that ride on the Reading but my Baby caught the Katy and left me a mule to ride.

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Posted by MidlandMike on Sunday, November 27, 2022 8:29 PM

Here is a link to a site describing the "trolley graveyard" pictured in the original post.

https://uncoveringpa.com/abandoned-trolley-graveyard-pennsylvania

Edit: I noticed the trolley graveyard is located south of Johnstown, while the Ghost Town Trail is located north of Johnstown, so the photo of the trolleys on the OP does not seem to actually be located along the trail.  Here is a map of the rail-trail:

https://www.indianacountyparks.org/downloads/ghosttown-trail/ghost-town-trail-combined-maps.pdf

 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, November 27, 2022 8:37 PM

Here's another take on the trolley graveyard.  I'd call it for simplicity's sake "PCC's in Purgatory."  They're not completely out  of this world and not completely in the next.  Angel

It's like they're in some middle dimension waiting for their eventual fate which will surely come, but who knows when?  But someday it will. 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjOrraW6M_7AhW_KlkFHSUcBFIQtwJ6BAglEAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dfvi38jiSheY&usg=AOvVaw2tT4EpmNu6J6tDCyGjiaXJ

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Posted by blue streak 1 on Sunday, December 25, 2022 12:39 PM

The questions are .Who bought these cars?  Who paid to move them to this location?  Why not to scrap yard?  Ownershiip now?  Property owner?

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