P&LE Brighton Station Beaver Fallls Pa

A lot has changed in that area.  Where was Republic Steel then ?   Brighton Station ??   Was that the P&LE station across the Beaver River from New Brighton ? 

It was a good place to catch the train to Pittsburgh if you wanted a skipping school adventure sometime around 1958-60. Union Drawn was a division of Republic Steel by the casket company (Bates?) that's probably long gone also. Left there 1970 and never went back.

Yes it was. Used to be a McDonald's and maybe a car dealer across the street. BF side of the Brighton bridge close to the sewage treatment plant.

OK. Bridge is gone, McD's now up on the Main drag but the sewage plan remains !!  I have done a lot of video and still photos there as the CSX has the track now. They tore down the station awhile ago and the freight station a few years ago. The station at  Geneva College is still there but boarded up.  Republic Steel still survives. The Ford and Chevy dealer is on the main street across from Republic.  Mayer China is gone but McDanel remains.

And the underground track crossover...any old photos you have show it's existence?

Thanks

None that I ever saw.  I don't have any pictures of  the station or that area. The tracks were gone there.  There is a ball field, part of a bike trail  and a couple of industrial buildings.  Except for the main line, all the RR stuff is gone. I e-mailed you some photos.  

Thanks. Found this and it looks like a ground level crossover if this is it.

Thanks for the pics.

Here's a few old pics;

Thanks for the pictures !!  The only thing left of the passenger station are a bit of the light posts at the top of the steps. The bridge that carries the NS over the Beaver River crosses right there.  I have a book on trolleys of that area and I will have to check that out.  Have often wondered what that station looked like.

I think this is the underground passenger crossover DOBERMANN referred to?

Penn-Pacific posted:

Here's a few old pics;

Those pictures are outstanding !   Look how groomed the area around the station is.  It's as though they were taking publicity shots.  

They were all like that in those days.  The PRR to. 

That underpass looks more like it is on the Ohio River. 

jim pastorius posted:

That underpass looks more like it is on the Ohio River. 

Well, it does look a bit different than the other photos show, it could have been before the "big move", or after they moved the station. The caption says 11th street.....

11th street ! I will check it out.

Penn-Pacific posted:

jim pastorius posted:

That underpass looks more like it is on the Ohio River. 

Well, it does look a bit different than the other photos show, it could have been before the "big move", or after they moved the station. The caption says 11th street.....

If that's Union Drawn in the background then the orientations right.

I did some research last night and the station shown is Brighton with the bridge to New Brighton nearby. It has been replaced.  Based on a post card picture and a book on streetcars I have the 11 st. station is about a mile or so upriver(north) and it was torn down maybe 10 years ago. The 10th st. bridge was there but it is gone too except for the piers and an access ramp.  Still hard to jive the underpass photo with what is there now.  Just upstream from the sewage plant is a small hydroelectric plant utilizing the remains of the canal and lock. there is an  old derelict looking building  there which was identified in a photo as the Union Drawn Steel power plant !!  It looks like the mill and other buildings stretched up along the river and RR tracks.  The river bank seems closer now and pretty overgrown.  There are some older brick building still there being used as warehouses etc but don't know who built them.  Since the steps etc going to the underpass were wood I would guess they are long gone.  I have a photo book on the P&LE but haven't looked at it yet.   Did get some neat old RR photos of the area from the internet though.  College station, just further north, near Geneva College, had a turntable and a small yard. It must have been the end of the line for the Pitttsburgh bound commuter trains. My Dad went to Geneva for a year in 1923 and wrote in his diary about going home to see my Mother-about every 2-3 days.  At that time he could get a train at College Station and ride to the main P&LE station in Pgh, now Station Square and catch a streetcar to the South Hills. Probably took him an hour. If we could only do the same. Driving today would take you a good hour plus. For the old photos Google "Historic Beaver Falls".  Enjoy. I did.

Thanks everyone..I guess I'll take the 50 mile ride this week to see all the changes.

My go-to site for old images of the area is Historic Pittsburgh. You click on the images tab at the top, and type in the searchbox whatever area, town or boro you want to see. I.E. Pittsburgh, Beaver Falls, or Aliquippa, etc. My favorite part of the site is the P&LE Historical images portion, Lots of great photo's there. I have spent many an hour looking through some of those great old photos of the area. That's where I found the photos posted above.

Learned that the P&LE would run come h*ll or high water back in those days;

Thanks for the info. I was looking at "Historic Beaver Falls".   I have seen some images from Historic Pittsburgh but too many that I remember. All gone now.