RR stations in Washington

Hi all,
I just did a mini road trip down to Franklin to ride on the Allegheny River trail and the Sandy Creek trail. Really nice. I'll go back again. After the ride, I headed down to Washington to check out the Pennsylvannia Trolley Museum.

I stayed at a hotel on Race Track rd and went looking for a place to eat in town. I ended up eating at the Upper Crust on S. Main St at the Jct of 40/18. After dinner, I walked down the street towards the tracks and came upon a RR station and walked further and I think I saw another one. It was 10pm at night and no camera so I came back this morning and took pictures. Not posted yet.

Who did these stations belong too? One was on the live track for the Allegheny Valley RR. A stone block construction. The other one was red brick and looked to be on a ROW with cobble stone still in place on the north side of it. Original entry doors. It does look like the brick is ready to crumble in spots. Probably owned by Jedson Wiley and sons. Not sure. Oh, and who's red caboose is that sitting up so high?

I need the info before I post the pictures.

By the way, the trolley museum is pretty good. The ride was also good. I couldn't believe the collection of Trolleys they have in the storage building and the outstanding condition they are in. Even the bad ones look pretty good!

Other forum members might be able to provide more in-depth information, but as far as stations go, Dan West's website is a great starting place:

http://www.west2k.com/pa.htm

Thanks, that site was very helpful.

SST wrote:Hi all,
I just did a mini road trip down to Franklin to ride on the Allegheny River trail and the Sandy Creek trail. Really nice. I'll go back again. After the ride, I headed down to Washington to check out the Pennsylvannia Trolley Museum.

I stayed at a hotel on Race Track rd and went looking for a place to eat in town. I ended up eating at the Upper Crust on S. Main St at the Jct of 40/18. After dinner, I walked down the street towards the tracks and came upon a RR station and walked further and I think I saw another one. It was 10pm at night and no camera so I came back this morning and took pictures. Not posted yet.

Who did these stations belong too? One was on the live track for the Allegheny Valley RR. A stone block construction. The other one was red brick and looked to be on a ROW with cobble stone still in place on the north side of it. Original entry doors. It does look like the brick is ready to crumble in spots. Probably owned by Jedson Wiley and sons. Not sure. Oh, and who's red caboose is that sitting up so high?

I need the info before I post the pictures.

By the way, the trolley museum is pretty good. The ride was also good. I couldn't believe the collection of Trolleys they have in the storage building and the outstanding condition they are in. Even the bad ones look pretty good!

Hi SST. I'm originally from Washington, so I'll try to answer your questions.

The station located on Main Street by the still active tracks, is the former B&O station. The tracks used to be part of the W&P Subdivision (Wheeling & Pittsburgh), known as "the Pike" since it roughly paralleled Route 40, which is the "National Pike". (It was B&O's first line equipped with CTC.) The tracks ran from Glenwood Yard in Pittsburgh, to Benwood Yard in WV, just outside of Wheeling. In 1985, CSX, in their slash and burn mentality, discontinued through service, and yanked out about 13 miles of tracks from Taylorstown, PA to Benwood Yard. In the 1990's, CSX leased the line to AVR, who now operate the line. The last customer is a plastics plant just to the West of Washington. The station was restored by a local agency and is the headquarters for the Washington County Tourism group. (I rode the Chessie Steam Special from that station in 1977....)

The neat station at the bottom of the hill at Judson & Wiley is this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/84263554@N00/2407619267/
It's the former Waynesburg and Washington station, later owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Formerly a narrow gauge line, the PRR standard gauged it in the 1950's. It interchanged with the PRR's Chartiers branch. There is another station (the PRR's Washington station) at the bottom of Chestnut Street hill. That station is also restored as used as a business.

The caboose is owned by somebody associated with Judson and Wiley and they placed it there on the elevated tracks where they used to unload hopper cars.