westinghouse train photos

This is a great thread for post-Christmas and I will go back and read more topics and more slowly, savoring it all as time frees up.  In the meantime, I'm browsing Westinghouse threads because I took my PRR train set to visit my 92-yr old mother this Christmas as it always stirs a few memories of trains and more.  This time it was of when they lived in Trafford, PA and her father worked in the PRR ticket office "making trips for people".  In the 1930s, her sister loved to wade in the "sulphur creek" behind a "factory".  It was apparently great fun for the local kids.  Can you imagine this going on today?! When she got home (and in trouble), she would literally have to be hosed off before going into the house to immediately get a bath and get the sulphur off. Apparently, on some days when the wind was just right the sulphur smell was pretty strong ... With more prompting of what my mother could recall, it seems that this was runoff into the creek from the Westinghouse plant.  I did a little reading on what was manufactured there and have found some nice photos of the truly huge facility and the railroad tracks leading to it. The complex was right across the tracks and the station where I assume my grandfather worked.

I started researching the town and the rail lines and electric rails, and of course, Google maps to see what's left.  What a modeling bonanza this town will be someday!  It's got a little of everything, the train station looks like a classic kit, it's got the PRR and leased lines, it was a short trip to East Pittsburgh, it was apparently located in between the "world's largest yards", and there's lots of operational possibilities!   Now I can get a slag car, which I've previously wanted when I was thinking of modelling some track near Neville Island. (I already have an O scale washerwoman figure to represent my mother hanging out the clean wash and a train would come by and dump soot on it. She insists that this was done intentionally by the engineer as apparently the track was close enough to see the glint in his eye :-). It was easy to brush off, either way.

Thanks for sharing your stories and great models.  I'm inspired to do some more thinking, research, and planning even if I can't implement/collect anything for a while. The dissertation writing beckons ... =sigh=

Tomlinson Run Railroad

As a youngster we used to wade in the same stream,Turtle Creek,about 10 miles upstream!  There was an abandoned  Westmoreland coal mine an ruins of car shops which made for some excitement.

Norm

Bill,

   You know how much I like your Westinghouse Train, simply fantastic stuff, the big stuff from the Turbo Nuc Project was loaded on the rails right in the East Pittsburgh Main Isle by our over head Monster Cranes working in tandem, I inspected and loaded many of the jobs right on to the big Rolling Stock you have in your Westinghouse Freight Train.    Those Cars bring back a lot of memories for me, as a young Welding Engineer/Inspector.  Great Train to model, the big Blue's have always been incredible looking rolling stock.  I modeled the NASA Train instead of the Westinghouse, because the Red White and Blue was as incredible as the Blue & White and I spend even more time at NASA. 

Thanks for the memories Bill, great post once again!

PCRR/Dave

My dad worked at the Westinghouse Airbrake in Wilmerding for many years (now WABTEC).  I'm pretty sure that the Castle was a part of  The Airbrake.  The Westinghouse Airbrake was a separate company from Westinghouse Electric,I'm pretty sure.

Norm

Norm posted:

As a youngster we used to wade in the same stream,Turtle Creek,about 10 miles upstream!  There was an abandoned  Westmoreland coal mine an ruins of car shops which made for some excitement.

Norm

Small word, Norm. (And I don't mean just O scale ).  Luckily you were upstream!  I didn't know about the local coal mine/car shops but I can imagine the fun.  As I said, there's lots of modeling/operations possibilities!

Tomlinson Run Railroad

Norn,

   You are correct, a different Division of Westinghouse, but all the same Corp.  Still in business today they make Air Brakes for everything that uses them all over the world.  George Westinghouse's original Engineering, still alive and well today, the plant is working 2 full shifts and a maintenance shift on 3rd.  Great place to watch the big NS & other big trains, with the little Union Railroad mixed in the Wilmerding & Pitcarin Yard, now once again, one of the biggest train yards in the world, it runs from lower Monroeville/Wilkins Township, thru Trafford, Pitcarin, Wilmerding, Turtle Creek, East Pittsburgh, and down to the end of Braddock, Pa, miles and miles of Train yard, double and triple tracked depending on the location, the old pre war train yard under the Westinghouse Bridge, is gone for ever, they still do park freight cars on some of the old sidings and newer tracks however.  We stayed out of the Turtle Creek Water, when I was a boy, upper Turtle Creek along Rt 130 still runs Red even today.

PCRR/Dave

The Westinghouse Bridge is over a train yard and would make a great layout scene. I don't know how to post pictures, but it is neat. Anyone know if it is still standing?

GVDobler posted:

The Westinghouse Bridge is over a train yard and would make a great layout scene. I don't know how to post pictures, but it is neat. Anyone know if it is still standing?

If your question is "Is the Westinghouse Bridge still standing”, the answer is definitely yes.  It carries US Route 30 over the Turtle Creek Valley near the former Westinghouse Plant in East Pittsburgh where Dave and I started our careers.

HTH,

Bill  

Thanks, I saw it on a painting or something. Great memories for you.

Here's a link to get that layout started:

http://pghbridges.com/braddock...471/westinghouse.htm

There are several other photos on the Web but this one shows the tracks.  It's huge; I'll stick to my little PRR girder bridge ...

Tomlinson Run RR 

     GVDOBLER the rail yard under the Westinghouse bridge has been gone for years. The NS main line runs on the one side of the Turtle Creek creek and the Union Rail Road runs on the other side of the creek. Funny you should mention the Westinghouse bridge I am making a hot wire cutting table and I am going to make a bridge for automobiles for on the layout. The bridge I am going to make for the layout is going to be very similar to the Westinghouse bridge. When you cross the Westinghouse bridge on the support structures they have very nice art work cast into the cement and one of them is some train engines coming out of a vanishing point. I may have to go and take some pictures and post them for everyone to see.  Ken

GVDOBLER,

   As Bill indicated the Westinghouse Bridge is definitely still standing and used every single day of the week.   Just after WWII when the allies captured the Nazi Head Quarters in Germany, one of our local Veterans brought a picture home from the Nazi's HQ with  plans to destroy the Westinghouse Bridge, East Pittsburgh Westinghouse and the Union Railroad from the air.   Marked as a critical defense point by the Nazi's for the eastern USA, because of the Westinghouse East Pittsburgh Plant & Union Railroad, which the Nazi's had mistaken for the Westinghouse Airbrake Plant, located in Wilmerding, just down the road.  The American collaborators who's signatures were written on those pictures & Nazi documents, were eventually captured by the people of this area and held accountable for their actions.  Both men were never heard of again, and their families moved silently away from Pa.   The actual captured picture, with signatures was on the VFW wall for all to see for many many years.  

PCRR/Dave